9 SONGS and British Censors
British nationals can now witness raw and real, rather than simulated, sex on their country’s screens. Award-winning director Michael Winterbottom’s sexually explicit 9 songs has just been approved by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). In the United Kingdom, a country where the BBFC still sees fit to cut movies so as to protect their compatriots from the horrors of explicit sex, that decision comes as a somewhat startling surprise. Although the BBFC has relaxed its anti-sex policies in recent years, it still demands that films be cut because of sexual content. The first English-language film with explicit sex scenes to be approved by the BBFC was Patrice Chéreau’s Intimacy (2001), which is based on stories by the acclaimed Hanif Kureishi of My Beautiful Laundrette fame. Intimacy received a "18 certificate" (no one under eighteen allowed).
9 Songs, which was shown at the Cannes and San Sebastián film festivals earlier this year, revolves around the relationship between a young couple, Matt and Lisa. Their scenes together are interspersed with songs from assorted bands. "People who have seen it," leading man Kieran O’Brien said, "even though they are forewarned about how explicit it is, come out of the cinema saying they can’t believe that it’s so explicit."
Source: BBC
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"The rating was given within the BBFC’s guidelines. There is nothing illegal or harmful shown in the film. If people don’t want to watch it, they don’t have to go to the cinema to see it."
So says a spokesperson for the British Board of Film Classification, referring to numerous complaints against the BBFC’s decision to leave intact Michael Winterbottom’s controversial 9 Songs, which has scenes of explicit sex interspersed with sequences set at various music concerts. It is not clear which scenes the complainers wanted cut: the sex or the concerts.
"We wanted to try and deal with a part of the relationship which most films just avoid completely. Books can deal with sex in the same way they deal with any other aspect of a relationship but films just skip over it because everyone knows it’s fake and therefore not really worth engaging with. The idea was to deal with the sex in exactly the same way we deal with anything else in the film."
Director Michael Winterbottom explained in regard to his decision to show explicit sexual content in his latest film, 9 songs.
9 Songs — "the first film of 2005 that cannot be missed," as per Film Review — stars Kieran O’Brien and Margot Stilley as the two highly charged concert fans.
The film is scheduled to open on March 11 in 28 cinemas in the United Kingdom.
Quotes: ITV.com, The Observer
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In January, 9 Songs had its X-rating toned down to an R18+ so it can be shown in Australia. The revision came about following a 3-to-2 vote by the five-member panel of the Office of Film and Literature Classification’s Review Board, who are supposed to protect adult Australians from the horrors of film sex.
The Classification Review Board’s decision noted that "while some scenes may offend some sections of the adult community, the actual sex scenes are justified by the context, narrative, tone and artistic merit."
Accent Film Entertainment plans to release 9 Songs in Australia this year.
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