Nine Songs: Hailed as 'the most sexually explicit British film ever'
Winterbottom's 9 Songs, which shocked Cannes with its graphic scenes of unsimulated sex, receives an 18 rating with no cuts made
The most sexually explicit film in UK cinema history has been passed uncut and granted an 18 certificate by the British board of film classification.
Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs, which traces the arc of a relationship from first date to break-up, caused a furore at its premiere at Cannes earlier this year as it consists almost entirely of unsimulated sex scenes between its two stars, Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley.
In explaining its decision, the BBFC said that the sexual content was "exceptionally justified by context", but admitted audiences may find the scenes "shocking". The certificate comes with the advice that the film "contains frequent strong real sex".
The 70-minute movie will be previewed on Valentine's Day next year, before a nationwide release. Optimum Releasing, its distributor, anticipates that the film will be screened by all Britain's major cinema chains.
I think as long as it has the appropriate rating and kiddies can't see it I guess it's OK. Especially with the kind of publicity it has generated, there is no way anyone who goes to see it will not know that it contains this sex scene.
HOLD on to your hot dogs – there’s a new film that’s putting the sin into cinema.
9 Songs is the most shocking film I’ve ever seen that hasn’t got the words Debbie and Dallas somewhere in the title.
It’s the world’s first general-release flick that features real sex. The actors are really doing it and you see them really doing it.
The film somehow slipped past the British censors in its full, “uncut” glory and I’ve now seen everything.
And I mean everything.
Sexy ... but dialogue is a yawn
9 Songs details the brief love affair between Matt (Kieran O’Brien) and his American girlfriend Lisa (Margo Stilley).
They meet at a gig in London’s Brixton Academy and start to date.
Or rather, they start to bonk.
And boy can these two bonk.
It’s like the Kama Sutra on speed.
Disappointing ... Lisa finds Matt boring
Man on top. Blindfolds and massage oil. Toys.
Between bonks the couple smoke a plantation of tobacco, take drugs, and stagger out to see the occasional live concert.
Performances from Super Furry Animals, Franz Ferdinand, The Dandy Warhols and others give the film its title.
But what a yawn.
About 20 minutes in I found myself more interested in my Revels. At least with them you don’t know what’s coming next.
The dialogue is terrible. Lisa whines like a blocked vacuum cleaner through most of her scenes.
Tied ... sexy Margo Stilley
The only time she doesn’t tell Matt he’s boring is when he’s bonking her — which is perhaps why he does it so often.
Director Michael Winterbottom says: “Part of the point of making the film was to say, ‘What’s wrong with showing sex?’”
I can tell you what’s wrong with it, Michael — it’s (to quote Lisa) BORING.
You know the fist-chewing apathy you feel watching a couple snog at a bus stop? This film is a 90-minute equivalent.
It’s sexy watching the gorgeous Lisa being tied up with black nylon stockings but it’s a bad sign when you wish Matt would leave her like that and go off and rob a bank just so something actually happens.
Explicit ... but screen sex gets dull
I can only assume the censors gave 9 Songs an 18 certificate after falling asleep during their screening.
Just as sex isn’t enough to hold a relationship together, it doesn’t hold a script together either.
I was annoyed by the one-dimentional characters and found myself dying to fast-forward to the end.
That’s a bad sign in bonking — and an even worse one in the cinema.
9 Songs is due to be released in Britain early next year.
IS Australia becoming more conservative than Britain when it comes to censoring films? Last Friday's decision to give 9 Songs, the new feature by director Michael Winterbottom, an X18+ rating has been slammed as a retrograde step by some, but welcomed by the Australian Family Association. Expect to hear more on this issue.
The rating - unprecedented for a film aimed at a general audience - is the same as that given to pornographic movies. It means the film cannot be shown in cinemas and, in the ACT and Northern Territory, can be sold or hired only in premises licensed to sell X-rated material.
9 Songs is the story of a young couple in London and includes real sex sequences interspersed with performances by nine bands. For Winterbottom, whose previous credits include 24 Hour Party People, Jude, Welcome to Sarajevo and Wonderland, it is just the latest move in a prolific career that has seen him shifting deftly between genres and styles.
