River of Fundament

This is a pornographic avant-garde scatological Egyptian-lite opera with an all-star cast, so if that is your cup of filth, you might enjoy it. However it runs six hours long, so even people who want to see the 'Woody Allen' sequence with a star-studded Brooklyn Heights literary cameo crew for a Mailer memorial wake will then have to sit through eternal slow moments of slurping genitalia, penetration, rotting pig flesh, flies and maggots, anal penetration with plumbing pipes, and excrement wrapped in gold leaf. The theater I saw this film in was not full -- and that did not bode well since the director would soon be present for a Q&A! Let me say this: It's time for Matthew Barney to focus on Children's Fairy Stories. I think he could remake 'Into The Woods' or 'Hansel & Gretel' properly. This film just looked like...what's that four-letter word that starts with S and ends with T?

There's no voice of a narrator telling you, what's going on. Weird scenes with groups of people organizing themselves in a way, that doesn't give any explanation, only hints of remembrance, but there is no self-explanatory sense in how everyone acts. Mesmerizing tribal music, orchestral sounds and opera singers lead the way. Images that don't make sense are repeated and suddenly there is sense.

If you can enjoy this film depends highly on your expectations. It isn't supposed to be a classic hollywood blockbuster, nor an edgy independet film. It is a gentle opera of images and sound. Matthew Barney referenced Kubrick in his films before, but this time he is taking it on another level. It is not a tough piece of experimental film, that wants to challenge the viewer. It is an experimental film, that's breaking down to the core of film - suspense, drama and beauty. The mythological happenings surrounding Norman Mailer are telling a deeply emotional and symbolically charged story of life, death and rebirth in it's rawest but strangest way.

If you want to know more about the story of the film, you could read the synopsis. But where would be the fun then, in discovering Matthew Barneys' powerful world by yourself?

Unfortunatly you won't be able to find this film on a dvd or online, but let's hope that this will change in the future.