Where do we draw the line between nudity for the sake of art and nudity for the sake of sexual pleasure? The line, if there is one, is a very fine line and it must be said it is closer to impossible to put it down for certain. It can be said that this would be a sensitive topic to deal with but nevertheless Michael Winterbottom has ventured into it. With the film 9 Songs he has tried to define the line between art and pornography.
The film is a narration by Matt, an English glaciologist, about his relationship with Lisa, his American college student girlfriend. After meeting at a rock concert in London the two hit it off and have a torrid sexual relationship over the next few months. They continue to attend different concerts during their live-in relationship until the time that Lisa has to return to her home in the US. The film is mostly scene montages which alternate between 9 different songs at the concerts, sexual intercourses between the couple and other events during their relationship.
The film features its own unique style. With a runtime of just 71 minutes, it is unlike other films since it does not have a continuous storyline but a progressive story with jumps directly to the important events. Not only does the relationship between the couple develop, the story also progresses in the form of the nature of the 9 songs, the type of sex scenes, the framework and camera angles, the amount of nudity shown, the progression of explicit content in the film etc.
The film starts with art, in the form of the love blossoming between the couple and the thematic style of execution, and somewhere along the way moves into the dimension of pornography with hardcore sexual encounters, explicit content, nudity and finally ending with a sex scene in itself. It blurs out any definite line between art and pornography or at least that is what it aims to do.
(I believe this was an incredibly tough film to review and may not have done it justice. Nevertheless I tried my best. Only after watching it can one decide upon this film, and all the same it is a good film to watch)
I realised that I had forgotten to mention a very important point in the art vs pornography argument which this film puts forward. An important observation I made I believe is with regard to sizes. While the woman's breasts are small, which is quite the opposite of a regular pornographic film and in support of the artistic side of the film, the size of the man's penis is adequately more than average which is an important feature in a pornographic film.
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