Winterbottom’s Sex Film Passed Uncut

Could it be that, after decades of blushing over bared bottoms, head-shaking at the slightest curse and outright hysteria over the dreaded nunchaku, the BBFC have gone soft? That's certainly the conclusion you might arrive at after hearing about their latest decision. Michael Winterbottom's saucy sex drama, 9 Songs has been passed as an 18. Uncut. Yes, uncut. Not a frame of genital action has fallen to the censors' scissors and we're talking about the folks who snipped scenes from A Very Brady Sequel here. The film, which also features footage of rock concerts, basically sees Kieran O'Brien and Margo Stilley going at it like rabbits. A lot. For real. The shooting style leaves little to the imagination too, with highly explicit shots that make late night programming on channel 5 look positively ecclesiastical by comparison. That's not to say this is the first film to be passed with real nookie filling its frames but even Intimacy didn't boast the level of venereal fencing that Winterbottom's film does. 9 Songs made its first controversial ripple in Cannes this years at screenings that saw male audience members remain in their seats for a good five minutes after the film had ended before standing up to moan about such 'disgusting filth'. The official word from the BBFC though is that the film is 'sensual not sexual' and that the many rounds of bedroom aerobics and Big Willy Style camera angles were 'exceptionally justified by context'.