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The Jingoist and Blind screenwriter John Buffalo Mailer Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Cremaster and Drawing Restraint 9 (with Björk) mastermind, Matthew Barney, adapted Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings to create River Of Fundament. Cornelia Parker staged The Maybe with Tilda Swinton at MoMA and now her Alfred Hitchcock Psycho inspired Transitional Object (PsychoBarn) is on The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Roof Garden - the perfect setting for a John Buffalo Mailer on Norman Bates, Houdini, Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes on Gay Talese's The Voyeur's Motel, Michael Mailer, Alec Baldwin, Demi Moore and Dylan McDermott conversation.

Ellen Burstyn, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Paul Giamatti, James Toback, Elaine Stritch, Debbie Harry, James Lee Byars, Lawrence Weiner, Salman Rushdie, Luc Sante, Cinqué Lee, Jonas Mekas, Fran Lebowitz, Dick Cavett, Jeffrey Eugenides, Aimee Mullins and Sam Nivola are among the River Of Fundament dwellers. Buffalo Mailer, Milford Graves and Lakota Chief Dave Beautiful Bald Eagle reincarnate as Norman I, Norman II...

All that Glitters: Barney’s Operatic, Caterwauling Art-house Epic

Those familiar with the work of Matthew Barney, namely his impressive Cremaster Cycle (2003) and Drawing Restraint 9 (2005), either appreciate his artistic ambition to collapse, discombobulate, and erase the distinction of form, or discount his credibility (an appraisal that can be attributed to most provocative artists). His filmic language generally consists of a grand mixture of anthropomorphic fascination, formal cinematic composition, musically discordant fascination with opera, and a kind of live performance art/sculpture exhibit, amongst others. Sprawling, decadent, and enigmatic, fans and critics vacillate between lobbing appellations that range from ‘pretentious,’ to ‘genius,’ and he’s been referred to as one of the most important artists of his generation.

Whatever your opinion of his work, one cannot overlook the sheer audaciousness of his latest long-gestating hybrid, River of Fundament, a seven year project that kinda, sorta, maybe is the most interesting...

Long after Drawing Restraint 9, it appears that Björk and Matthew Barney are still eating away at each other. The couple split up in 2013, providing the emotional foundation for Bjork's latest album, Vulnicura, and now Barney is taking his ex to court in hopes of getting to spend more time with their 12-year-old daughter, Isadora. Björk "is effectively sacrificing Doa's emotional well-being in favor of her own selfish desires," Barney's filing states, according to Page Six. The singer's "self-focused mindset...flows, in part, from her belief that as Doa's mother, she has far greater rights than I do as Doa's father; and, in part, from her insistence that I am solely to...

Director Lars von Trier doesn't have the best reputation as an actor's director (he also doesn't have the best reputation as a public speaker, but that's a conversation for another time). He supposedly fought with Nicole Kidman on the set of "Dogville" and the star definitely didn't return for the film's sequel, "Manderlay" (she was replaced by Bryce Dallas Howard). For years, rumors swirled that Bjork vowed never to act in a film again after the grueling experience making von Trier's "Dancer in the Dark." She later claimed she never wanted to act at all but made an exception for von Trier. Then again; she has acted a couple more times, including in the film "Drawing Restraint 9," so who knows.

What I do know is talking to the cast of von Trier's "Melancholia," which opens this Friday, gives you a different portrait of von Trier. Maybe his style has changed,...

Ever since Bing Crosby starred in the 1930 film "King of Jazz," countless musicians have tried, with varying degrees of success, to parlay their musical ability into a side career in film.

The following list -- dug up in honor of this Sunday's Video Music Awards on MTV -- is proof that not all musicians are created equal when it comes to their acting abilities.

For every Mariah Carey in "Precious," you can find a Mariah Carey in "Glitter," but these 40 artists have shown that they can, at least some of the time, create memorable roles and transcend their musical careers. Sometimes, they even win Oscars.

