#92 Cremaster 3

The final film in Matthew Barney's five-part Cremaster Cycle is a beautiful and obtuse meditation on ritual and punishment. The construction of the Chrysler Building figures prominently in the film. The beautiful skyscraper juts into the sky like an enormous maypole while in the lobby five 1967 Chrysler Crown Imperials crush a classic Chrysler Imperial New Yorker. Barney stars as the Entered Apprentice, who climbs the building's elevator shaft and fills one of the cars with cement, creating a perfect ashlar - a Masonic symbol of righteousness. The film is rife with strange symbolism, jarring and beautiful music and an eerie wordlessness. Because of it's disjointed features the challenging cinema of Mathew Barney could easily be dismissed as off-the-wall, big-screen onanism. I for one, love a good cinematic wank every once in a while.