9 Songs [DVD]

This is a beautiful impressionistic film about an affair, as remembered by a scientist while flying over Antarctica. He is remembering what will certainly be the great passion of his youth, the discovery of a perfect sex partner with whom he has nothing in common but their grinding, momentary love. It is a fleeting, strictly limited merging, that is graphically portrayed (what the film will be remembered for, no doubt).

The film is less a story than a series of moments that flit in and out of his memory, ending abruptly and without much resolution. It is more poetry than novel. I don't know if, as some reviewers claim, it is portraying something deeper than nostalgic sex, but the images have great power.

Hopefully everyone experiences this kind of excitement and longing. It is not meant to last, however painful it feels with the incredible ecstasies and imagined emotional highs before the horrible realization that you are building a fantasy together. One can spend years feeling anger at the disillusionment that follows as well as fight its image of perfection when one enters a more mature relationship that entails compromise. The young scientist seems to be at peace with it, so much as that is possible.

This movie is great at portraying that moment in youth, when the patterns in your life do not feel set but there for the making and discovery. While I did not relate to the music in the film - after all, I am of the age when rock and roll was in its golden age - it adds mood to the film.

Recommended.

I'm not sure there is much to say here. Simply put, Michael Winterbottom has entered the world of pornography, at least partially. Here, he has definitely made a very dirty film with very little else to say. I'm not saying it offends me. Perhaps Winterbottom's 9 Songs comes off this way because it is about a relationship founded on and maintained by its sex. We see Matt, a guy who does some work in Antarctica, meet Lisa, an American student. Their relationship seems to be based predominantly on two things; a common bond with music and a common bond in enjoying sexual intercourse. There is seemingly very little attachment beyond that and then the relationship ends when Lisa returns to the states.

The explicit sex scenes are intertwined with footage of rock bands including the Von Bondies, the Dandy Warhols and Franz Ferdinand, just to name a few. I was tempted to praise the film for combining elements that are pornographic with a compelling story and somehow attempt to not be gratuitous. I don't know whether to call the graphic scenes honest or exploitative, but I suppose they serve some purpose within the context of the story. It definitely seems empty and bleak in their final scene together. 9 Songs portrays sex far colder and realistic than porn does.

I'm not sure that means it should qualify as good movie, but it certainly seems like an honest attempt to be original and bring elements like this into mainstream cinema, for better or worse. The performances have been praised by some as daring but I have to say, any acting was pretty much a non-factor here. I assume the performances are muted intentionally but they are either done so because the relationship portrayed is a bleak and selfish one or because the acting chops were just no there. It really doesn't matter why because either way it conveniently and perhaps unwittingly works for the benefit of the film. It is a glimpse into the very private lives of too people only associated by their lust.

9Songs as many reviewers have already stated, contains graphic, unsimulated sex.

Is it porn? No.

9 Songs is a story of reflection. A young man remembering a lost romance. His sense of isolation after the break up conveyed through the isolation one feels in the Antarctic. (where Matt, the 'hero' - played by a very brave Kieran O'Brien - works).

Criticism has been placed on this film for the editing. Sex, music, sex music, sex music and so on. However, what seems overlooked is the film is from Matt's perspective. He remembers points in the relationship he's had with Lisa - played by an equally brave Margo Stilley - which were marked by pivotal moments in their relationship: going to see rock concerts.

A modern relationship, we can assume Matt and Lisa met while they were each attending a rock concert. Is this the foundation of their relationship? Is this the one thing they really had in common? We have to assume so, as they seem their happiest when at the concerts.

Like any other initmate relationship there's sex. Winterbottom allows us to share some of the intimate moments Matt experienced with Lisa. Awkwardness, through to being comfortable with one another's nudity, through to the too familiar, almost disinterested area where people just go through the motions because they're a couple.

The film has flaws, but Winterbottom has at least tried to depict a modern relationship. Lisa is just out to have some fun, Matt, however, is being drawn into feelings he didn't expect. When his feelings towards Lisa are not returned in kind, the relationship goes down hill ("I can't make you love me, if you don't, I can't make your heart feel something that it won't" - as George Michael once sang).

Unscripted and improvised, this is a bold offering from Michael Winterbottom (Code 46, Jude, Wonderland) and one I think, he, Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley, should be very proud of.

Kieran O' Brien (Band of Brothers) and Margo Stilley enter into a depiction that most, if not all, actors would steer well away from. Whilst many more famous actors like to appear to be 'sex' symbols, they never depict if they are worthy of that adolation. We certainly know that both the leads in 9 Songs, can and do 'perform'. The brief moments of intimacy at times remind the viewer of more innocent times in their own lives, free from responsibility or care.

This is certainly not a porn film. It does not try to excite or stimulate a sexual response from the viewer. It, perhaps unsuccessfully in areas, allows the viewer to experience the intimate moments in an already doomed relationship. Winterbottom fits into 69 minutes what it takes most married couples quite a few years to realise and attain.

Worth a watch if you like to discuss the film afterwards. Interesting and considerate. Graphic yet gentle.