617-618 And Everything is Going Fine and Gray's Anatomy

Message

kinjitsu · #1 Post by **kinjitsu** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:48 pm

After the death in 2004 of American theater actor and monologist Spalding Gray, director Steven Soderbergh pieced together a narrative of Gray’s life to create the documentary And Everything Is Going Fine. Brilliantly and sensitively assembled entirely from footage of Gray, taken from interviews and one-man shows from throughout his career, it is a rich, full portrait—an autobiography of sorts—of a figure who was never less than candid but retained an air of mystery. In essence, this hilarious, moving, and revealing film has become Gray’s final monologue.

Disc Features

- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Making of “And Everything Is Going Fine,” featuring director Steven Soderbergh, producer Kathie Russo, and editor Susan Littenberg
- Sex and Death to the Age 14, Spalding Gray’s first monologue, created in 1979 and filmed in 1982
- Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer Nell Casey, editor of The Journals of Spalding Gray

Gray's Anatomy

One of the great raconteurs of stage and screen, Spalding Gray, came together with one of cinema’s boldest image-makers, Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh, for Gray’s Anatomy, a spellbinding adaptation of Gray’s 1993 monologue of the same name (cowritten with Renée Shafransky). In it, Gray, with typical sardonic relish, chronicles his arduous journey through the diagnosis and treatment of a rare and alarming ocular condition. For the monologist, this experience occasioned a meditation on illness and mortality, medicine and metaphysics; for the filmmaker, it was a chance to experiment with ways of bringing his subject’s words to brilliant, eye-opening life.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

- New high definition digital transfer, supervised by director Steven Soderbergh, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New interviews with Soderbergh and cowriter Renée Shafransky
- A Personal History of the American Theater, a monologue by Spalding Gray, filmed in 1982
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin

knives · #2 Post by **knives** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 8:49 pm

Given how short both features are I wish they just put them onto one release like they've done with past titles. still going to get them though of course.

Oedipax · #3 Post by **Oedipax** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:02 pm

Very strange. And no Swimming to Cambodia or Monster in a Box.

#4 Post by **domino harvey** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:05 pm

Oedipax wrote:Very strange. And no Swimming to Cambodia or Monster in a Box.

That's the real surprise. I'm glad to have the Soderbergh films (and having seen And Everything Is Going Fine, it's no extra feature, it's a film in itself), but I was hoping for more. Guess there's two more Spalding Gray sister releases in our future (or a two-film Eclipse?)

mteller · #5 Post by **mteller** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:09 pm

LOVE the inclusion of the early monologues!

#6 Post by **domino harvey** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 9:31 pm

Here's our previous discussion of And Everything is Going Fine

The Narrator Returns · Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:35 pm

A Blu-Ray.com commenter had some choice words about the Gray's Anatomy Blu-Ray.

At the risk of sounding anti-Blu (which I def am NOT), why (with all the movies that could truly use a Hi-Def upgrade) would anyone put time, money, and effort into a Blu of, "Grey's Anatomy" - a film in which a man sits at a desk and talks. It's a fine film, I've seen it more than once, but is so people can gasp "Oh I better see the threads on his shirt now!" What a waste of, as I said, of time, money, and effort

knives · #8 Post by **knives** » Fri Mar 16, 2012 10:45 pm

He could always just pick up the DVD edition. I think the use of colour more than makes up for the lack of things going boom.

SamLowry · #9 Post by **SamLowry** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:59 am

So the box set fell through? Was it Monster in a Box, Swimming To Cambodia? or both? & was this the reason for the announcement delay? Inquiring minds want to know. Given how sparse the discs are (I know there's quite a bit more Spalding material to add), these do seem to be intended for a box....but I'm surprised they didn't make these the cheaper price point (particularly the doc), given how little they include.

