![\"nine_poster.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/nine_poster.jpg\")
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A couple things:<\/p>\n
1. The Manhattan in 9 1\/2 Weeks<\/i> is one that I recognize, and that is not always the case when it comes to the representation of my fair city in film. I am thinking of Unfaithful<\/i>, another of Adrian Lyne’s films, where the streets of Soho look art decorated to death, an idea of itself, rather than the genuine article. Perhaps that was appropriate for Unfaithful<\/i>, but here in 9 1\/2 Weeks<\/i>, we can see the Manhattan of Midnight Cowboy<\/i> and other gritty 1970s films. Perhaps not quite as disgusting as the Manhattan of Taxi Driver<\/i>, but still: the greyness, the random glimpses of humanity, the long long vistas of crazy avenues, the cabs that barrel along looking just as ready to kill you as pick you up … and the general frenetic air of things like Chinatown and street fairs … all of this ring true. The opening section of the film, as the beginning credits start, shows Kim Basinger strolling through the streets of New York to her job (at the Spring Street Gallery which means Soho) … and seriously this woman must have the longest walk to work since my great-great-grandpappy struggled through 10 feet of snow to get to school every day and he liked it<\/i>. Hasn’t she ever heard of subways? She appears to live on the Upper West Side and so she walks 70 odd blocks to work? Also, she strolls under grimy overpasses, walks down roads that look like Broadway, crosses over on side streets, narrow and wet … Does she cover all 5 boroughs in her morning commute or what exactly is going on here? Maybe that’s how she stays so slim. She walks 20 miles to work every morning even though Manhattan is only 13.4 miles long. Anyway. Ridiculousness of her morning walk aside … Lyne takes the time to show a New York that appears to not have a mask on. A woman with curlers stands on the sidewalk, waiting for her dog to pee, looking annoyed – but not at all concerned that she is out in public in her curlers. Garbage men hoot and holler at Basinger as she walks by. Things are seen and then vanish – which is just what it is like when you walk through Manhattan on any given day. I liked that part of the film … that even with all its sexual shenanigans – it seems place-able<\/i>. It seems like it happens in the real world – not some Art Deco soft-core version<\/i> of New York. (There are a couple of exceptions to this in the film which I’ll get to later in some other post. This is just a preliminary post.)<\/p>\n
2. I liked how – in the first half of the film – both Rourke and Basinger are, more often than not, filmed from at a distance, with things passing in front of their faces, or a pane of glass in between them and the camera, reflections going by … Basinger strolls through a street fair, and we see glimpses of her – through the displays of scarves and necklaces, and the bubbles floating through the air. We see Rourke too, and he is also partially hidden by foreground objects or people. It gives a voyeuristic feeling to the film – and yes, I do think that was deliberate – BUT – more than that, it dovetails with what I observed in my first comment: This is New York City, a crowded metropolis. You rarely look at anything without other things<\/i> in the way. You look up at the spire of the Empire State Building, and there are 10 buildings in between you and it. You look at a sign across the street, and it comes to you in flashes because of passing busses, or garbage trucks, or just the throngs of people. It is a city that seems to keep you at a distance – but at the same time, it beckons you, “Come closer … come closer … the only way you will ever really get to know me is if you come really close<\/i> …” 9 1\/2 Weeks<\/i> captures perfectly that distant yet intimate feeling in the streets of New York … and places its characters firmly in that environment. It is not just about them. It is about them navigating their way through the world, with all kinds of things in the way – even just things like a display of necklaces – so that whatever it is that is facing them cannot, yet, be seen directly. Nothing comes off as whole<\/i>. You have to make sense of the fragments.<\/p>\n
This is not wholly successful in the film and there are times when it flat out does not work … but if you notice by the end of the film – when Basinger finally cracks – we see her head-on. We see him head-on. She stands in his main room, looking at him. Nothing in the way. And he stands in the doorway looking at her, nothing in the way there either. And it’s unbearable. They can’t be with it – neither of them can … and so it ends.<\/p>\n
I may be reading more into this than is there, but I don’t think so.<\/p>\n
Some screenshots illustrating all of this below.<\/p>\n
\n![\"9_1.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/9_1.jpg\")
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\n![\"9_02.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/9_02.jpg\")
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\n![\"9_03.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/9_03.jpg\")
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\n![\"9_04.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/9_04.jpg\")
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\n![\"nine_07.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/nine_07.jpg\")
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\n![\"nine_10.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/nine_10.jpg\")
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\n![\"nine7.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/nine7.jpg\")
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\n![\"nine08.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/nine08.jpg\")
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A couple things: 1. The Manhattan in 9 1\/2 Weeks is one that I recognize, and that is not always the case when it comes to the representation of my fair city in film. I am thinking of Unfaithful, another … Continue reading