Cremaster 3

Cremaster 3 is sequentially the centrepiece of Matthew Barney’s “The Cremaster Cycle” but also its culmination: the fifth and final instalment of the shot-out-of-sequence series to be completed — and its most monumental achievement. A luxuriant three-hour extravaganza centred the construction of New York City’s landmark Chrysler Building, the film interweaves Masonic rituals, Celtic myth, musical numbers, and demolition derbies as it relates an epic battle of wills between The Architect (played by noted New York sculptor Richard Serra) and The Entered Apprentice (played by Barney). The corpse of Gary Gilmore makes an appearance, a half-cheetah woman (played by Aimee Mullins) figures prominently, and there is a spectacular extreme-sports-meets-Las-Vegas-revue interlude entitled “The Order” staged in the spiralling rotunda of the Guggenheim Museum. “Cremaster 3 represents the mid point in the process of sexual differentiation, where male and female are in a Barney-esque tension, mirrored by the conflict between the architect and the [apprentice]” (Mark Cousins, Sight and Sound). “A major work. Conveys the sense of adventure and playfulness that all but vanished from the Star Wars movies beginning with The Phantom Menace. Cremaster 3 exudes the fizz of a Busby Berkeley musical and the visceral excitement of a sports extravaganza” (Stephen Holden, New York Times). “Endlessly fascinating . . . Barney’s most hypnotic work yet” (New York Magazine). Colour, 35mm. 182 mins.