mr__hyde

I will freely admit that I saw this movie solely based on the fact that it has received so much publicity concerning the sex scenes. And for the most part, I saw exactly what I expected to see in the sex scenes. It was probably more explicit than in any other 'mainstream' film I've seen, but what separates this from pornographic is that there is definite artistic intent to the film. I am a fan of the films done recently by people such as Catherine Breillat and Bruno Dumont, and was one of the few people in the Midwestern US to think that 'The Brown Bunny' was a beautiful film, so you know where I'm coming from. But I actually see some parallels between TBB and 9 Songs. Whereas Vincent Gallo uses the road as a backdrop to his musical choices for TBB, Winterbottom uses live shows as a backdrop for his music. Just listening to the lyrics of the music, and the characters talk about Antarctica clues you in to many things about the relationship that he then doesn't have to waste screen time pursuing.

I do agree with some people's comments that the sex scenes did not always seem to mirror where the couple was in the relationship, but contrary to feeling this stilted the story, I felt it made it more real. We are never told exactly how long they are together, exactly how they met, but we are told through these constantly differing encounters that it is a real relationship. It is not glamorized and turned into a fake sort of story at all by having a constant arc - what relationship has a arc that doesn't go up and down? Every romance has up and down times, and sometimes the best ups are right before the biggest down. I thought he arranged his scenes pretty masterfully to that end.

Overall, I rated this film an 8, only because it wouldn't let me do 7.5. You could watch this simply to be titillated, or you could watch it to gain insight into how real relationships are and take a break from the Hollywood norm.

After hearing about this film countless times in various interviews and critics books *particularly interviews with Peter Greenaway* I finally decided to give it a shot. And this film has definitely shot into my top five films of all time overnight.

Resnais does a good amount of things in this film that he had tried in 'Hiroshima Mon Amour', but they are all done more effectively in this, his follow-up to Hiroshima. The way the characters interact with each other and with the audience is perfect on every level, driving the confusion of the situation further into your mind as well as the characters. The editing is flawlessly non-linear and non-traditional, the cinematography is some of the best of the period. The setting in the hotel often reminded me of Kubrick's 'The Shining', with the paranoid music and long tracking shots.

I would say the best way to describe this film is 'Hiroshima Mon Amour' with a good touch of Bunuel thrown in. It is intentionally bizarre and leaves much interpretation to the viewer, but never strays into idiotic territory. 9 out of 10.

As many reviewers have said, this is one of the best body pile slashers films made ever, certainly in the last few years. Buckets of blood, great makeup and special effects, and some seriously genius ways of offing the good guys. But we also get one of the stupidest plot twists ever that not only ruins the vibe of the film, but makes the whole script seem completely incoherent. On multiple viewings you see the direction around this twist is actually quite well done, tons of small hints and some gross additions are noticed, but it's not worth it at all. If there was no plot twist, this would have easily gotten a 9 in my book, but it's lucky it got the 6 with that dumb idea tacked on for no reason.