The Unspoken Story Behind ‘9 Songs’
More than anything else, Michael Winterbottom’s 9 Songs, which first aired in 2004, served as a cultural flashpoint and not simply a movie. The numerous un-simulated sex scenes included in the movie led to the film being touted as one of the most sexually explicit mainstream movies in contemporary film history. Still, there is more to the film than the controversy it sparked. Winterbottom also explores the themes of love, loss, and the impermanence of relationships.
Cast: Margo Stilley and Kieran O’Brien
Support for Winterbottom’s most controversial film came from Margo Stilley, whose acting debut at the age of nineteen as Lisa, an American exchange student, became the focus of a passionate affair with Kieran O’Brien’s Matt. Stilley’s performance embodied the unfiltered essence of desire in adolescence. In interviews, she emphasized the film’s artistic intentions rather than its explicitness. O’Brien, who previously acted in 24 Hour Party People, portrayed a highly complex Matt, a climatologist introspecting on a fleeting love from the frozen continent, Antarctica. His performance highly resonated with the audience and added complex modern love to the film.
The Director: Michael Winterbottom’s Vision
With respect to the diversity of Winterbottom’s body of work, he was reasonably successful in depicting the vision he had for the film 9 Songs. Winterbottom wanted to tell a love story and based on fond memories of filming concert scenes in 24 Hour Party People, he wanted to show the nexus of music and sexuality. To Winterbottom, both were integral and inescapable aspects of the human experience.
The Soundtrack: A Sonic Journey
The film’s soundtrack was integral in achieving the tone Winterbottom wanted the film to convey. Live sets by The Dandy Warhols, Elbow, and Primal Scream were used to complement the portrayal of the shifting dynamics in the relationship of the film’s central characters, Matt and Lisa. The concert scenes, and all of the accompanying footage shot in and around London, provided the film with a backdrop to the vibrant London music scene, and also, the emotional peaks and valleys of the couple’s relationship.
The Controversy: Reception and Backlash
The film 9 Songs was the object of a large amount of both positive and negative attention for the first time in the film career of Winterbottom. The film was celebrated by some critics for the ‘courage’ of filming raw sexual encounters, while others condemned what they saw as pointless and excessive nudity. The film was released to the public first by the British Board of Film Classification, a move which sparked debate on censorship and artistic expression.
In India, where resistance is omnipresent when discussing sexuality in films, the explicitness of the film would certainly have aroused the heaviest of criticisms. Nonetheless, the themes of love and loss remain universal and cultural boundaries become irrelevant.
Aftermath: Reflection and Legacy
Stilley, now a mother, continues to take pride in her role and the film, admitting that the credits had to be revised. Artistic value, even of a film that is overtly sexual, is worthy of recognition and should be viewed holistically without stigma, has remained her message, as she had to, in the process of contesting a film’s vision, to contest the implicit nudity that accompanies it.
O’Brien has also remained unapologetic in the part he played, citing the film to be of great value in exploring the most intimate parts of a person and the insurmountable complexities in navigating a relationship.
A Cinematic Landmark
Irrespective of the fact that the film is to date the most explicit, it does not take away from the land mark it has become in use of film to push boundaries and the value in love, intimacy and the fragility of a relationship that remains relevant to the audience even now.