Synopsis
CREMASTER 2 (1999) alternates between the Columbia Icefield in Canada and the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. It is a gothic Western premised loosely on the real-life story of Gary Gilmore, who was executed in Utah for murder. Gilmore’s biography is conveyed through a series of fantastic sequences, including a séance to signify his conception and a prison rodeo staged in a cast-salt arena to represent his death by firing squad. CREMASTER 3 (2002) is part zombie thriller, part gangster film.
Trailer
Press
“The Cremaster Cycle by Matthew Barney is the first truly great piece of cinema to be made in a fine art context since Dali and Bunuel filmed Un Chien Andalou in 1929. It is one of the most imaginative and brilliant achievements in the history of avant-garde cinema.”
GUARDIAN UK
“As with all art, Mr. Barney’s work can be approached intellectually or intuitively, not that the two necessarily contradict each other. You can struggle to discern meanings through Mr. Barney’s signposts and images. Or you can just sit there and let all that extraordinary imagery wash by.”
NEW YORK TIMES
“A Surreal, slapstick fantasy; sexuality turned into a bizarre vaudeville.”
“A sprawling, hallucinatory quiltwork of gorgeously shot scenes and ominous organ music, all slowly unfolding a circuitous plot involving Gary Gilmore (Barney), copulating bees, members of the Gilmore clan, Houdini (Norman Mailer), a Brahma bull, the Mormon Tabernacle and landscapes ranging from Utah’s blindingly bright salt flats to the glacial ice fields of Jasper, Canada… A word as strangely alternate as Lewis Carroll’s”
TIME
“A ravishing stretch of cinema… rich and quite, quite strange.”
ARTFORUM
Festivals
& Awards
Toronto International Film Festival
Locarno International Film Festival
Sundance International Film Festival
NatFilm Festival
New Horizons Film Festival
La Rochelle Film Festival
Stockholm International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
Cast & Crew
Norman Mailer | |
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Matthew Barney | |
Lauren Pine | |
Scott Ewalt | |
Patty Griffin | |
Michael Thompson | |
Dave Lombardo | |
Bruce Steele | |
Steve Tucker |
Written and Directed by | Matthew Barney |
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Producers | Matthew Barney, Barbara Gladstone |
Associate Producer | Chelsea Romersa |
Cinematographer | Peter Strietmann |
Sound | Cynthia Daniels, Dante Desole, Alan Silverman |
Production Design | Matthew D. Ryle |
Costume Design | Linda LaBelle |
Music | Jonathan Bepler |