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Anyone caught this groundbreaking but oddly unsatisfying film? It's certainly worth seeing: essentially, attractive guy and girl have explicit sex and go to gigs in London - and, er, that's it. The music is generally pretty good and feels as close as you're going to get to being at an actual live performance (ie. not very). And the sex scenes are frank and arousing - but the 'great passion' of the story is somehow colourless. I couldn't help thinking of the much less explicit but far more powerful Betty Blue.
'Lisa' the sex-mad Yank beanpole of the tale feels like your classic late adolescent male fantasy of the enigmatic, destructive woman - kind of like Beatrice Dalle, but without the requirement for you to learn French in order to chat up and screw her. While you have to admire the actress's guts (actually, during one scene you don't have any other option) the way her character has been devised by the writer/director is pure wank-fantasy.
I've complained before that the ultimate female fantasy seems to be the dude who sweeps you off your feet then has the decency to perish before it wears off (see Titanic). Judging by 9 Songs the ultimate male fantasy could well be the crazy chick who fucks your brains out - then fucks off before you have the chance to get fed up with her.
This being the case, you find it all a little anticlimactic; for about ten seconds you're like: holy shit, an actual boner/snatch! Then you're like: hmmm - wonder what she's thinking. Did the director tell her to do that. Or: look at all that Mariah Monk - crafty fucker must have been storing it up.
Strangest of all, I sensed quite a bit of vicarious nostalgia watching this film. You get the sense that Winterbottom's thinking that if he were a young 'un nowadays, this is the sort of thing he'd be getting up to. There's also an element of 'time capsule' about it in terms of the music - except for the lovely moment they go to see Michael Nyman's 60th birthday concert... a nice grace note to what I suspect is the film's deepest theme of how things are fleeting and mortality somehow ever-present.
Anyway, here's how it scores: 'full vag pen' = 9 garys music kept live = 8 garys 'poetic' voiceover that sounds like it's leading in to selling some sort financial product or service = 3 garys
quote:Originally posted by ben: Judging by 9 Songs the ultimate male fantasy could well be the crazy chick who fucks your brains out - then fucks off before you have the chance to get fed up with her.
To be fair, thats got nowt to do with this film. Its pretty much what is expected of men, for example 'Intimacy' is only interesting because male and female leads go against stereotype. So, perhaps, good on Winterbottom for sticking with it, though how it makes the film groundbreaking is beyond me.
quote:Originally posted by ben: 'Lisa' the sex-mad Yank beanpole of the tale feels like your classic late adolescent male fantasy of the enigmatic, destructive woman - kind of like Beatrice Dalle, but without the requirement for you to learn French in order to chat up and screw her.
Well, yes, a bit, but Lisa isn't anywhere near as mad as Betty Blue. The insanity, the all consuming drive of the woman, was very much a part of why that film was genuinely moving. Neither was she as disturbed as the female lead in the Japanese 'Realm of the Senses' which was made in the early 70s and has all the hard-core of 9-Songs and the madness of Betty Blue. Both films owe a massive debt to this little gem. Lisa's just a bit sad.
quote:Originally posted by ben: Strangest of all, I sensed quite a bit of vicarious nostalgia watching this film. You get the sense that Winterbottom's thinking that if he were a young 'un nowadays, this is the sort of thing he'd be getting up to.
Now, this bit I agree with. Its a watchable film for this reason alone. The music will capsulize it and it will be just as watchable in 20 years time, but it doesn't have much else about it.
In short, its a film you can watch with the fast-forward on. You won't miss much that hasn't been done in other films. The BJ-Cum scene was quite interesting. I think you can tell she's a Yank though, Brit girls just don't get that the look-up, hair-back, eye-contact is the best part. I mean, in the old days most girls would learn the basics at school, these days its all PC and deferred success and if you even mention it you're accused of being a peado.
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