9 Songs (2004)
Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.
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9 films that influenced 9 Songs
What critics say influenced 9 Songs
Hardly the would-be anonymous and impersonal entanglement envisioned by Brandos complex Paul in Last Tango in Paris, 9 Songs is a mere wannabe slice of something-or-other.
When Bertolucci made Last Tango in Paris in 1972, it was almost a revolutionary idea that sex could be portrayed as an expression of rage, or grief, or estrangement, and Brando, in his last great phase as an actor, seemed to wrench all those moods out of his own soul.
But unlike the dour and impersonal graphic sex in French films, such as Bruno Dumont's La Vie de Jésus or Catherine Breillat's Romance, here the connection is intimate, and in at least one scene, clearly enjoyable - at least for Matt.
Previous attempts at incorporating unsimulated sex into fictional film (such as Catherine Breillat's "Romance") have been largely unsuccessful, coming off as exploitative and voyeuristic.
Though Winterbottom doesn't say so, this realism in sex has been a European art film trend for several years, mostly with French directors like Patrice Chereau ("Intimacy") and Catherine Breillat ("Romance"), though American Vincent Gallo did his bit for the cause with "The Brown Bunny."
Ce dernier avait d’ailleurs participé par le passé à la bande originale de deux autres films de Michael Winterbottom, soit The Claim et Wonderland .
Michael Winterbottom (Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland, This World) is a humanistic director who has created a fascinating cross-cut of films about the many variations of human intimacy.
I was smitten with his "Wonderland" (another Sundance entry), finding its slowness appropriate for drawing out the characters' personalities.
In this regard it surpasses Patrice Chéreau's Intimacy (2001), which was the last film to go the whole hog, as it were, in depicting unsimulated sex between two actors.
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However, it's surprising that proven director Michael Winterbottom (" 24 Hour Party People ") would be the one attempting to make a mainstream pornographic movie.
Even though Winterbottom ( 24 Hour Party People , In This World ) has gone on record defending his art, it's clear that he has made nothing more than a porn movie, and not a very good one.
The structurally simple "9 Songs," which runs a suggestive 69 minutes, may not have the layers of Winterbottom's best films, such as "Code 46" and "24 Hour Party People," but it's superbly executed just the same.
Whether it's "24 Hour Party People," his vibrant homage to the music scene in 1970s Manchester, or "In This World," a searing fiction-documentary drama about immigration and the contradictions of globalization, Winterbottom has dutifully--and artfully--carried on the British social-realist tradition of his compatriots Tony Richardson and Ken Loach.
Leaving less than little to imagination -- in Bull Durham skivvies, Annie and Crash are infinitely more erotic -- and inducing no curiosity about the characters such as Bertolucci pulled off about Paul and his dead wife, Winterbottom serves up Swinburnes sexless orgies, passion without a trace of passion.
Even then, Winterbottom stands apart: where Anatomy of a Hell, Twentynine Palms and The Brown Bunny are dour dissections of a sickly Eros, 9 Songs doesn't bother to pile the weight of the world atop the couple's bedroom gymnastics.
Though Winterbottom doesn't say so, this realism in sex has been a European art film trend for several years, mostly with French directors like Patrice Chereau ("Intimacy") and Catherine Breillat ("Romance"), though American Vincent Gallo did his bit for the cause with "The Brown Bunny."
Michael Winterbottom (Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland, This World) is a humanistic director who has created a fascinating cross-cut of films about the many variations of human intimacy.
He has given us one movie that is huge fun (by all means, check out "24 Hour Party People") and several others that are high-minded and bleak (such as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "Code 46.")
And all from a director known for such earnest fare as "Welcome to Sarajevo" and "In This World."
Michael Winterbottom's ("Welcome to Sarajevo") experimental film is targeted as the most sexually explicit legit feature film to come out of 'merry ole' England from a mainstream director and despite all its arty porno-like sex it never gets over the thinness of its narrative to make this experiment earth shattering.
Winterbottom may have the most diverse resume in film today, with movies about war reporting in Sarajevo ("Welcome to Sarajevo"), Manchester in the '70s ("24 Hour Party People"), Afghan refugees ("In This World"), futuristic ethics ("Code 46") andwhy not?the Wild, Wild West ("The Claim").
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But his other recent efforts -- "The Claim," "Code 46" -- have been tiresome and chilly.
Winterbottom may have the most diverse resume in film today, with movies about war reporting in Sarajevo ("Welcome to Sarajevo"), Manchester in the '70s ("24 Hour Party People"), Afghan refugees ("In This World"), futuristic ethics ("Code 46") andwhy not?the Wild, Wild West ("The Claim").