Best known for his five-part "visual opera" (the "Cremaster" series), Barney is arguably the most famous living experimental filmmaker still working. His sculptures, drawings and installations, which are closely related to his film oeuvre, sell for big money through the Barbara Gladstone gallery in Gotham, while the artist has a certain celebrity profile due to his good looks, manifest talent and marriage to Icelandic pop star Bjork, who co-stars in "Drawing Restraint 9" and appears here talking sense about her hubby's work.

A bit like a cinematic catalog for a gallery retrospective, "Matthew Barney: No Restraint" serves to explain Barney's m.o. to a wider aud by interviewing him, observing him at work on "Drawing Restraint 9" and showing archive footage of earlier projects and clips from the "Cremaster" cycle.

Auds who may have found the "Cremaster" movies beautiful but baffling and caught "Drawing Restraint 9," will experience numerous, "Aha! That's what he's talking about" moments here as Barney explains particular symbols in a no-nonsense way.

Chernick includes interviews with the Japanese workers aboard the Nisshin Maru, the boat featured in "Drawing Restraint 9," who seem bemused by the whole exercise. Helmer, whose previous docu explored the work of artist Jeff Koons, clearly has nothing but high regard for Barney, so no one says anything negative about him or his work onscreen here. The effect is not unlike an authorized biography.

Tech credits are OK, with the package simply assembled as if for TV or educational consumption.

Camera (color, b&w, 16mm, HD-to-35mm) Toshiaki Ozawa, Robert Leacock; editors, Helen Yum, Aaron Lubarsky; music, Raz Mesina; sound (Dolby Digital), Bob Sacchetti; sound editor, Jeremiah Black; co-producer, Nadja Romain; Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (Panorama), Feb. 14, 2006. Running time: 70 MIN.