The courageous lead actors, Margo Stilley and Kieran O'Brien.
Unqualified praise has been rare, and there are reasons for that. Some have found Michael Winterbottom’s film empty, unsatisfying – a film lacking narrative, or purpose; at just 69 minutes long, somewhat of a half-arsed effort. These criticisms are not entirely unwarranted, but they are mitigated by the fact that 9 Songs may just prove to be one of the most important films of the first decade of the 21st century.
In a society deeply riven on the topic of sex – on the one hand, nominally espousing the merits of sexual freedom whilst bombarding its citizens with sexualised advertising, on the other, caught in the grip of an at-times hysterical pseudo-morality – it’s understandable that 9 Songs, arguably the most sexually explicit ‘mainstream’ film ever made, aroused the level of controversy it did. Its initial banning in Australia, however, provided further proof of a disturbing fact: that our society is more comfortable with realistic representations of torture and mutilation than simple depictions of two adults consensually fucking. Whether or not the widespread discomfort felt towards the latter has influenced the generally negative reviews is inconclusive, but one suspects it is a factor.
Another of the film’s most derided elements is actually one of its major strengths. The periodic live music interludes not only provide a sense of the passing of time, but chart the changing states of the relationship in a rhythmic manner reminiscent of Atom Egoyan’s little-seen masterpiece Calendar. This repetition removes the need for gratuitous plot exposition or intertitles, and, to the frustration of some viewers, gives the film’s narrative a far looser feel. However, if we are to view 9 Songs as the experimental film that it essentially is, this is one experiment that works in its favour.
Its greatest achievement, however, lies in its depiction of sex – not because actual sex hasn’t been shown before (it has, of course, been a staple of pornographic movies for over 100 years), and not because 9 Songs is unusually erotic (that will always be subjective), but because it subverts the way sex has traditionally been shown on film, pornographic or otherwise. It may seem odd to lump Hollywood cinema and pornography together in this regard, but what they share is a tendency to depict sex in an extraordinarily artificial manner. In 9 Songs, Winterbottom takes an entirely different tack: he employs hand-held camera, a naturalistic colour scheme, minimal dialogue and an appropriate mixture of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. Primarily through such techniques, he manages to invoke a believable sense of the kind of warmth and interpersonal intimacy that is in many ways central to the sexual experience, in doing so lending the film an unprecedented level of realism that goes well beyond mere depictions of the mechanical act.
This achievement may not seem like that much of a big deal to some, but the fact that cinema has for so long failed to authentically portray something so integral to human existence ought to be reason alone to give this film more recognition. In a society that is becoming increasingly definable by its insincerity and inability to deal with reality, anything as real or honest as 9 Songs deserves praise.
Directed by Michael Winterbottom
Starring Margo Stilley, Kieran O’Brien
RATING:
★ ★ ★ ★ ½
