Mainstream Spotlight: 9 Songs

April 5, 2019
TUCKER-BANKSHOT

Welcome back to Mainstream Spotlight where we take a look at theatrically released films that feature real, unsimulated sex scenes. Today we're looking at director Michael Winterbottom's 2004 film 9 Songs that mixed live concert performances from some of the hottest bands of the day with hardcore sex scenes between two actors.

Winterbottom is one of the most chameleonic directors alive, bouncing between hysterical comedy and intense drama, with varying degrees of both on display throughout his career. A true workhorse, Winterbottom has churned out a further 16 feature films since this, his 12th feature film, and he shows no signs of stopping. 9 Songs remains something of an anomaly on his cv, however, as it's the only time he attempted anything as sexually explicit as this.

The film is ostensibly a relationship drama centered around American student Lisa (Margot Stilley) and British climatologist Matt (Kieran O'Brien) told over the course of 12 months that include trips to 9 different concerts and 9 different explicit sexual encounters. Bands such as The Dandy Warhols, Franz Ferdinand, and Primal Scream are among the nine acts whose concerts were filmed live with the actors in attendance. They then retire to a private location for some fuckin'!

21 minutes in, Margo gives her man a footjob when they share a bath together...

Not long after that, the two get kinky and have some blindfolded cunnilingus...

Later Margo uses a vibrator while remembering a previous sexual encounter in the film...

We get actual penetrative sex just past the one hour mark...

And a close-up on some cunnilingus as he goes down on her again...

The most famous scene in the film is the blowjob scene, where Margo displays quite a nice technique and plenty of teasing...

Eventually bringing him to completion...

According to Wikipedia, this particular scene holds a pretty strange and oddly specific distinction...

During a scene in which Stilley gives O'Brien a handjob after performing fellatio on him, O'Brien became the only actor who has been shown ejaculating in a mainstream, UK-produced feature.

The film was not terribly successful due to the fact that many theaters wouldn't play a sexually explicit film like this. Of course, it had a second life on home video where people could enjoy its many pleasures in the comfort of their own home. Sadly neither actor's career ever really took off, which is a shame and continues to contribute to the stigma around real sex acts in film.