Besides sex, ‘9 Songs’ is out of tune

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, August 18, 2005

The first thing to get out of the way about “9 Songs” is that yes, its two lead actors are actually engaging in sex onscreen. Not the soft-core kind, but the unfaked variety usually reserved for pornography.

This fact has dominated publicity about the film, understandably. The two performers, Kieran O’Brien and Margo Stilley, had not met before filming and are both legitimate actors (although this is fashion model Stilley’s first movie).

The film is narrated by Matt, a member of a survey team in Antarctica, as he recalls an affair with Lisa, a girl he met at a rock concert. Scenes from their mostly sexual affair unfold, with each passage marked by a live performance from various bands – Franz Ferdinand, the Dandy Warhols, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. There’s also a performance by Michael Nyman, the neo-classical composer who has scored some of director Michael Winterbottom’s other films.

Winterbottom (“Wonderland,” “24 Hour Party People”) is one of the most consistently intriguing of British directors, often changing his spots with each new picture. “9 Songs” was obviously conceived as an experiment, shot on digital video with a small crew.

As though to verify its experimental status, “9 Songs” looks absolutely terrible, its photographic image processed so it comes out smudgy and dim. The actors improvised their dialogue, which tends to be mundane.

I can see what Winterbottom is angling for – an attempt at breaking through the usual conventions of movies, where people sitting on well-lighted sets pretend to have emotions and mouth written dialogue that suits those emotions. This film definitely has no sheen. But I think he’s been let down in his choice of actors.

They are certainly brave, but are otherwise not terribly illuminating. O’Brien broods with an opaque intensity that doesn’t allow in any light. Stilley comes across as a dippy 21-year-old, hardly worth the gravity of Matt’s voiceover recollections of their affair.

The idea of exploring sex in a serious way remains a valid one, but if you’re going to improvise such a thing with actors, the actors ought to bring something to the table other than their bodies. Think of how much Marlon Brando heroically invested in “Last Tango in Paris” – not a sexually explicit movie, but close.

The affair in “9 Songs” is clearly not meant to be a grand amour – it looks like a casual mismatch, unattached people getting on because of the hot sex. That may be true to life, but perhaps not enough of a reason to justify the film’s 69 minutes.

Margot Stilley and Kieran O’Brien star in “9 Songs.”