What's Wrong With a Bit of Fun?

Right – now I expect that I'm going to make myself a laughing stock within the filmic community, but I don't care. Last night I went to see the film 'Nine' without having read anything about it (I didn't even read the poster). I went because my friend had suggested it, and I'm usually up for anything she suggests because I have very catholic tastes where such things are concerned. So, before I settled down in the comfortable, cosy seats and the penumbral darkness of the Paul Smith screenroom at Nottingham's Broadway Cinema, I had no expectations in respect of what the film was about, or what effect it would have on me.

The very last thing I was expecting to be watching was a musical, but I loved every minute of it! In terms of the frequency of the musical numbers that eagerly push themselves into the straight acting scenes, the film is made in the old tradition – but it is also surreal, introspective, dream-like, sad, funny and totally, totally bonkers. It was absolutely, unashamedly High Camp – the costumes, sets and montage are all lavish to the extreme, and the photography is glorious! Who cares about the somewhat cheesy acting (it does seem ridiculous to have the mainly English-speaking cast speaking their lines in English but using Italian and French accents), and who cares that some of the lyrics to the songs are at times a bit tacky and banal? Only a film snob (and there are plenty of those) would deny that 'Nine' does its job in excellent fashion – its job is to poke fun at itself; to lift the spirits of the audience; to smother us in luxurious, dripping colour and to marinate us in an oily, creamy drenching of rich and luxurious music.

The film has a surprisingly extravagant fairy dusting of star actors. Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Crúz, Dame Judi Dench, Nicole Kidman, the delightfully elfin Marion Cotillard, and the fabulously exotic Sophia Loren. Producer and Director Rob Marshall managed to persuade all of them to send themselves up in the most audacious and high-camp style and in my view, this is part of the film's charm. 'Nine' is a story about a middle-aged Italian film director suffering a mid-life crisis (of his own making) that is threatening to suffocate his artisitic creativity. The character is so closely based on Fellini that they may as well have named him Federico; and the film is more than just tipping its hat at Fellini's own style – a chaotic mixture of fantasy and baroque. But the film is more than just that – it pokes fun at itself too, and at the Italian filmgoers' fascination with bestowing a mythical status on the industry's luminaries. The critics apparently hated it, and I can quite understand why. As a fairly straightforward adaptation of a Broadway musical, this film will make critics nervous because they don't like the 'theatre' parodying the great medium of celluloid, and also they don't like films that don't take themselves too seriously. And god forbid - 'straight' actors actually singing? Outrageous and totally unacceptable! Why the critics seem to have ignored the fairly obvious sub-text and the underlying angst of the film is a mystery (perhaps it is too much pastiche? I don't know).

Well anyway, it cheered me up when I needed it, and sometimes that is exactly what entertainment is meant to do, isn't it? So, if you want cheering up too – go and see it. But don't go with your Barry Norman or Jonathan Ross hats on, because that won't work.