There’s a fine line between artistic genius and pretentious wankery, and most cineastes will tell you that the films of Matthew Barney (The Cremaster Cycle) exist right around that line. Restraint 9 is part of a series of 12 artworks. Some of them involve Barney putting himself in some sort of harness or restraint system while trying to create a drawing (hence the title), but by the time he got around to part nine, that concept appears to have evolved into his favorite standby: petroleum jelly sculptures. In this case, large ones that slowly collapse like glaciers when removed from the mold, and become hellishly difficult to clean up after (cleanup being part and parcel of the artistic experience of the piece). Imagining that the crew of a whaling ship might have to deal with analogous experiences led to the inspiration for the movie, in which Barney and girlfriend Björk journey to a whaling vessel and go through an elaborate courtship ritual. The overall experience is akin to that of a voyeur at the wedding of two aliens.