9 songs

9 songs

Show rock concert, show sex, show icy wastes of Antarctica. Repeat eight times. That is the basic structure of Michael Winterbottom’s “9 songs,” a film that signifies a crucial director’s effort to handle explicit sexual content. The idea itself behind this film is incredible but as you go through it, the experience becomes boring; concerts don’t have close ups, sex doesn’t have context and Antarctica needs some penguins.

Firstly, regarding sex: A British scientist named Matt (Kieran O’Brien) gets involved with an American girl Lisa (Margo Stilley), who has come to London for obscure reasons; she mentions work and studying. They meet at a gig in Brixton Academy, return to his place and go to bed together. This is real lovemaking. Real because there are no fake moans or sighs that one finds in pornography movies/real because these actors make no sound but concentrate on what they do.

In total, they attend nine concerts with nine songs played. But this is not a concert movie and the performers are mostly seen at far over the heads of people in attendance which is how most people perceive rock gigs anyways. For realism, that works but it does no good for musicians.

The nine sex scenes are shot with detachment as if someone had no clue as to what actions would be undertaken by characters within them nor their motivations thereof or something like that. They lack pornographic choreography and can be considered as silent oppositions to hard core nature of sexual activities. Winterbottom appears intentionally unwilling to heighten up visual temperature; he opts for shadows and ambiguities thereby creating certain engrossment about who does what with whom or which according to limerick words. These occasional shots at genital areas are not emphasized but just happen during normal conversations.

There’s also some dialogue here… There is not any attempt made at presenting Matt and Lisa as characters within a regular plot. They speak like a couple that has accidentally found themselves into a passionate sexual affair, but not one that will necessarily lead to marriage. Matt is more in love with her than she is with him. There’s a revelation late in the film of where she lives that kind of blows you away.

What Winterbottom is tracing here is the progression of sex minus any fascination; if two people in bed are not excited about who they are outside it, then there must be decreasing returns. Yes, they try to pump up their enthusiasm by blindfolding and bondage but when you play games, you play less with each other. Their first few sexual encounters have all the intricacy and illusion of great table-top magic; at the end, they are making elephants disappear and as they do so, there’s no doubt it’s just an illusion.

Mostly we see unlimited areas of ice in Antarctic footage. A subzero research station makes people claustrophobic and agoraphobic at once “like a couple in bed,” says the narrative voiceover by Matt. Yeah! They’re afraid to stay locked up inside or to go out even for some time, right? This statement is true enough.

The sex scenes in this film make it clear that commercial pornography is unreal; when the Adult Film Awards give a prize for Best Acting, they are laughed at and yet, I am sure you will have to confess that these hard core porn actors can really act; “9 Songs” shows how real people behave with each other, touch one another and experiment as well as make comments here and there and be surprised by any action.

As much as this may be true though, “9 Songs” is more interesting to write about than to see. Its minimalism borders on being laudable as an experiment but boring as an experience. By having O’Brien and Stilley talk to each other on screen and become someone else for some time, they hint that maybe making a full movie about these characters would be interesting.

What Winterbottom does in part I’d like to see him do in whole: Show a relationship in which two reasonably intelligent and sensitive adults pick each other up for sex, enjoy it, repeat it, and then have to decide if they want to take the relationship to the next level.

In so many movies, first sexual encounter is earth shaking while the couple are magically in love forever – or at least until something different happens according to the story line. Sex is easy but love takes work. You can sleep with someone you don’t know. You can’t fall in love with them. In a sense of speaking “ 9 songs” tells us how lisa gradually gets this realization or rather matt who doesn’t want it himself- we ain’t gonna get no love outta here thus sex has got a bit pitiful.

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