In 9 Songs, Michael Winterbottom blurs the line between pornography and art in a way rarely seen by a mainstream director. However, there are many differences between 9 Songs and a regular porn movie. For a start the couple, although attractive and slim, are far removed from a Russ Meyer fantasy or a huge schlonged Italian Stallion.

With the use of handheld camera and moody lighting, there's nothing stagey about the film and the set pieces stay intact. The dialogue is natural, often unscripted, and the music, rather than a corny after note, is integral to the telling of the story. 

Winterbottom uses music to illustrate the trajectory of Matt (Kieran O'Brien) and Lisa's (Margo Stilley) relationship, inter-cutting the story with concert footage from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Franz Ferdinand, Primal Scream, the Dandy Warhols and Michael Nyman's 60th birthday concert at the Hackney Empire.

Presumably the lyrics of the songs resonate how the characters feel about each other, but the muffled live recordings make them impossible to decipher.

But, as with any top-shelf flick, there's little plot. Boy meets girl on holiday at gig; boy and girl have lots of sex; girl goes back to America; boy sad - a bit.

The story is wistfully re-told in hindsight by Matt as he flies over Antarctica. Although Winterbottom envisaged it as a love story, it isn't one in the typical sense and, although we're watching the couple performing extremely intimate acts, there's little romance between them.

There's a feeling that if Lisa weren't returning to her native US the relationship would end. She's annoying and a tad precocious, but then she's only 21. Matt often cooks her dinner in his flat, but she never invites him to hers. She criticises him and is often non-committal. One scene shows her masturbating with a vibrator while he watches her. She's oblivious to his presence and it's clear she doesn't need him.

And with that knowledge there's a morbid pleasure in knowing their perfect, organic and unembarrassing sex won't last, because ultimately Winterbottom shows us nothing more than a lesson in sexual technique and not a real relationship.

Winterbottom helps accusations of exploitation by concentrating on Lisa’s nakedness rather than Matt’s and refusing to give his characters personalities.

Their couplings are also devoid of humour, which would inevitably materialise at some point during so much shagging. While they're doing everything straight couples do, the camera gives them little privacy with extreme close-ups of full penetration, cunnilingus and fellatio.

O'Brien has worked with Winterbottom before on 24 Hour Party People, but Stilley (not her real name) is an amateur from North Carolina and has been shocked at the reaction of the British press. 9 Songs is explicit and will be viewed primarily by the curious and the dirty mac brigade looking to validate their choice of titillation.

With a varied back catalogue including Jude (1995), Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and Wonderland (I999), Winterbottom is experimenting with yet another type of movie and, as a newcomer to such an explicit genre, he hasn't done too bad a job.

Whether 9 Songs is erotic art or pornography masquerading as erotic art doesn't really matter. The fact that it even poses the question is interesting in its own right and with unsimulated sex un-cut by the censors it's the most sexually explicit film to get a general release in British cinema.

Chances are it will turn you on somewhere along the way.

9 Songs is released in the UK on 11 March 2005

Want to watch the French rugby team in action with their friends? Then buy the Dieux du Stade DVD online and save some money to put towards Bruce LaBruce's latest feature, a provocative blend of sex and terrorism, dare you watch it? Buy The Raspberry Reich on DVD and find out!