Running time: 69 minutes
Starring: Kieran O' Brien, Margot Stilley
Rating 3 out of 10
Michael Winterbottom's new film will provide newspapers with plenty to write about. Its graphic depictions of sex will raise the now perennial question of whether or not the film should be granted a certificate by the British Board of Film Classification. In recent years such films have usually travelled across the Channel from France, with Catherine Breillat's Romance, Patrice Chereau's Intimacy, and Virginie Despentes' Baise-Moi all raising the moral minority's hackles, receiving an 18 certificate and promptly disappearing shortly after their cinematic release.
Now one of the Britain's leading directors joins the fray. But with its scant running time and flimsy plot, Nine Songs is only likely to raise eyebrows because of its explicit content. As far as cinematic experiences go, this is flaccid stuff, occasionally enlivened by a number of music clips from the pick of the current indie scene.
A two-hander which is meant to examine the passionate nature of sexual attraction, the film stars Kieran O' Brien as Matt and newcomer Margot Stilley as Lisa. Matt is a scientist who specialises in the Arctic tundra while Lisa is an American exchange student enjoying a year in London. The two meet, attend various concerts, and go back to their flat where they proceed to bang each others' brains out.
It doesn't take long for explicit sexual scenes to rear their heads: a hard-on here, cunnilingus there, gradually building in intensity until a climax ensues with a bout of full-scale penetration, all filmed on grainy digital video. Winterbottom attempts to take taboo filmic material and bring it into the mainstream, but with characters that are hard to care about the experiment fails to succeed. Lisa is egotistical and enervating, while Matt is barely sketched. The portrayal of their fragile relationship may be defended as art, but there is more than a touch of the emperor's new clothes about it all.
Where the film succeeds better is with its concert footage, with spirited performances (all shot on location at London's Brixton Academy) from the like of Primal Scream, The Dandy Warhols and current kings of new British rock Franz Ferdinand. The disappointment is, that despite having brilliant films such as In This World and 24 Hour Party People under his belt, Winterbottom seems to have temporarily lost the plot. It's doubtful that the film would be released at all were his name not involved and even the dirty mac brigade will be left feeling distinctly unaroused by this most mundane and uninspiring effort. Its running time suggests a knowing joke, but it's the makers who are left with the egg on their faces.
Paul Hurley
Now one of the Britain's leading directors joins the fray. But with its scant running time and flimsy plot, Nine Songs is only likely to raise eyebrows because of its explicit content. As far as cinematic experiences go, this is flaccid stuff, occasionally enlivened by a number of music clips from the pick of the current indie scene.
A two-hander which is meant to examine the passionate nature of sexual attraction, the film stars Kieran O' Brien as Matt and newcomer Margot Stilley as Lisa. Matt is a scientist who specialises in the Arctic tundra while Lisa is an American exchange student enjoying a year in London. The two meet, attend various concerts, and go back to their flat where they proceed to bang each others' brains out.
It doesn't take long for explicit sexual scenes to rear their heads: a hard-on here, cunnilingus there, gradually building in intensity until a climax ensues with a bout of full-scale penetration, all filmed on grainy digital video. Winterbottom attempts to take taboo filmic material and bring it into the mainstream, but with characters that are hard to care about the experiment fails to succeed. Lisa is egotistical and enervating, while Matt is barely sketched. The portrayal of their fragile relationship may be defended as art, but there is more than a touch of the emperor's new clothes about it all.
Where the film succeeds better is with its concert footage, with spirited performances (all shot on location at London's Brixton Academy) from the like of Primal Scream, The Dandy Warhols and current kings of new British rock Franz Ferdinand. The disappointment is, that despite having brilliant films such as In This World and 24 Hour Party People under his belt, Winterbottom seems to have temporarily lost the plot. It's doubtful that the film would be released at all were his name not involved and even the dirty mac brigade will be left feeling distinctly unaroused by this most mundane and uninspiring effort. Its running time suggests a knowing joke, but it's the makers who are left with the egg on their faces.
Paul Hurley
