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"I always keep a stimulant handy in case I see a snake - which I also keep handy" - W. C. Fields
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Sex sells and it always has done. That's what keeps Ann Summers in business and why Hugh Hefner, who owns Playboy, lives in such a large mansion. But sex can also cause controversy, over whether pornography is morally right and how far you can go before you cross that line.
It is this last which is why "9 Songs" was as controversial as it was. After so many years of watching simulated sex in films, unless you were at a special kind of cinema, "9 Songs" was the first film to show actual sex on screen that wasn't deemed pornography by the UK censors and was given a mainstream certificate, rather than one that restricted its sale to specially licensed sex shops and premises.
Of course, just because a film is over hyped and controversial doesn't mean it is going to be any good. Indeed, a large number of the films with the most hype around them have turned out to be absolute turkeys. Admittedly, the buzz around "9 Songs" is more one of controversy, rather than hype, but it was still being talked about long before it was ever available to the general public, so the same theory could hold.
The basis behind the film is that it's a year in the life of a relationship. The couple, Matt and Lisa meet at a gig and stay together for the next year, doing what young couples do. They go out to quite a few more gigs and have a lot of sex.
There's a little more to it than that, but really only very little. Given that the running time of the film is only a shade over an hour and there are indeed nine songs featured, around half of the film is taken up with the music. As a rough approximation, I'd say that about half of the rest covers the couple engaging in sexual activity, which doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else.
Normally, I would blame the script for missing out the important
parts of this relationship, such as how it started, how it finished and what happened in the middle. After all, in a year, any couple is going to do a lot more than you see in the film. Unfortunately, part of the problem seems to be that there wasn't really a script as such, so they have clearly gone for the easy options. After all, you don't really need a script to stand in a crowd at a concert and you don't need a script to have sex.
This leaves you frequently lost and confused. There's no apparent chronology, so you can't tell which order everything is happening in. The beginning and end of the relationship are in roughly the right places, but you can never be sure how things got to the point they're at and why. This is less a story of a relationship, but more a series of isolated snapshots in which too much is missing to make a coherent narrative out of.
Writer and director Michael Winterbottom appears to have come up with a decent idea to shock people, but he's forgotten to add anything of substance to it. This makes a mockery of his claims that he wasn't telling a story about sex, but one about a relationship. If you saw more about the relationship itself; the boring stuff that happens between the sex and between going out on dates or to concerts, he might have a point. As it is, it's tough to take him seriously with what has ended up on screen.
Try as they might, and by the looks of things they are, the actors cannot save this from being anything other than mundane. They seem to be enjoying themselves, as well they might be, but they can't wring any more than they have out of a non existent script and they seem to have done the best that they can. Unfortunately, they don't have a great deal of time to build much on screen chemistry and Margot Stilley as Lisa seems quite wooden at times, although this is her first role and it's not the easiest one to take on as a first job. Keiran O'Brien seems a little more relaxed as Matt, but he had worked with the director previously and had more acting experience.
As the film is lacking substance, the extras are not a great deal better. There are several trailers, one for "9 Songs" itself, others for other films, which didn't really seem terribly appealing to me. That said, it was interesting to watch the "9 Songs" trailer having already seen the film, as the trailer tries to portray the film as a love story, when it's really very little more than sex and music and there's no apparent love at all. Not emotionally, at least.
The music only section is a bit of a waste of time. It is just the parts of the film where the bands are on stage. Given that the film isn't split into that many scenes, it's a slightly easier way of getting to the musical performances than going through the scene selection itself, but it amounts to pretty much the same thing. What is amusing is that 8 or the 9 songs featured in the film are indie-rock songs, but they have chosen the one that doesn't fit this mould, Michael Nyman's "Debbie", to play over the menu selections, which just doesn't quite feel right.
