| Product: |
9 Songs (DVD) |
| Date: |
08.08.06 (253 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: nice music, great idea
Disadvantages: badly executed and just porn really!
Now I have decided that to save my reputation, such as it is, I need to first say that I didn’t pay to see this film, I was working for a film festival at the time a special preview of it was shown, back in 2004, and saw it that way!
Nine Songs, possibly the most talked about film in the British press for a long, long time, outside of the film review pages anyway. It caused uproar back at the beginning of the 2005 when the BBFC actually gave it an 18 certificate without any cuts, making it the first British made movie to show actual sex in it. A few French films had managed to get past the censors before this, but normally under the view that they were art films and therefore it was acceptable (Romance and Baise-moi).
Having been branded by the tabloids ‘UK’s most explicit film ever’ does Nine Songs live up to this tag and more importantly is it any good?
The central premise for the film is a very good one. Matt and Lisa meet at a concert and we follow their relationship as it flourishes and grows, finally hitting a high point and then as it begins to fall apart.
This may not seem like the most original of ideas, what makes it such a good basis for a film is the inspiration that films this rise and fall by focusing on the gigs they go to, the titular Nine Songs, and the extremes of the sexual relationships in between.
And that is Nine Songs in a nutshell. Matt and Lisa meet at a gig, we see a sex scene between them, then another gig, more sex, more music and so on!
This could have been an interesting way of viewing the growth of a relationship. The sex becomes more intense and the sexual acts more experimental as Matt & Lisa change from their early getting to know each other couplings. As their love for each other starts to decline you see the way they act with each start to change once more, the passion slowly dying and their sexual interest in each other going from red-hot coals to embers floating away in the air.
The idea of this being reminiscences of Matt while stranded, working, in the Antarctic, alone with just other scientists in the most inhospitable of locations also lends another side to the story. The loneliness of his locality compounded by the feeling of love he remembers thinking back to Lisa.
All this sounds good and add to that the direction is also pretty good, though it doesn’t take much I guess to film bands live and film a couple in their house! Michael Winterbottom is a prolific director who seems able to cover many different styles of film, from the adaptation of Jude, through the Brit music flick 24 Hour Party People through to the Sci-fi Code 46.
The whole film is shot in a grainy DV (Digital Video), that adds to the whole rough and ready look of the film. I’m sure this was as much intentional as a way of being able to shoot the film quickly and cheaply.
So where do it all go wrong? Well for a start when all the acting/stroke story development is done via sex scenes then there is very little that actually happens. I don’t recall anything between the characters during the live gigs, other than seeing them in the audience together. As such you never really get a handle on either Matt or Lisa. Why did they fall in love? Do they have a life apart from gig going and sex? Why does their relationship start to crumble? Instead of being intrigued by the story possibilities I found myself being annoyed by the missed opportunities.
It also has a problem because there was no script at all; supposedly everything was adlibbed and improvised all the way through, again not much of a problem when there really isn’t that much dialogue at all. Problem is a lack of script also means that the story doesn’t go anywhere. With no planned story progression it is no surprise that we never really care about Matt & Lisa.
For some reason it seems critics have been raving about the film…… “This is the first film of 2005 that cannot be missed” Film Review & “Fearless, bold, beautiful and moving. IT ALSO ROCKS” GQ
I seem to think that they are more out of touch with the regular cinemagoer, or none of them want to criticise the film. Maybe this is because they will be then accused of being prudes or pandering to the tabloids and they want to be seen as serious journos.
In some ways pretty much every review I have read though is right, but they stick to praising the clever stuff I have mentioned above without bringing up the fact that as a film, as a story, as entertainment it just fails on all levels.
I am really not sure what Winterbottom was aiming for with this film. Maybe he had high ideals and thought it would work, but for me it doesn’t work on any level! If you want to see a film for a good story, good acting and a fun hour plus then do not see this film.
Directed by – Michael Winterbottom
Written by – You’re having a laugh!!!! Though Winterbottom supposedly wrote it!
Starring:
Kieran O’Brien – Matt (Coronation Street (Craig Lee), Messiah, Dalziel & Pascoe)
Margot Stilley – Lisa (Nothing before this)
Certificate - 18
Running time – 69 minutes (yes really!)
Live music from gigs by:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Von Bondies, Elbow, Franz Ferdinand, Primal Scream, The Dandy Warhols, Super Furry Animals, Michael Nyman
Summary: Porn dressed up as something artistic by a big name director.
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