But the couple is young, and 20 something young adults rightly play the field, and that's good. In "9 Songs" one type of sex is shown - the type where the female prefers that the male leave his condom on long term. I think we need more portrayals of true human sexuality. I commend the film makers for trying to portray sex the way it is - in a way far better than the fakey nonsense of Hollywood, and in a better way than the fakey nonsense of the crass forms of "porn." I know that porn was a term created by people who didn't like the wall paintings at Pompeii, and I think that non-fakey non-coercive "porn" is highly useful, but fakey porn which has moans and other accouterments which are fake isn't useful. While its principles high five each other and the music blares, 9 Songs becomes less a lucid tale of human confusion and more an embarrassing addition to some jock’s DVD collection.Salt Lake City is as of today 12 August 05 one of the places which is showing this film in the US. Instead, the DVD smugly wears the movie’s “sexiness” with the misplaced confidence of an exposed thong line. Where the film threatens to unravel on its own, its inconsequential extras don’t add meaningful conversation about its merits. Unfortunately, the 9 Songs DVD does little to challenge the film’s reputation for tee-hee titillation. And while the videos are pleasant enough, the presence of a horrifically boring promo doc on Elbow sprays the entire section with the pungent odor of a corporate promo campaign (notice how these are all bands searching for a stateside push?). The live footage is a wash of fast cuts, grainy shots, unsynchronized audio and visual tracks, and spotty performances. An “unrated edited” cut (i.e., concert-only portions of the film) and music videos from three of the featured bands (Dandy Warhols, the Von Bondies, and Elbow) augment the disc, to disappointing effect. Other DVD extras make a concerted effort to reinforce the presence of music in the film. While 9 Songs‘ unusual treatment of love and sex remains its principle charm, its use of a rock backbeat and non sequitur Antarctic inserts appears unnecessary, at best. With so little to say, he confirms the film’s excess. The director chatters with great animation about the development of the story and his cinematic representations of lovemaking, but he does not reveal a clear thread through his myriad ideas. Worse, the DVD’s interviews with Winterbottom, O’Brien, and Stilley reveal the film to be a loose and unstructured exploration of… who knows? The actors speak lucidly about rehearsals and filming, but respond with hand-jobs when recalling the film itself. As the film’s monotonous use of cut-happy concert footage demonstrates, even the brashest music can become flaccid when juxtaposed with a “proper” love scene. While rock’s ability to bridge booty and booze feels nearly as old as the aforementioned hobby, Winterbottom draws some cinematically unexplored parallel between the live rock experience and the claustrophobia and agoraphobia of a relationship… or, so one would think. The film’s most egregious annoyance is, oh yeah, its purported rockness. However, when viewed again, the structural flaws of 9 Songs become apparent and distracting. 9 Songs‘ intimate moments establish a distinguished and resonant sense of space the first time around.
And, quite frankly, depending on your sexual experience and maturity, you may recognize Lisa and Matt’s situation. Through sex, specifically the surrender and exposition of self through this oldest human hobby, Michael Winterbottom communicates the beauty and pain of a relationship. Certainly, as a film, it is more “fantasy” than “attainable”, but it also makes Matt’s liaison with Lisa (Margo Stilley) believable by keeping their story simple: they explore each other through fucking. The trouble with 9 Songs is its focus on the transitory, as Jesse Hassenger notes in his review of the film for PopMatters. While bold and apparent in its profundity, like the waning passion depicted, it dissipates. However, on DVD, repeated spins past the statement only highlight the hot mess that is 9 Songs. While mildly pretentious, the statement is innocuous in the context of a film more notable for its graphic depiction of carnality. Like two people in bed.” The statement is one of the few snippets of scripted speech, not to mention a rare bit of off-screen narration. Drawing a parallel between Antarctic exploration and a previous relationship, Matt (Kieran O’Brien) says, “Claustrophobia and agoraphobia are in the same place.