In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Matthew Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera inspired by Norman Mailer’s 1983 novel "Ancient Evenings," a hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry. The film’s central scene is an abstraction of Mailer’s wake, set in a replica of the late author’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights an...
In collaboration with composer Jonathan Bepler, Matthew Barney combines traditional modes of narrative cinema with filmed elements of performance, sculpture, and opera inspired by Norman Mailer’s 1983 novel "Ancient Evenings," a hypersexual story of Egyptian gods and the seven stages of reincarnation, alongside the rise and fall of the American car industry. The film’s central scene is an abstraction of Mailer’s wake, set in a replica of the late author’s apartment in Brooklyn Heights and featuring Maggie Gyllenhaal, Paul Giamatti, Elaine Stritch, Ellen Burstyn, Joan La Barbara, Deborah Harry, Jonas Mekas, and more. Alluring and intense, this epic, multidimensional experience is a sprawling allegory of death and rebirth within the contemporary American landscape.
This operatic film totals 5h 50min run time and is presented over two nights (Act I on Friday, September 16, and Acts II and III on Saturday, September 17), or viewers can watch the film in its entirety on Sunday, September 18 beginning at 2PM.
CAMH is a community partner to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in their presentation of "River of Fundament."
Film Schedule
Friday, September 16, 7:00PM Act I with an Introduction by Bill Arning, Director of CAMH
Saturday, September 17, 6:00PM Act II | 8:10PM Act III
Sunday, September 18, 2:00PM Act I| 4:00PM Act II | 6:10PM Act III
Act I: 115 min., Act II: 108 min., Act III: 96 min.
Includes two 20-minute intermissions
Tickets available for purchase at: http://www.mfah.org/films/tickets/
CAMH members receive a discount code; e-mail membership@camh.org for details.
Learn more here: http://camh.org/calendar/2016/6/screening-river-fundament-directed-matthew-barney-and-jonathan-bepler-usa-2014-319-m
