The Debate Over Reel vs Real Sex
By Ayesha K.

A young woman falls in love with a man. They like to laugh, talk, make love and listen to songs. Michael Winterbottom has made a film called "Nine Songs" of their relationship and really, the only unique thing about this rather universal plot is that he films the entire relationship through the frame of their sex life. And it's real sex, not reel sex, and a lot of it. Plenty of zooming-in on labias, fellatios and positions both ordinary and extraordinary. Winterbottom thinks the bed and sexual intercourse is a wonderful metaphor for the relationship between lovers: at once claustrophobic and incredibly liberating.

So what's the uproar all about? For one, the UK censor board couldn't seem to get its head around how to rate the film and some even debated whether it should be banned. The good news is that on October 22, the board decided to release "Nine Songs" uncut and uncensored with an 18 certificate. But even the supportive critics are a bit disarmed although there seems to be a general consensus that "Nine Songs" has a good plot, great camera work and a unique view on a recurring theme. This is not the first time that Europeans have found themselves in a quandary. Known for being liberal and nonchalant about nudity - a quick flip of American Vogue and Italian Vogue immediately contrasts the abundance of naked breasts in the latter and the almost prudish exclusion of it from the former - Europe is finding itself facing a new breed of films which is pushing even their philosophical liberalism to new heights.

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The current tidal wave of such films really started with Baise-Moi (Rape Me), a French movie about two sisters who go on a violent rampage of sex and killing. Written by Virginie Despentes, a former punk and massage-parlour hostess, it absolutely shocked the French and was briefly banned in the country when it came out in 2000. It wasn't obvious whether it was the sex that bothered everyone or the ferocity of the violence. There does seem to be a tendency to put the two together and people's confusion about how they feel can definitely be attributed to this marriage of sex and savagery. The Piano Teacher (2001), a film based on Nobel Prizing winning Elfried Jelinek's book, was about a young woman trapped under the cold hard glare of her mother's expectations and vagaries. She finds a young handsome tutee that is falling in love with her and the movie takes an ugly turn as she makes him execute her sexual sadomasochistic desires. But where violence is concerned, the horrifying rape and killing sequence in "Irreversible" caused so many people to feel nauseous that some actually needed medical attention. Almost 250 people walked out of the theater when the movie was premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002. The frenetic story, which runs back in time, starts with the brutal clubbing of a man to death. The camera, dizzying, constantly moving in swoops, eventually slows down till it becomes a still calm observer to the excruciating nine-minute rape scene of the soft, beautiful woman played by Italian actress Monica Belushi. Director Gasper Noe shrugged off all the cacophony generated by "Irreversible," saying simply, "Violence is in life; it's part of human experience."

By comparison, Winterbottom's "Nine Songs" seems like a pleasant walk in the park of real onscreen sex. Enfant terrible actor-director Vincent Gallo also found himself in a similar predicament recently when his film premiered at Cannes. His film, "The Brown Bunny," featured a notorious real fellatio scene and earned the scorn of critics, some of whom felt more comfortable with simulated acts of sex. But there's more going on with "The Brown Bunny": it's just a bad movie, so bad that the lead actress Chloe Sevigny broke down and cried at the premier of the film. The last thing that bothered Ms. Sevigny, a former girlfriend of Gallo, was the fellatio she gave Gallo, who also starred in the movie. "It wasn't that bad for me," she said. "I have been intimate with Vincent before." One might as well just toss the hypocritical assertion that real sex between two consenting adults on film is immoral, and somehow much worse than simulated sex on the same film. Unless you're a nun in a remote convent in Punjab, you're not going to raise that as a major issue.

It appears that it is really the abundant brutal violence that is both terrifying and horrifying to viewers and critics alike. However, is that a case for censorship? As British feminist icon, Germaine Greer, put it, "There's no case for censorship, but there's a very good case for staying away, and not buying a ticket." Movies such as "Nine Songs" should not be relegated to the editing room at the mercy of scissor-happy moralists. Who doesn't remember Bollywood when people could only kiss behind bushes and the camera always panned away from the naughty couple to rest on a quivering flower? One can safely assume there was some old member of the censorship board who came up with that choreographed metaphor and would happily push films to that state again if given the chance. When in doubt, it is best to leave the viewing to the discretion of the viewer.