9 Songs Movie Review:


Winterbottom is an intriguing filmmaker who usually gets it almost right. On those rare occasions where he sustains his storylines (Wonderland, In This World), he can be breathtaking. But this experimental sex-and-music film is far too vacuous.

Matt and Lisa (O'Brien and Stilley) meet at the Brixton Academy concert hall in south London, and their affair runs from September to December through a series of concerts, a holiday and lots of sex. Then Lisa returns home to America, and Matt heads to Antarctica to do some research and offer a loose narration on their brief romance.

In the film's one moment of insight, Matt observes a rather strained similarity between Antarctica and two people in a bed: "It's claustrophobia and agoraphobia in the same place." Otherwise, the film is a jumble of handheld video, cutting between music gigs, the bedroom and the Antarctic snowscape. Technically, it's superb; Marcel Zyskind's camera work and Stuart Wilson's sound are both brilliant. The bedroom scenes are shot with no extra light--warm and shadowy at the same time, adding a layer of intensity that simply isn't in the text.

And this is the problem: Absolutely nothing is made of the characters or their relationship. Yes, we get a sense of their physical closeness, but the various sex scenes tell us nothing about who these people are, why they're together, or why Lisa decides to leave. So while their intimacy is obviously real, it's also meaningless. Even the one profession of love feels empty. If it's just a passing fling, why should we care? Or watch?

Also, Winterbottom directs it as a purely male fantasy. Lisa is always naked, and seems to exist only to pleasure Matt in various ways, even when they role-play in two simplistic bondage sequences. This leaves Lisa's character especially empty, and it doesn't help that first-time actress Stilley isn't quite capable of adding much nuance. O'Brien fares better, simply because he shows his personality and emotion more overtly and confidently. But for all the fuss about the explicit sex, the film is soulless and dull. There's more passion in the music than between the characters.



Rich Cline

Music has a way of attaching itself to memories and feelings, making it near impossible to hear familiar songs without thinking of a past relationship. Michael Winterbottom’s latest film, 9 Songs, plays more like an extended memory of a relationship than anything else. Mixing raw music with graphic un-simulated sex scenes, 9 Song is brutally and unflinchingly honest about the nostalgia of love.

The story is merely a series of memories that Matt, a twenty-something glaciologist has as he travels across the vast and empty world of The Antarctic. Each of his memories are tied uncontrollably to each of the titled nine songs from concerts he attended during the relationship, the first being the night that he met Lisa. It is a purely physical relationship to start but as they spend more time together it is clear that Matt loves Lisa, but never really clear if the feelings are returned. Using the music to show the state of the affair, 9 Song bounces back and forth between dynamic performances and the unadulterated lovemaking that occurs always at Matt’s apartment but never Lisa’s.

The decision to have the sex between the two characters be real was a strong choice which gives the film a slightly pornographic feel at times, but the purpose is not arousal. It clearly shows the strong physical side of the relationship in a way that few films have been able to capture so honestly. There is little dialogue and it is improvised, but the images are so powerful that the feeling comes across with unquestionable strength. As close as films such as 91/2 weeks may have come to showing the sexual attachment of a physical relationship, 9 Song clearly captures the moments with music and very real situations, making the film a piece of nostalgia for anyone who has ever been in love.

What little dialogue there is shows the difference between the two characters; Matt usually being dominated slightly by Lisa despite his attempts to make her think she can’t control him. There is more known about Matt as he talks about Lisa through voiceover in the South Pole.

The music ends up speaking more about the film than the characters themselves do, with fantastic live performances by nine great bands including the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Dandy Warhols, Super Furry Animals, Franz Ferdinand, and a great bit from Michael Nyman’s 60th birthday concert. As well as the concert scenes, music is used throughout the film. Most memorable is the haunting piano nocturnes by Melissa Parmenter which creep into the scenes of lovemaking making them seem more like a sad memory than any form of eroticism.

There is no doubt that many people will be turned off by the extreme use of sex in this film, making it difficult to recommend it to anyone with the slightest bit of conservatism, yet I found myself less offended by the use of sex in this film than I did the discussion of sex in The Aristocrats. Although many might view 9 Songs as pornographic, those that truly understand will see the artistic qualities of the film far outweigh any offensiveness.

Ryan Izay

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