CREMASTER 2 is rendered as a gothic Western that introduces conflict into the system. On the biological level it corresponds to the phase of fetal development during which sexual division begins. In Matthew Barney's abstraction of this process, the system resists partition and tries to remain in the state of equilibrium imagined in Cremaster 1.
Production
The Guggenheim spiral as uterine architecture
Cinematography
Every frame could hang in MoMA (and some did)
Sound
Dave Lombardo drumming while bees swarm — obviously
Director
Matthew Barney
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Cremaster Cycle was shot out of numerical order; Cremaster 2 was actually filmed fourth, with Barney completing the entire five-film, seven-hour project over eight years.
Barney cast Norman Mailer partly because the novelist had written 'The Executioner's Song' about Gary Gilmore — then had him play Houdini instead, because of course he did.
US