I had sent a request for inclusion of Spalding's epsiode of PBS' Trying Times (Bedtime Story) not too long ago when I heard about the possibility of a box....it would be nice if it ended up as an extra on Monster or Swimming.

ianungstad · #10 Post by **ianungstad** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:40 am

I don't think they ever planned to release these films as a box. They are both IFC titles and are being released as part of their output deal. "And Everything is Going Fine" is on Netflix if anyone wants to check it out. It's alright but I don't know that I would buy it or have much desire to watch it again. I think these will sell poorly. They would sell better as a box or if they dropped them to the lower tier MSRP. I don't think Criterion would have bothered with "And Everything is Going Fine" if it wasn't directed by Soderbergh. Haven't seen Gray's Anatomy.

knives · #11 Post by **knives** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 4:45 am

ianungstad wrote:I think these will sell poorly.

Doubtful. Soderbergh does have at least on home video a nice cache plus the reaction I've gotten from people Shallow Grave aside these two are the ones they're most interested in. It might not be a blockbuster for them, but it's doubtful that it will do less than good.

matrixschmatrix · #12 Post by **matrixschmatrix** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:48 am

Haha, you're crazy if you think these are going to sell better than Chaplin. I do think they're the kind of thing that fits very neatly into the Criterion banner, though- Spalding Grey monologues are one of those things that always seemed to be looked upon as self conscious signifiers of the arthouse set, like My Dinner With Andre and Last Year at Marienbad, and that's got to be the perfect demographic for Criterion. But Chaplin's got that caché and much broader popular recognition.

knives · #13 Post by **knives** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 6:57 am

I forgot that one was announced at all though everyone I've talked to seems distracted by Shallow Grave which is probably going to be the bread winner of the month.

duck duck · #14 Post by **duck duck** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:27 am

Grey's Anatomy was accorded from Fox Lorber was it? Well at least around the time as the Rhomer's I believe... Many years ago so it is very surprising that that they waited this long and didn't do a box... I figured this would be announced around the time his body was found.
I never found if anyone answered me, was "King Of the Hill" just a wish or part of that deal?

#15 Post by **mfunk9786** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 1:41 pm

The Narrator Returns wrote:A Blu-Ray.com commenter had some choice words about the Gray's Anatomy Blu-Ray.

At the risk of sounding anti-Blu (which I def am NOT), why (with all the movies that could truly use a Hi-Def upgrade) would anyone put time, money, and effort into a Blu of, "Grey's Anatomy" - a film in which a man sits at a desk and talks. It's a fine film, I've seen it more than once, but is so people can gasp "Oh I better see the threads on his shirt now!" What a waste of, as I said, of time, money, and effort

That's the website where people base their buying decisions on whether or not films are in 16x9 because they don't want black lines on the screen, and whether they come with a slipcover or not

agnamaracs · #16 Post by **agnamaracs** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 7:39 pm

So. Just watched "Going Fine."

This appears to be sourced entirely from SD video.

Why Blu?

CSM126 · #17 Post by **CSM126** » Sat Mar 17, 2012 8:30 pm

Even SD video looks better on blu. Less artifacting, smoother image. Not as big a leap as with film sources, but still.

The Narrator Returns · Sun Jun 17, 2012 12:22 am

New feature for Gray's Anatomy:

Swimming to the Macula, sixteen minutes of footage from Gray’s actual eye surgery

#19 Post by **mfunk9786** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 2:18 pm

Chris, thanks for the review of And Everything is Going Fine, and your honesty therein. Knowing there's a Blu-ray out there will ultimately result in me opting for it regardless of how sensical that is, but at least you got me thinking.

#20 Post by **cdnchris** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:32 pm

Thanks! CSM126 is right that SD video can look better on Blu-ray since there will still be more compression on a DVD, and the little bit of SD video that appears on here looks good for what it is; I wouldn't be surprised if this area does look at least a bit better on the Blu-ray. But a good chunk of the film is video cassette, whether it be VHS or BETA, and honestly I don't think there's much that either DVD or Blu-ray could do in this case to improve the picture.

