Reviews, battling with its complexity and often focusing on its more salacious moments, have been mixed. Its British premiere later this month will be at the London Coliseum, home of English National Opera. River of Fundament has been presented in opera houses in Munich and Adelaide, and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Words and music, mercury and sulphur … a scene from River of Fundament.īased on Norman Mailer's 1982 novel Ancient Evenings, the film conflates Egyptian myth and modern America, the death and reincarnation of the novelist, cars, sex and creativity. Barney has dedicated years to its development and filming, and has become impatient with journalists interviewing him and reviewing the film without having seen it right through. I feel the need to convince him that I have seen his new operatic film, River of Fundament, made with the composer Jonathan Bepler. Polite and relaxed, he has a dignified air, all containment and reserve. A fit-looking 47, Barney was a footballer and wrestler in college, and later did some catalogue modelling. When Barney shows up we retreat to a big table in an upstairs office. The studio is at the end of a street in Long Island City, Queens, a place of used car lots, loading bays and anonymous industry. There is no art to be seen, just shipping crates and big, tantalising lumps covered in tarpaulin receding into the gloom. Doomy, ponderous post-rock music echoes through the cavernous studio behind me, along with drilling and banging where unseen assistants work away. I have a sniper's view of the UN building, downstream on the far shore of the East River, while the Chrysler Building, which has featured in Barney's films, gleams against the skyline. I stand on the dock waiting for Matthew Barney.
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