Speaking to Britain's The Independent earlier this year, he said that "the only films that really show sex are porn. That's just a comment on film, isn't it? People assume it's porn if it's got sex in it. But why should sex only be shown in a pornographic context? The censors' argument is that it is pornography if it has no characters or story. Our film has both."
Censors at the Office of Film and Literature Classification were split seven-to-one on the film (the dissenter argued for an R rating). In a statement accompanying the decision, OFLC director Des Clark says that "though the classification board acknowledges some claim to artistic merit in 9 Songs, the frequency, duration and detail of the explicit sexual activity in this film warrant that it be considered under the guidelines for the X18+ classifications."
Other censorship boards have taken a more liberal view. In Britan, Ireland and France, authorities have passed the film uncut, with the equivalent of an R18+ rating.
In France, even that classification is being appealed by two industry groups who believe that 16-year-olds should be able to see it. The R rating, they argue, is akin to labelling 9 Songs a pornographic film, which "constitutes a grave attack on the freedom of the distribution of works and on the freedom of the public. More so, the ban indicates a strengthening of the censorship of art-house films which have explicit sex scenes."
The film's Australian distributor, Accent Film Entertainment, is certain to appeal the X18+ decision with the aim of having the film reclassified with an R rating.
"I'm totally dismayed and disgusted about the X ruling," says Accent's marketing and acquisitions manager Dean O'Flaherty. "It's a totally non-violent film about sex and it's really quite sweet. Are we that backwards in our attitudes to sex? It's an indication of what's to come in terms of the increasing role of right-wing and Christian attitudes in censorship decisions."
Film critic Margaret Pomeranz, who saw the film at the Venice film festival, is also outraged.
"It certainly isn't Winterbottom's best film, but you only have to look at his filmography to know he's a serious film-maker," Pomeranz says. "To shove it in with porn is so insulting to Winterbottom. I really believe that this contravenes the [Classification] Act, because the basis of the act is that adults should be able to read and hear and see what they want.
"It's about relationship sex. I don't see why we can't have something that is completely legal represented on the screen."
The 9 Songs decision has been welcomed by the Australian Family Association, which has been active in lobbying for reviews of previous OFLC verdicts. As spokesman Richard Egan puts it: "We are certainly pleased with the decision because in our view the classification board has been violating their own guidelines with regard to actual sex in R movies, where they have permitted movies such as Irreversible and Anatomy of Hell to be classified R."
The contentious 2002 film Ken Park was refused classification by the OFLC and the Review Board, which found that it depicted child sexual abuse and sexualised violence.
Clark says the classification board is operating within its guidelines.
"We make class decisions for the Australian community based on the tools that we have," he says. "In the guidelines of sex and the R rating, it says simulation yes, real thing, no. The guidelines are clear, but the board has previously permitted some very brief actual sex, even if some of this has been surrounded by lots of simulated sex."
Pomeranz says the 9 Songs ruling has wider implications.
"Do the Australian authorities not even consider what is happening elsewhere? Don't they see that we are marginalising ourselves as a country? We are moving in the opposite direction to Britain, and you can't help feeling that these decisions are being generated by a minority."
But Egan argues that the British censors are violating their own guidelines. "In both countries it surrounds this question of actual sex," he says. "Our concern is that if you don't have a bright white line that says no actual sex in R, then it is only a matter of time before full-on porno movies would be shown in regular cinemas and [be available] in regular video stores, and even more available to children than they are now."
I think it should have an R rating. You couldn't give a film with actual sex in it any less of a rating and risk having 13 year olds seeing it. Sure 13 year olds know what sex is and most of them are even doing it themselves, but they shouldn't be able to see it at whim at the movies.
Adults on the other hand should be able to make their own minds up. WHen they banned Ken Park, we had illegal screenings \going on and so much publicity. The Classification board should know by now that hyping a movies classification means more publicity and more interest in the film. They should just've laid low and given it an R rating in the first place to stop all the fuss.
10-21-2004 04:31 AM
