Drawing Restraint 9 (2005)

Director:

Matthew Barney

Writer:

Matthew Barney (writer)

Release Date:

29 March 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy

Plot:

The film concerns the theme of self-imposed limitation and continues Matthew Barney's interest in religious rite, this time focusing on Shinto. |

Plot Keywords:

Whaling | Japan | Digit In Title | Sculpture | Number In Title

Cast

Shigeru Akahori	...	Barber
Naomi Araki	...	Ama
Matthew Barney	...	Occidental Guest
Björk	...	Occidental Guest
Hisashi Fujita	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Shunsuke Fujita	...	Ambergris Procession
Yuta Fukunaga	...	Ambergris Procession
Genishi Hakozaki	...	Ama
Akimi Hamada	...	Bathhouse Attendant
Yuya Hama	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Yoshio Harada	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Yokio Hyakuda	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Akiyo Ikeda	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Tomo Isino	...	Rendering Tank Attendant
Sachiyo Ito	...	Dressing Room Attendant
Tatsuro Iwahara	...	Tanker Truck Operator
Hideko Kadoyama	...	Ama
Ryutaro Kawasaki	...	Ambergris Procession
Emi Kikuchi	...	Dressing Room Attendant
Shinya Kimura	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Tashiaki Kitaura	...	Tanker Truck Operator
Hisato Koyama	...	Ambergris Procession
Meg Kuwahara	...	Ama
Koji Maki	...	Harpooner
Hiroji Mano	...	Transport Boat Driver
Yushin Maru	...	Catcher Vessel
Yusaku Matayoshi	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Toshiyuki Miura	...	Catcher Vessel Captain
Mayumi Miyata	...	Sho Player
Takaya Nagaze	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Jun Naito	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Kazuhisa Nakato	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Takashi Nishina	...	Flensing Deck Crew (as Takeshi Nishino)
Daichi Nogami	...	Ambergris Procession
Shiro Nomura
Tomoyuki Ogawa	...	Captain
Masaki Ohoe	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Junko Okamura	...	Ama
Yuki Okawa	...	Ambergris Procession
Kazuo Okuda	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Satomi Oohata	...	Ama
Sosui Oshima	...	Host
Satoshi Oyanagi	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Toshiaki Ozawa	...	Petrolatam Spirit
Shigeharu Sakai	...	Tanker Truck Operator
Motomu Sarashiya	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Souta Sudo	...	Ambergris Procession
Shusei Sugawara	...	Wandering Crewman
Jiro Tabichi	...	Transport Boat Driver
Kei Takahashi	...	Seasick Boy / Ambergris Procession
Hizoraku Takaya	...	Rendering Tank Attendant
Makoto Tanaka	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Ikkoh Terashima	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Rumi Tsuda	...	Gift Wrapper
Izuo Watanabe	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Shunichi Yamaguchi	...	Flensing Deck Crew
Shizue Yamamoto	...	Bathhouse Attendant
Kazuo Yamazaki	...	Tanker Truck Operator
Hiromaru Yasuda	...	Flensing Deck Crew

Runtime:

135 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English | Japanese | Icelandic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Portugal:M/16 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R13

Filming Locations:

Nagasaki, Japan

Company:

Restraint LLC

Soundtrack:

Shimenawa

My favourite of his work so far

Drawing Restraint 9 (5 stars)

Director Matthew Barney Writer Matthew Barney Stars Matthew Barney, Björk Certificate tbc Running time 135 minutes Country USA / Japan Year 2005

Matthew Barney is a visual artist. Think 'film' as in the sort of media that might attract the attention of the Turner Prize or, its American equivalent (with an international remit), the Hugo Boss award. The most recent Hugo Boss award was won by a Brit, Tacita Dean (who has also been shortlisted for the Turner). Barney won it back in 1996 and has garnered a string of prizes since. So you could say that, in his field, he's comfortably at the top of the heap.

I mention all this because you may come to a review of his film with the question, "But will I like it?" And while that question is still open, it is probably rather better than, "Is it any good?"

Although Barney has his critics, even in the art world, to suggest his stuff is rubbish is maybe a bit like saying Meryl Streep can't act: her finished work may vary in quality but it's the product of someone at the top of their profession. But even if Drawing Restraint 9 is great art – of which this reviewer is unqualified to say – it is reasonable to wonder whether going to the cinema should entail the attitude of mind that going to see a Tate Modern multi-media application might demand. Surely a film-goer has every right to judge a fill as a movie rather than an art exhibit?

Drawing Restraint 9 demands more – or perhaps a rather different type – of application to the type of movie commonly at art house cinemas. Yet I recall the delightful shock of seeing Bunuel's Un Chien Andalou – that unapologetically surrealist outburst that resulted from his friendship with Salvador Dali. Or Andy Warhol's Screen Tests, that reveal astonishing depth in the personalities instructed not to move or blink for four minutes. More recently Béla Tarr's masterpiece, The Man From London, where the scenery carries a force as powerful as the plot or characters. These people dared to use moving pictures in a different way, and cinema is (in my opinion) better for them.

Matthew Barney has little or no interest that I can deduce in conventional cinematic form. When it comes to film, it is as if he started with a blank page, or another medium upon which to bend like sculpture and ideas. Fans of his earlier Cremaster cycle of films will recognise a certain organic development in his films: the plots and persons seems to grow in a way that mimics the growth of crystals, or of speeded up plant growth, all redolent with arcane or sexual symbolism.

Drawing Restraint 9 seems to me a more rounded and mature work than his Cremaster opus. It is more tightly structured and coherent. The viewer can piece together the threads of stories by patient observation. The work of a Japanese whaling ship and various issues surrounding its trade, and the Shinto marriage ceremony on board. During an intense lightning storm the tea ceremony / marriage ceremony takes on disturbing dimensions that set our mind and senses racing.

Barney's (real life) partner, Bjȍrk also combines many new ideas in creating the music. The main suite is written for the sho, one of Japan's most ancient instruments. She worked with Noh theatre scholars to develop musical settings for a poem to produce an authentic, haunting sound.

Drawing Restraint 9 is no more an easy cinematic experience than a Rodin is a catchy picture postcard. But it rewards serious attention and its lyrical and elegiac qualities make the journey an interesting one. The strange visual experiences will leave an impression even on viewers that don't delve beyond the surface. Those that do, will find Barney has drawn his cinematic sculpture on sound ideas and symbols of substance.