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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 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.
Original Release
02/12/2014
US Release
02/12/2014
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Dave Bald Eagle | Norman III |
Milford Graves | Norman II |
John Buffalo Mailer | Norman I |
Ellen Burstyn | Hathfertiti |
Maggie Gyllenhaal | Hathfertiti |
Madyn Greer Coakley | Hathfertiti |
Paul Giamatti | Ptah-Nem-Hotep |
Joan La Barbara | The Widow of Norman |
Stephen Payne | Usermare |
Aimee Mullins | Isis / The Ka of Norman |
Directors
Writers
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Dave Bald Eagle | Norman III |
Milford Graves | Norman II |
John Buffalo Mailer | Norman I |
Ellen Burstyn | Hathfertiti |
Maggie Gyllenhaal | Hathfertiti |
Madyn Greer Coakley | Hathfertiti |
Paul Giamatti | Ptah-Nem-Hotep |
Joan La Barbara | The Widow of Norman |
Stephen Payne | Usermare |
Aimee Mullins | Isis / The Ka of Norman |
Matthew Barney | Osiris: James Lee Byars / The Ka of Norman / Osiris: James Lee Byers |
Jennie Knaggs | Nephthys |
Eugene Perry | Set |
Herbert Perry | Set |
Brennan Hall | Horus |
Shara Nova | Lieutenant Worden |
Elaine Stritch | Eulogist |
Lila Downs | Ranchera Singer / Priest / REN Manager |
Jerry Giles | Priest / REN Sales Manager |
Luis Alvarez y Alvarez | Head Chef / Day Labor Boss |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Matthew Barney | Producer |
Blake Ashman | Producer |
Mike Bellon | Producer |
Christos Moisides | Producer |
Starr Sutherland | Producer |