Please forgive me...

supposedly the entire film is a heavily veiled metaphor for human conception, from the "cremaster" stage ;) up to sexual differentiation; although i got that from reading reviews.

Unfortunately i haven't seen them yet - my local arthouse cinema is showing the lot, and i'll be watching them all over the next week or so - i may be able to come back with some better opinions on the meaning by then. :)

There’s a great companion book to the cycle you can buy (or get from a library) called "Matthew Barney: Cremaster Cycles" published by the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum (ISBN: 089207258X). It has a great piece called "Only the Perverse Fantasy Can Still Save Us" by Nancy Spector and a "Cremaster Glossary" compiled by Neville Wakefield. Good luck!

right, I've just watched 'The Order' - the last section of Cremaster 3 having been unable to find the rest anywhere. While I understand that there is no 'correct' way to interpret this film (or section of a film), I will try to explain how I saw it. I would love to know what some of the people here think about what I've said, especially those who have seen much more of the cycle than I have. Here goes:


The order is a 31 minutes long dissection of (or part of anyway) the lifecycle of a modern human male. It begins with birth, which is represented by the warm and loving bubble bath at the bottom of the building. The next stage (or floor) contains the dancing Lambs. This is representing being a young child (say 2 - 12 years old) and illustrates the need to be like your peers, the first stages of establishing that you are normal, joining teams (football, clubs, scouts etc.) - a desperate need to be like everyone else, to do what they do and to be liked and accepted. This point is represented by the girls all wearing the same outfits and doing exactly the same moves, the fact that the costumes are old fashioned and sharply contrasting to the modern surroundings perhaps hints at a parents desperate wish that 'you' (their child) should fit in by forcing things from their own childhoods on to you.

Second floor is the teenager, reacting against your childhood and your parents by listening to alternative music and dressing directly to shock, though still continuing to do what everyone else is doing and thus contradicting the essence of what you think you are doing - being individual. This floor also contains the 'discovery of sexuality' - when he finds the thing in the floor which looks vaguely phalic.

Next floor is the model with no legs/tiger woman. I've been trying to figure what the hell this could all be about and the best I can come up with that it is guilt over what he considerd inappropriate sexual excitement (amputees, beastily etc..). I think this is probably wrong but if you watch it does sorta make sense ( and also would add an explanation to the ending when he kills the tiger, thus conquering his guilty feelings or destroying in his being the need or interest in those types of perversions - vasectomy?).

The next floor is the one where he is throwing those white things, which he does not do very well, this could be illustrating his sex life and his perceived lack of sexual success during his lifetime, although this seems to be more to do with his feeling of competition with others (represented by all the other white things laying everywhere). THe interesting thing here is that he has no reference point. Although you see loads of white things (sorry, don't know what else to call them) laying around, he never sees anyone else attempt to throw one, so how does he know he's doing as badly as his reaction would suggest?

The next floor is where the guy is throwing the Vaseline from, I understand that in another Cremaster, this person is throwing molten lead instead and having not seen that (or any other Cremaster) then perhaps I've completely misread it, but Vaseline to me, means childhood, motherly behavior etc...so the guy could be trying to warn him, make him turn back to the happiness of his childhood (the bath at the start) which he does in the end. Of course it could also have some homosexual meaning (Vaseline is used often in homosexual intercourse is it not?) - but i felt this was not trying to say homosexuality is better or worse only to suggest that the initial path he chose was the wrong one, and due to the fact that the guy was always throwing it (throughout his assent to the top floor) this could suggest that there where warning signs all through his life that where he was going was wrong. These were ingnored/not noticed...

So! at the end he realizes he's wrong, and returns to the bath, his childhood, or starts again from his birth which could illustrate that the cycle goes on and on (the possible reason for it being called the Cremaster Cycle) and the results are just fate, there's nothing you can really do to change things. Or it could be some hint at reincarnation and rebirth, learning from your experience and not making the same mistakes (as after this he kills the tiger, which could mean that the next time will be free from sexual perversion).

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I guess that about sums up what I though it meant, of course it could mean some, none (Un Chien Andalou) or all of those things and more. I guess its a pretty personal thing, it means what it means to you.

So, I've sorta run out of steam with my attempt at an explanation! Whos knows if its right and to be honest who cares! I thought it was a wonderful film.

btw: sorry if this makes no sense! This film sorta messes with your head and I've only watched it once!

In a taped interview in a PBS-produced show titled ART 21, he says matter-of-factly, that the entire cycle is a metaphor for conflict/violence. But I suggest simply watching the films and enjoying them. You could visit the website and read his descriptions of the films and the symbolism therein, but first and foremost, the films should be seen and enjoyed, plain and simple. in my opinion, these films were the most gorgeous and ambitious pieces of cinema and art that I had had the pleasure of experiencing in a long long time. I cannot thank him enough for making them.

This movie is dripping with very specific references. You might want to search google for entered apprentice and see what comes up.