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2 Reviews
Cremaster 3: The Coffee Table Version
About the book itself:
This book is listed as a paperback, but has sort of a stiff-paper / thin-cardboard type cover. Many pages in the book, which is about the size of a legal pad turned sideways, fold out to create a WIDE panorama of stills.
One thing I can say about the book: the press / publisher did no go overboard choosing a high-quality bind, and many of the photos run right into the inner edges of the pages, leading to some two-page spread panoramic shots being elided by the lack of full separation in the middle of the book. Note to the geeks: if you planned on plunking down $15 or so to get a sweet shot of the Gary Gilmore female zombie scanned and on your desktop background pronto, you will end up disappointed--there is no clear large shot that doesn't span / border on the inner edge of the page.
About the photography:
The photography is, as you would imagine, mostly pristine. Some better choices could have probably been made in the "in-action" shots, some of which are quite blurred, and while that is likely attributable to having been blown up into such a large book, it's still no pony ride.
The subject matter is of course the film Cremaster 3. The motif repeated in the film of having multiple items / characters represent each of the films in the Cycle is detailed here extensively, with large shots of the bumpers of each of the later-model Chysler Imperials, a large panorama of the 5 harness-racing teams... etc. There is a section dedicated to "the Order" with a different cut on the pages (distinguishing it on first glance at the book's end).
One interesting part of the book: lyrics to the songs from the movie (the ones sung by the waiter / concierge in the Cloud Club) are transcribed here (in Gaelic/Welsh/whatever it was *and* English).
Overall, a decent book to do superbly-unusual coffee-table duty, or just as a quick breeze through the images of the film. Its price point is low, which is nice, though methinks there should be some middle ground of price vs. quality between this book and the Drawing Restraint books Mr. Barney has commissioned, which are sold for $75 (and up).
While no real ingenuity of form is present in this book (compare with "I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now" by Damien Hirst), most of these stills are pristinely photographed and detailed, and the images themselves are good enough that the lack of hyper-inventiveness can be forgiven.
A nice small, cheap version of the photography you can whet your chops with while saving up for the ginormous "The Cremaster Cycle" tome.Read full review...
very entertainng
This book is quite the pictoral display of Barney's Cremaster 3. It's an amazingly detailed book with high quality photographs and it gives you a good sense of how the film plays out. I highly recommend it for anyone who enjoys Barney's work and also recommend purchasing any other book that deals with Barney's work.Read full review...