What promised to be more interesting were the interviews with the cast and the director. However, even these are slightly disappointing, as although the segments were clearly filmed with all of them having been asked questions, you never get to hear the questions, only the answers. Director Michael Winterbottom focuses on the music and the technical side of things and maintains his stance that he was trying to give the audience more than sex. As with the trailer, having seen the film, this claim seems slightly laughable.
The main actors also get their turn in the spot light. Keiran O'Brien gives the best of all the interviews as he's less serious and not afraid to talk about the sex in the movie. He's very laid back about it and gives the kind of anecdotes and behind the scenes information that you would normally get on a commentary, something which is strangely missing from this DVD.
Margot Stilley gets the longest interview by a long way, but has the least to say. Hers is really an interview for those who follow gossip, as she spends most of her time talking about the reactions she received and the fame and how people reacted to her for being in it. Her interview is by far the most self-centred and least interesting of them all.
What is far more fascinating is the introduction by Tom Dewe Matthews, an expert on film classification and censorship. Although questions or topic headings pop up on screen, his part sounds more like a lecture than an interview. He discusses the past of sex in films and how he believes "9 Songs" managed to get a certificate and also the potential effects this film could have on future film certification.
How disappointing you may find this DVD will depend what you want to get out of it. If you're looking to see graphic sex on screen without having to buy it through some dodgy mail order company, then you'll be happy enough, although there might not be enough of it. If you're hoping for a modern take on the love story, you'll be left feeling horribly let down, as this is essentially little more than a "making love story", and the details of the relationship are sadly missing somewhere. If you're a fan of the bands featured, you'll find that all the other stuff just gets in the way and you'd be much better off buying an album or doing what the characters in the film did and going to see them live. If you're easily offended or prudish, then this isn't going to be for you, but you may already have guessed that.
I suspect that this DVD will be of most interest to Film Studies students and other directors, as a lesson in how to get this much sex past the censors. It may also give an object lesson in why you shouldn't make films without a script and have a rough idea what you're doing before you start, so as to avoid a mish-mash of things such as this.
If you insist, or if you are the aforementioned Film Studies students, one of very few good things about this DVD is that it doesn't cost a great deal. Copies can be found on eBay from around 99p, which is about all it is worth. Amazon is asking £4.97 and the Marketplace has copies from £4.25. Sendit and Play are a little more ambitious, with prices at £7.99 and £8.49 respectively, which I wouldn't suggest paying at all.
I suppose you can admire Michael Winterbottom for having the bravery to attempt to work around the censors and to win. But, no matter what you think of the film's sexually explicit content, it's just a bit of a mess as a whole. The end result is disjointed and unfulfilling and even if he was trying to appeal to all groups at once; art house audiences, music fans and under age kids looking to find out what all the fuss is about, he fails on all counts. Although I suspect the latter group will be the least disappointed of the three.
Sex sells, that's for sure. But sometimes, what it sells simply isn't worth buying.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Music / Performing Arts, Comedy - Director: Trevor Nunn, Geoffrey Posner - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, Parental Guidance - Starring: Duncan Preston, Celia Imrie, Julie Walters, Victoria Wood, Jim Broadbent
Not seen this, in fact I have never heard of it....... Great review but I don't think I will bother with it then. Heatherx
Lofnorsk 08.10.2006 19:35
I remember reading about this although i've never seen it. Great review.
VickyVickster 06.10.2006 08:00
This has piqued my interest. The old Communication Studues student in me thinks it sounds fascinating and the eotica writer wonders what sex was allowed into the main stream. Superbly written, fully detailed review.
A true landmark in British mainstream cinema, 9 Songs is arguably the most sexually ... more
explicit film to be awarded an 18 certificate by the BBFC.Directed by the award-winning Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, In This World, Wonderland), the film...
A true landmark in British mainstream cinema, 9 Songs is arguably the most sexually ... more
explicit film to be awarded an 18 certificate by the BBFC. Directed by the award-winning Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, In This World, Wonderland) , the fi...
Aug 13th, 2006
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