9 Songs (2004)

What is impressive how many different kind of films Michael Winterbottom made. Ok, till now, I have seen only three, but they are three totally different themes / views / approaches / whatever … Just hit on the side-bar his name under film directors to see what I mean. Anyway.

9 songs. The songs are not (for me) what was intriguing. They do not represent my favorite kind of music (apart from Michael Nyman whose music I adore) and “love burns” of BRMC (Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) – which I really liked. Looking for the last one, I listened once more to a couple of others and they seemed …. better. Who knows, if I listen more, I may like them more, but the idea is not to review songs here, but the movie 🙂

So, there is a … triangle of themes.

• The ice, the vast space, the cold, the way nature works, the solitude and agoraphobia (oxymoron as it may seem) in Antarctica, a place that was almost unknown till a few decades ago
• The music, liberating, exhilarating, thrilling, creating contradictory feelings like “feeling lonely among another 5.000 people!” (how true, really, as if this is the only case!
• Love, carnal love, with no boundaries, no inhibitions, in a “take it as it comes” tune

There are so many things in common between these three (seemingly) different themes: the solitude one may feel in any of the three, the exploration of the unknown, the thrill of the discovery, the things each one hides at a first level…May be more.

It is a film, which despite its hard-core erotic scenes, is not a porn. Contradiction in terms? May be so. For some it may be offending. Not for me.

My rating: 07/10