Drawing Restraint 9 (2005)

Good movie but grossly overrated

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I am a big fan of Barney, and Bjork as my Idol. This aside, when i found out about the movie (quite awhile ago) it was a must see for me immediately. But lost hope when i saw the screening information, never to be released to home video and scarcely showing in theaters mostly in art Galleries along with Barney's exhibit. A few days ago i was looking in the Austin chronicle and saw it was plying at the Dobie for 4 days. i went on Sunday at 4. I thought i would never see this in my life. The movie was amazing my mouth open the whole time, amazing imagery and representation. at the end of the movie nobody in the theater could leave their seats, there was so much to absorb and i felt like i woke up out of a deep meditation. And on my drive home i tried to Analyze it without the help of the pamphlet for what i came up with i was right but there was so much more behind it. The movie as a whole is a deep representation of the Japanese culture and their relationship with nature around them and how it all recycles in the end. A theme of Reincarnation if you will. Even the scene of the morbid leg dismemberment between Barney and Bjork was beautiful. And the music added to the aura and atmosphere to the movie as a whole. As for the no speaking i think this added to the understanding and representation as a whole.In all i highly recommend this movie to all who love deep meaning and imagery in a beautiful art film. -Ian2000

WARNING!!! SPOILERS THRUOUGHT!!!After having seen bits and pieces of Mathew Barney's Cremaster cycle, one expects more of the same. But then he offers up Drawing Restraint 9, and I came away, well, blown away. Cremaster was such a convoluted, mythological universe, that I tend to find it unlikely that anyone could produce a body of work that is equally accomplished, thought out, and sprawling. Watching the opening scene of Drawing Restraint, I think of Chris Marker's filmic essay, Sans Soleil. Mostly because of the reference to Japan's Holiday, Coming of Age Day. The dancing seems to be lifted right out of Marker's film. The pacing of both films is actually pretty similar, as is the content. As Marker chose seemingly disparate images and concepts to illustrate a larger commonality in his films, Barney conflates his ideas about artistic restraint with a fantasy about whaling.An extraordinary chain of events occurs in this film. A convergence of mythic proportions, in true Mathew Barney style. A whaling moratorium is lifted in Japan. Bjork and Barney's "occidental guest" characters arrive, inexplicably, by prearranged fishing boat trips in the middle of a Japanese ocean on a whaling ship. The combination of a violent storm, loosely Japanese and heavily stylized costuming, a large petroleum jelly sculpture, a riveting and very aquatic tea ceremony, some bizarre dismemberment, and a giant raw ambergris log, culminate in a human-to-whale transubstantiation for these occidental guests. The pacing of the film is generally slow for its first two thirds, with beautiful imagery of a twenty year old whaling vessel seductively competing against this restrained pace. Then the storm comes, the petroleum begins to consume the entire ship, and there is no more restraint. At its core, this is what the film is about. Barney's obsession with restraint, and his fearful desire to let it go. The Coming of Age Day dance speaks about evolution, from childhood to adulthood. This evolution is echoed throughout the film. The first song, composed by Bjork and Barney, speaks of a "million year old fossil", which is then lovingly wrapped, and sent as a thank you for lifting the whaling moratorium (again, restraints are released, allowing for a thriving economy and plenty of food in a previously depressed community, ethical issues of whaling notwithstanding). The petroleum and steel sculpture, The Field, goes through a constant evolution, from liquid petroleum, to something a little more solid, changing shape, having a spinal cord like object removed from it, briefly housing the ambergris log, then utterly falling apart and being melted down into liquid again. All of this preparing, changing, waiting, is the restraint part of this equation. Then something, in this case ambergris and a storm, catalyzes a strange metamorphosis, and Bjork and Barney turn into whales. Barney must have undergone a similar process with this work, this ninth part of the Drawing Restraint whole being the product of that internal metamorphosis I am imagining for Barney. In all its grandiosity, all of Barney's timid pomp, its actually a very honest expression of fear. Fear of release, accomplishment, potential energy, and the unknown.

This is a beautiful film, it has a very Japanese rhythm and pace to it, which may be hard to appreciate for certain American audiences. It is dreamy, serene and disturbing. Full of symbols and deeper meaning. I had no idea what it was about, and was glad I did not read anything about it beforehand. The film is pure enough to be filled with individual associations and references, which is a mark of high art form, at least for me.Bjork is no longer a girl, she is a woman: time and giving birth have laid their mark. She looked stunning to me.If you watch it - let it wash over you.

I just saw this the other day. I Was in the second row of the cinema so close to all these weird happenings. I knew that it would be slow and hardly without a story. With that in mind I really liked the slow moving pictures, the building of the big Vaseline-sculpture, and the meeting between Björk and Barney(it takes a long time before they actually meet on screen)I see why some people would find it annoying, but to me it had some stunning visuals and the music was really good.Just sit back and relax and don't expect much more than two hours of slow moving and weird stuff.