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MOVIES / ON DVD / 9 SONGS
9 Songs

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9 Songs (2005)

25%
22%
37%
N/A
N/A
N/A
25 %
Reviews Counted: 89 Fresh: 22  Rotten:67 Average Rating: 4.4/10
 
Consensus: The unerotic sex scenes quickly become tedious to watch, and the lovers lack the personality necessary to make viewers care about them.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Runtime: 69 mins

Synopsis: Matt, a young glacioloist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall- London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months,... Matt, a young glacioloist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall- London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages (familiar to anyone who's ever been in love) unfold in counterpoint to the nine live-concert songs of the story's title. This daring combination has won 9 Songs a devoted following ever since director Michael Winterbottom (Jude; Welcome to Sarajevo; 24 Hour Party People) first screened the film for packed audiences at the 2004 Cannes film-market. Incidental music heard over various radios and CD players throughout the film include an extended disco version of Madan, by Salif Keith, and a pair of piano nocturnes, Sola and Platform, played by Melissa Parmenter. The nine concert songs are, in order of their appearance: Whatever Happened to Rock n' Roll, by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; C'mon, C'mon by the Von Bondies; Fallen Angel, by Elbow; Moving On Up, by Primal Scream; You Were the Last High, by the Dandy Warhols; Slow Life, by the Super Furry Animals; Jacqueline, by Franz Ferdinand; Nadia, from the 60th birthday concert of Michael Nyman; and, finally, bringing the story full circle-Love Burns, once again by the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. While some of these directly comment on the affair as it progresses, others act strictly as a trigger to Matt's memories of Lisa, as he later studies ice sheets. At first, they are consumed with each other, as lovers. Then, with time, an emotional dynamic emerges. Even in the most intimate moments, she (however subtly) gives the orders, and he blissfully complies. They meet strictly at his place. We learn nothing about her work, and almost as little about her past, except that she is American and has had passionate affairs since her adolescence. By contrast Matt, whose arctic career is a running motif, is a comparatively open book as a person-simple in his love of both music, and Lisa. He keeps bringing the word "love" into the conversation. She warmly responds, but just as happily wriggles free of it. What they know they have together is sex, and this is revealed, repeatedly, even graphically, with an uncompromised frankness. "Forget who you are," Matt tells her, blindfolding her in a rare moment of seizing the initiative. "Forget where you are." Yet even as he guides her through this little bit of kinky fantasy, she takes over. Matt lets her, helplessly observing elsewhere: "She was 21. Beautiful. Egotistical. Careless. Crazy." As they move deeper into their respective fantasy lives in one another's arms, can it be helped if they are also moving farther apart? The Antarctic, as described by Matt, may be the one comfortable place on earth from which to remember her: "Claustophobia and Agorophobia in one place-like two people in a bed." And yet - there is all that music, a goad to sense-memory as mobile and abiding as the ice cap itself. -- © Tartan Films [More]

Genre: Romance

Starring: Kieran O'Brien, Margot Stilley

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Screenwriter: Michael Winterbottom
Producer: Andrew Eaton

DVD Info

Release:

Oct 11, 2006

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Keep Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound - English
  • Dolby Digital DTS 5.1 Surround Sound - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Production Interviews - Michael Winterbottom - Director/Kieran O'Brien - Director/Margo Stilley - Director
  • Behind-The-Scenes
  • Trailer - 1. Original Theatrical Trailer
  • Music Video

Interactive Features:

  • Concert Performance Only Option

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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2/5

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Full Review | comment Comment
04/01/06
Empire Magazine
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N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
01/26/06
Time Out
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Ratings Image
N/A

9 Songs is certainly a cinematic oddity, a pop-punctuated romance with the pink shots left in.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/05/05
Linda Ruth Williams
Sight and Sound
Ratings Image
1/5

Simply put: a violation.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/13/05
Stella Papamichael
BBC
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Ratings Image
2/5

An interesting idea that doesn't quite work, this is a surprisingly dull film, considering all the fuss about its explicit content.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/12/05
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image
1/5

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
03/11/05
Independent
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
45/100

Winterbottom's unrestrained desire to push the envelope shrouds what beauty there is in the message he's delivering.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/06/05
Joe Utichi
FilmFocus
Ratings Image
N/A

The sex is, in fact, the least intimate, least engaging part of the movie.

Full Review | comment Comment
03/01/05
Holden Frith
Times [UK]
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Ratings Image
2/5

Absolutely nothing is made of the characters or their relationship.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/11/04
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
5/10

Une %u0153uvre pour le moins inhabituelle qui, sans être un exercice de style complètement futile, n'est toutefois pas un film que l'on pourrait qualifier d'essentiel.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/26/06
Jean-François Vandeuren
Panorama
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C+

The most sexually explicit legit feature film to come out of 'merry ole' England from a mainstream director.

Full Review | comment Comment
12/16/05
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ratings Image
2/5

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Full Review | comment Comment
12/10/05
Film Threat
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

As satisfying viewing experiences go, the film comes up mighty short in terms of story, interesting characters and technical prowess, not to mention a 65-minute running time.

Full Review | comment Comment
11/01/05
Michael Rechtshaffen
Hollywood Reporter
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Ratings Image
D+

Seventy minutes of pneumatic sex without the trappings of characterization, plot or even attempted meaning can be a profoundly long time.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/14/05
Shawn Levy
Oregonian
Ratings Image
2.5/4

At least some skin flicks try to add a story to the sex.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/13/05
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
Ratings Image
2.5/4

At least some skin flicks try to add a story to the sex.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/13/05
Phil Villarreal
Arizona Daily Star
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N/A

There's not much to take away from 9 Songs unless you're watching it at home... alone... preferably with some lotion.

Full Review | comment Comment
10/13/05
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly
Ratings Image
2.5/4

Nice folks, fun time, thanks for the peek (I guess), and so what?

Full Review | comment Comment
10/06/05
Steven Rea
Philadelphia Inquirer
N/R

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Full Review | comment Comment
09/26/05
Onion AV Club
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Ratings Image
2/4

Five decades after the rest of the world twigged to it, Michael Winterbottom has discovered a connection between sex and rock 'n' roll. Bully for him.

Full Review | comment Comment
09/23/05
Peter Howell
Toronto Star
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