News

 

It's  a surprisingly light weekend for new films in Austin, but there's no holiday and we're smack into the middle of the summer doldrums. But that's not to say there aren't options -- some fun, some mind boggling. 

Cremaster 1-5 and De Lama Lamina  -- When I was looking up the new releases in town, I was a bit gobsmacked. Five films, or is that six? I can't really tell, and the Cremaster website makes it even more confusing.  The Cremaster films by writer-director Matthew Barney seem to be avant garde gone wild, with little dialogue, and are not necessarily numbered in order. Apparently the lengths of the films vary as well.  If any of you see it, do let us know what you think. (Dobie)

Despicable Me -- Pixar doesn't have a monopoly on animated family fare. Universal's latest mixes villains and moppets and minions, and despite the trailer,...

NEW YORK -- IFC Entertainment and the Weinstein Co. have co-acquired North American rights to the artist documentary Matthew Barney: No Restraint, featuring Bjork and about 40,000 pounds of petroleum jelly, for IFC's First Take program.

Producer-director Alison Chernick's feature follows Barney and wife Bjork to Japan, chronicling their collaboration on the 2005 art film Drawing Restraint 9. During the six-month project, shot on a whaling vessel near Nagasaki, Barney attempts to create a "narrative sculpture" conveying the story of two land mammals who turn into whales.

Chernick examines the soundscape created by Bjork, the artists' culture clash with local crew members and the method behind the madness of Barney's Cremaster films. Fashion designer agnes b. served as executive producer.

No Restraint premiered at this year's Berlin International Film Festival. It will be released Dec. 20 at New York's IFC Center and on video-on-demand.

Chernick last directed another artist docu, The Jeff Koons Show, for television in 2004.

The deal was negotiated by Genna Terranova and Eileen Rodriguez for the Weinstein Co.

IFC Entertainment has gotten in bed with Destricted, picking up all North American rights to the sexually explicit compilation of erotic short films. The film premiered in Jan. at the Sundance Film Festival and was shown here as part of Critics Week. The full-length feature comes from a who's who of seven provocative indie filmmakers, from Gaspar Noe (Irreversible) to Matthew Barney (the Cremaster series) and Larry Clark (Kids). IFC will distribute Destricted this fall through its equally controversial "day-and-date" program First Take, with a simultaneous limited release in late-night theatrical settings and as a video-on-demand offering to cable subscribers.