“9 SONGS” (2005)

Starring: Kieran O'Brien & Margo Stilley
Written & Directed by Michael Winterbottom

Polly Staffle Rating: **

A romantic relationship involves more than having a common interest and good sex with someone. Or at least it should. Most relationships are probably built on this alone, which helps us understand why so many marriages are over as soon as they're started. Michael Winterbottom's “9 Songs” explores this theme. It doesn't explore it very well, but like love gone wrong, this movie isn't a complete waste of time.

“9 Songs” is essentially nine segments of concert footage of bands most people haven't heard of or don't care to know about, connecting pornographic sex scenes together. There's no plot, no story, no character development, very little dialogue and the concert footage is horribly painful to watch.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Von Bondies, Elbow, Primal Scream, The Dandy Warhols, Super Furry Animals and Franz Ferdinand are among the bands featured here. If I was a diehard fan of any of these artists, I might have enjoyed the movie more. But even still the concert footage is shot from the audience and you see the tops of people's heads like you are actually at the show. The concert scenes also have nothing to do with the couple. In narration we learn they met at a rock show, but that is the only connection. Anyone that watches this film, will most likely find themselves (like me and my girlfriend) fast forwarding through the boring parts to get to the steamy scenes.

The sex scenes, which are more graphic than “The Brown Bunny” work pretty well. They are better than your average movie’s sex and that's because they are real. And not just real in the sense that they are actually having sex; the scenes are more realistic than any adult film as well. These are real people - she flat chested, he uncircumcised - having intercourse, that doesn't feel as staged and position technical for a camera man to get a good graphic shot. The scenes do veer into fairly graphic, including one money shot, but mostly are erotic and playful with real sounding moans of pleasure instead of the usual “scream as loud as you can and pretend to be having a good time, even though you look in pain” adult industry norm.

I wouldn't call this film pornographic, but it definitely goes further than Bernardo Bertolucci's “The Dreamers,” Todd Solondz's “Storytelling” or Francois Ozon's “Swimming Pool” to give you an idea. I don't know that I would recommend you watching it with your girlfriend or wife, unless you have an open and understanding relationship. Practically every movie I watch, I view with my girlfriend. I think she even enjoyed this one more than me. There's definitely a good concept here with potential that could open many channels of communication, but the way this is done, it might not.

In 1972, Gerard Damiano made the adult film “Deep Throat” and at the time he thought its success would help the adult industry and Hollywood into an eventual merge. Today those two worlds are further apart then they were then. “9 Songs” doesn’t work as a whole, but the sex scenes do. I've always wondered why sex in films has been such a taboo for so long. I don't have an answer, but I think films like this could be laying the ground work that Damiano thought he was in the 70’s.

By the end of “9 Songs” the couple realizes the relationship isn't going anywhere. She is a student that has to go back to America and he is a glaciologist who has his work in Antarctica. So the flimsy relationship ends and they go back to their lives. Had they stayed as a couple, it may not have lasted very much longer anyway. There was no true connection and neither really knew the other person or cared for them. A common interest and a sexual attraction can spark a romantic flame, but it can't keep two people together through the bad times.

When relationships go sour, people love to say “they changed.” People don't change. Over time, people's interests change, their tastes change, their looks change and their sexual abilities change, but the person stays the same. Relationships built on a deeper connection, last longer than “9 Songs.”

- CCF, February 2006