The Cremaster Cycle

[andrewgd]

Well, I spent today watching the entire Cremaster Cycle. For those who don't know, which I assume is probably everyone...these are Matthew Barney's works for the last 10 years. 5 movies, 7 hours total. (My bum is sore!)

These aren't movies like you know. Up until now you could only see them in art galleries or modern art museums (Guggenhiem had a big show). Basically they are postmodern art, done with film/video as its medium.

They're really hard to describe, but the closest thing would be the dream sequences in The Cell. Only these weren't done just for the look, there was actual meaning and theory behind them.

Their own site does a decent explaination of them: http://www.cremaster.net

I'd say its probably not safe for work though. The movies where very graphic, penetration (though it might have been fake) and gore.

Ok, so this isn't much of a review. The movies were slow, but I've seen things now I could never imagine. Some images will stay with me for quite a while now. Take a look at the site, watch the preview. And good luck finding a place that'll show it. Its worth it though, if you want to see things you've never seen, and experience movies like no others.

Oh, and in case anyone has seen it, lemme know what you think.

[Nothingman]

Some of the darker images remind me of NIN's video of "Closer", or any of Tool's videos. Part of what makes the images so disturbing is they make you think at the same time.

The preview reminded me of Joel-Peter Witkin's work. Which was best described by Charles Mann as: "Considering how Witkin’s images resist categorization, perhaps the one single truth that can be said of all of them, is this: in every Witkin image there’s something that won’t let a viewer go, something that won’t allow us to dismiss what we see or to completely accept it. We leave a Witkin image with the feeling that significance has been glimpsed out of the corner of the eye, although the eye has been fully engaged in bold frontal sight These images are nothing short of an attempt at saying the unsayable, a task Thomas De Quincey once called “the burden of the incommunicable.”
http://www.zonezero.com/exposiciones/fo ... state.html

I was shown Witkin's work by a friend in a photography class. I'll warn you the images are disturbing and graphic, but there is no denying it's art. My favorite is "Testicle stretch with the possiblility of a crushed face". Perhaps it's just the name that makes me remember it. Not something I would ever want on my wall, but powerful none the less.

Here are some examples of his work including the print I mentioned above.
http://photoarts.com/21stphotography/plat_witkin.htm
http://www.edelmangallery.com/witkin.htm

[fnordboy]

Yay for Witkin!

I have been a Joel-Peter Witkin fan for many years. I have always loved his work. His subject matter is very macabre and disturbing at times but the prints are just so damn beautiful. I wish I could make the images he does.

I have always said that "Testicle Stretch With the Possibility of a Crushed Face" was the best title for a work of art ever.

[sirhansirhan]

Yeah, I saw them all in one day too, in numerical order, back to back to back to back to back. It was a good day. I liked Cremaster 1 the best, then 4, then 3, then 5, then 2.

And comparing them to Tool music videos is a serious disservice to the films.

[andrewgd]

Even though its been a few months since I've seen them, I still find myself thinking about the images in the movies. I really really really want to get them on DVD, but there's no guarantee that these will ever get released.

Can I ask what you didn't like about Cremaster 2? I've sort of found that I liked 3 the best, then 2, 1, 4, 5. 5 was pretty boring...and maybe its because I'd spent 7 hours watching this stuff already and I was tired, but I felt it didn't really bring anything new to the series, visually.

If anyone does find any info about a DVD release for the series, I'd love to know!

[sirhansirhan]

Cremaster 2 was just too noisy and slow. The only part that I found visually interesting in it was where the guy was glopping vaseline onto the string in the car tube thing. I haven't seen them in a little over a month, and as a result, my memory is a little too fuzzy to give you a very specific answer, as you have just witnessed. But I didn't mind 2 per se, I just thought that it was the worst of the five.

[andrewgd]

The only part that I found visually interesting in it was where the guy was glopping vaseline onto the string in the car tube thing.

Thats actually the scene that keeps popping into my head every few days. There was just something about it...

I've also had the image of the carpenter/mason guy climbing up through the elevator shaft (from 3) come to mind every once in a while.

Its like a song thats stuck in your head, only visually. And with a song that's in your head, you really want to listen/watch it once more, to break the cycle, and move on. Unfortunately, I won't be able to break this cycle until they release them...or I forget about it, which I don't see happening.

[fnordboy]

Even though its been a few months since I've seen them, I still find myself thinking about the images in the movies. I really really really want to get them on DVD, but there's no guarantee that these will ever get released.

....

If anyone does find any info about a DVD release for the series, I'd love to know!

It will be released, just don't know when. I would guess sometime early in 2004. Palm Pictures, the people who put out the Director Series DVDs recently (Spike Jonze, etc) are releasing a set of the Cremaster Cycle:

http://www.palmpictures.com/videos/thec ... cycle.html

They don't say when of course, but the page is up and lists it as VHS and DVD so things look good.

[sirhansirhan]

Weird. I figured that the Cycle would be caught in some DVD-release Neverland for some time, especially with the release of The Order from Cremaster 3 (why did they release it like that, anyway?).

Regarding images from the Cycle that occasionally appear in my head unannounced: the vaginal table grape hole with Goodyear underneath; the distended anus (rectum? what do you call that?); and the tap-dancing, red-haired Barney.