40. Madonna

During the nascent years of MTV, no female artist had more influence visually than the Material Girl, whose mix of eye-popping fantasy and gritty urban realism videos continue to influence a generation of vocalists. Despite a Best Actress Golden Globe for 1996's "Evita," the...

During the final weekend of the San Francisco International Film Festival, Matthew Barney (“Cremaster Cycle” and “Drawing Restraint 9”) was presented the annual “Persistence of Vision” award to accompany a discussion with art critic Glen Helfand and the North American Premiere of “Drawing Restraint 17.” In regards to the title of the award, Barney hesitantly admitted to it being right up his alley. He explained, “Recognition like this is complicated. It usually feels inaccurate in some way, but I feel like persistence is probably something I do have... I think it’s usually called something else, obsessiveness or delusion.” Backing up…...

Problematic, directionlessness or just plain nonsensical – here are the inexplicable arthouse films you love to hate

@DrGiggles Without a doubt Primer is the most obtuse film I've ever seen – it was as entertaining as reading a book on advanced calculus.

@SladeKincald For me it has to be Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. Love it, no idea what it's about. Death, maybe?

@dothestrand Andrzej Zulawski's Possession … Isabelle Adjani's Cannes-winning performance was described by Time Out as like that of a rabies victim. Wonderful film, though.

@DrJackDevlin Pirates of the Caribbean III. Completely baffling. Radical stuff.

@DrTumnus Thomas Vinterberg's It's All About Love reeks of folly, but I find it oddly compelling: glistening in the memory bank are Sean Penn literally phoning in his performance from an orbiting jumbo jet and an ice rink full of dead clones. Fab.

@jaiebey Delicatessen – featuring a circus performer, cannibalism and radical vegetarian-terrorists,...

It’s been ten years since “The Blair Witch Project” crept its way into the national consciousness. The movie, which follows three students making a documentary about the legendary Blair Witch, managed to hit the sweet spot of viral marketing and word-of-mouth buzz through an extensive online campaign that had movie fans scratching their heads over whether or not the footage was real.

In fact, writer/directors Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez went to great lengths to convince investors, and eventually potential viewers, that their movie was a documentary. They did so through the use of cleverly staged “found” footage and an extensive back story. In the end, “The Blair Witch Project” was such an effective horror movie because of what it didn’t show — and because the use of unsteady handheld cameras often left audience members feeling dizzy and nauseated. So whether shaky camera work is used or abused in the name of art,...

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.

• Drawing Restraint 9 - IFC Films At first glance; beautifully breathtaking. This film looks and feels gorgeous, amazing cinematography. Ship on an ocean; soothing, relaxing, mesmerizing even, almost puts me in a trance-like state of calmness and serenity. The oceanic scenery accompanied by Icelandic beauty Bjork’s haunting melodic voice just transports you to a whole other unreal plane of reality. And look, not only does she provide sumptuous harmonies, but there she is kneeling among the rocks dipping her fingers ever so gently in the water, so nurturing-like. Her music makes me slightly uncomfortable but in that disturbingly good way, like I’m discovering all kinds of weird stuff about myself that probably should stay pent up and locked away. -Yeah, you know what, not sure if the one eyebrow thing is the right look for you… Appeasing, tranquil images pour through my brain like molasses on an English muffin.

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NEW YORK -- IFC Films secured U.S. theatrical rights to experimental filmmaker Matthew Barney's Drawing Restraint 9, IFC president Jonathan Sehring said Monday. It will debut March 29 at New York's IFC Center, with regional distribution to follow. Restraint is the latest feature film from art-world darling Barney, who wrote, directed and starred in several movies as part of his Cremaster Cycle from 1995 to 2002. It is his first onscreen collaboration with wife Bjork, the famed musician who also scored the film, which marks her return to acting after a Festival de Cannes-winning, Golden Globe-nominated performance in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. The experience so disturbed the first-time lead actress that she said she would never act again.