Explicit film will screen, says director

The director of the New Zealand International Film Festival is confident a movie described as the most sexually explicit to go on mainstream release will screen next month despite an attempt to have it banned.

Bill Gosden admitted that Michael Winterbottom's Nine Songs - which features graphic unsimulated sex scenes, including penetration, masturbation and oral sex - was not everybody's cup of tea, but said there was no reason for it to be blacklisted.

Moral watchdog group the Society for the Promotion of Community Standards opposed the planned screenings at a hearing before the Film and Literature Board of Review yesterday. It says the film is objectionable.

The movie was given an R18 rating by censor Bill Hastings in February, paving the way for it to be shown at the festival.

"It was not a tough decision. The sex in it was quite loving," Mr Hastings said at the time.

Nine Songs created controversy when it was released in Britain.

It was originally given an X rating in Australia, effectively banning it, but was reclassified to an R18 on review.

"It's an interesting film by a film-maker whose work we've consistently screened over the years," Mr Gosden said.

"More than anything else, it's an experimental film; he's trying to take advantage of the frankness that's available to film-makers these days."

The sex depicted was "completely real" and not gratuitous.

"While it is unlike the usual romantic depiction of sexuality in movies, [it is] also unlike the rather brutal depiction of sexual activity you find in porn movies," Mr Gosden said.

"The two actors are clearly engaged in sexual activity and various other forms of sexual congress but it's not as though the camera is getting in there for the best possible view of the thrusting.

"The camera shoots what is going on like it is normal human behaviour."

Nine Songs depicts a love affair between Englishman Matt (Kieran O'Brien) and his American girlfriend Lisa (Margot Stilley).

The first New Zealand screenings of the film will be in Auckland early next month.

David Lane, spokesman for the watchdog group, was overseas and unavailable for comment.

The review board would not say when it would make its decision.

Winterbottom is an award-winning film-maker whose recent work includes 24 Hour Party People, a movie about Manchester music culture starring Steve Coogan, and In This World, which chronicles the efforts of two Afghani teenagers to stow away to Britain.

- NZPA