Criterion did use colour correction, though, and the booklet mentions that noise reduction was done to clean up the video sources, and of course they were able to transfer the frame rate correctly. But it still looks like you're watching a decent VHS presentation in the end. I want to get my hands on the DVD just to compare, and will do so, but I suspect a DVD upscaled won't look all that much different and I guess theoretically could look better depending on how your equipment upscales an SD image. (Again, theoretically.)

And of course it's going to just come down to one's personal preference of what version they want to own.

#21 Post by **mfunk9786** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:38 pm

I know this is somewhat trivial, but I LOVE the disc art on the Blu-ray version - do you know if they're still doing that thing where the DVD art and Blu-ray art are different from one another? That may end up being a deciding factor too if the art on the DVD disc is weak.

#22 Post by **swo17** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:43 pm

cdnchris' review wrote:I’m happy Criterion will obviously put anything out on Blu-ray (and I want to stress I am very happy for this)

It's probably worth noting though that they're still as hardlined about Eclipse titles being DVD-only as they now are about all mainline titles being on Blu-ray. (From this year's releases, I know at least some of the Gorin titles were in HD condition, possibly others as well.) It does seem a little backward that those don't come out on Blu-ray, but this does. Hopefully Criterion is able to work out a solution where Eclipse titles that could really benefit from being on Blu-ray receive that treatment, but without raising consumer expectations that would hurt sales for DVD-only releases on the Eclipse line.

#23 Post by **cdnchris** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:46 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:I know this is somewhat trivial, but I LOVE the disc art on the Blu-ray version - do you know if they're still doing that thing where the DVD art and Blu-ray art are different from one another? That may end up being a deciding factor too if the art on the DVD disc is weak.

I unfortunately don't at the moment. I can tell you when I get the DVD but that won't be until tomorrow at the earliest.

But then of course there are still other advantages to the Blu-ray, like the pop-up menus and the timeline, which the DVD doesn't have obviously.

swo17 wrote: It's probably worth noting though that they're still as hardlined about Eclipse titles being DVD-only as they now are about all mainline titles being on Blu-ray. (From this year's releases, I know at least some of the Gorin titles were in HD condition, possibly others as well.) It does seem a little backward that those don't come out on Blu-ray, but this does. Hopefully Criterion is able to work out a solution where Eclipse titles that could really benefit from being on Blu-ray receive that treatment, but without raising consumer expectations that would hurt sales for DVD-only releases on the Eclipse line.

Yeah, I forgot about the Eclipse titles at the moment. Some of them do end up looking really good so I wouldn't be too shocked if they came from HD masters and it would be nice if, at least for those titles, release Blu-rays. And if they're concerned about the budget idea they could always jam a couple of films onto one disc. But you're right about the possible concerns if they could only release a DVD version, it could hurt sales if people expected a Blu-ray edition.

#24 Post by **mfunk9786** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:47 pm

I'm with you, Swo - looking back, it's baffling to think that releases like Louie Bluie and the Oshima Eclipse set weren't released on Blu-ray despite the fact that it'd become the standard by then. I understand something like Night Train to Munich being DVD-only since they'd already completed work on the transfer before Blu became their standard (evidenced by the pictureboxing) and it wasn't financially worth their while to go back, but it's disappointing to see some of their more impressive Eclipse releases and cool stuff like the Science is Fiction set Blu-less.

Chris, one more quick question - are the supplements on And Everything is Going Fine in HD, at least?

#25 Post by **cdnchris** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 3:54 pm

mfunk9786 wrote: Chris, one more quick question - are the supplements on And Everything is Going Fine in HD, at least?

The Gray monologue, Sex and Death to the Age 14, is upscaled from a very crappy video copy (the first screen shot in the review actually comes from that monologue). But the interview and trailer are HD (and I guess I should have mentioned that in the review--admittedly, unless it's a film or deleted scenes, I'm usually not too concerned about whether the features are HD or not.)

Site Menu