Swimming to Cambodia ~ part 5

Not only one of the best “one man” performances ever, but actually, one of the best films ever. May, Spalding Gray, be forever remembered. As a film buff and artist, i can easily say Spalding Gray had changed my perspective on life with his monologues. Spalding Gray’s Swimming to Cambodia is a 1987 Jonathan Demme-directed performance film (beore Silence of the Lambs, and Philidelphia, but after Stop Making Sense). The film is a performance of Spalding Gray’s monologue (“Talking Cure”) which centered around the themes as his trip to Southeast Asia to create the role of the US Ambassador’s aide in The Killing Fields, and his search for his “perfect moment”. Swimming to Cambodia was originally a theatre piece on which Gray spent two years working. Swimming to Cambodia won Gray an Obie award. The opening shots of the film depict Gray walking toward The Performing Garage in New York. He goes in and after walking in past the audience, he takes his seat behind a table. On the table is a glass of water, a microphone and a notebook which Gray brought with him. Behind him are two pulldown maps. One is a map of Southeast Asia and the other is a diagram of the bombing of Cambodia, which Gray tells the viewers was called Operation Menu. Spalding Rockwell Gray (June 5, 1941 January 10, 2004) was an American actor, playwright, screenwriter, performance artist, and monologist. He was primarily known for his “trenchant, personal narratives delivered on sparse, unadorned sets with a dry …