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9.1/2 Weeks [1985]
![9.1/2 Weeks [1985]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41MSJ2A9P5L._SL160_.jpg)
RRP: £12.99
Our Price: £3.48 (subject to change)
Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Frequently given short shrift as soft porn (which it is) and as mindless (which it isn't), director Adrian Lyne's follow-up to Flashdance (insert own joke here) is a thoughtful, smutty film about a bad sexual relationship. It follows the two-month affair between Elizabeth, an art-gallery dealer, and John, a Wall Street executive. The relationship spirals downward into raunchier sex (filmed, by the way, quite nicely) but principally is about two adults doing adult things but not acting anything like real adults. Attempts at actual human connection, about the longing to be "good", are present here and make this an above-average erotic film. Rourke is just honing his scumbag, bad-boy persona; but it doesn't overwhelm. At least there's lots and lots of Kim Basinger. --Keith Simanton, Amazon.com
Genius Adrian Lyne
Review date: 2008-11-18 Rating: 10 out of 10
This 1986 movie has three narrative perspectives that run concurrently throughout the film: the evolving relationship between Elizabeth and John; the evolving relationship between Elizabeth and the reclusive artist Farnsworth; and Elizabeth's interactions in NY art circles through her work at a gallery.
In the first, John, who wears nothing but black suits and white shirts and lives in a colorless and impersonal apartment, is shown to be able to feel nothing except through extreme forms of sexual expression. In the second, Elizabeth gradually comprehends the mystical revelry of pure sensation--Farnsworth examining the fish he has caught--that also comes through in his painting. The last--Elizabeth's art world--is the intersection of the two, between the art of pure sensation and the artifice of society and its conventions. In the film, Elizabeth grows in all three narrative worlds and in the end achieves a kind of liberation of self, demonstrated by simply leaving John.
The film's photography is gorgeous, using darkness and rays of light to set the shifting contexts of sensuality and sensation throughout. Rourke and Basinger are both on fire in their roles--John who is painfully frozen in his incapacity to feel, and Elizabeth who grows visibly in self awareness over the course of the film.
This is a spellbinding, provocative and deeply humanistic movie about how we sense the world. It bears repeated watching.
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Reviews
Zzzzzz
Review date: 2008-09-30 Rating: 6 out of 10
Elizabeth (Kim Bassinger) works at an art gallery in New York City. She meets John (Mickey Rourke), a mysterious, wealthy stranger, and they begin a torrid affair. He's into game playing; he likes to tell her what to do and she does it, even when it scares her. He wants to control her completely and she lets him, for nine and a half weeks.
When this came out in 1986, it was considered shocking; today one can see almost this much sensuality on TV and certainly in many movies, so its impact has diminished. The steamy, dangerous, erotic night scenes contrast nicely with the cold, sterile day scenes of Elizabeth's work. The photography is striking with costumes and sets in shades of black and white and close-ups designed to heighten our sensory awareness. Bassinger and Rourke are well-cast but I didn't care about or like either of them. Their situation seemed improbable and repellent.
The movie could certainly be titillating, but I found it upsetting and scary and sometimes even boring.
when a man loves a woman
Review date: 2007-08-05 Rating: 10 out of 10
A perfect duet of Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger makes you forget about everything, lose your head and yourself in the world of love, passion and sexual fantasy.
Perfect style of movie, perfect match of actors - that makes big value of film. Very sensual movie that have nothing to do with all bad things that was said about it.
5 stars for actors, scenario, directing and perfect act.
Sizzlingly Sexy....
Review date: 2006-11-06 Rating: 8 out of 10
I just love this movie, its a must see for all those who loved 'basic instinct'. Tense, daring, sensuous as well as sexual, this film has it all. It really was before its time and is still very original. Its not just 'erotica' as some would think, there is fantastic and thought provoking storyline. The sexual chemistry between Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger is sizzling and palpable. It stands still as one of the best 'sexual thrillers' a real fight between the heart and the mind. Be prepared for some shocks and some dark moments in this movie, but it is well worth the watch and one for the collection I think!
FULL RANGE OF EMOTIONS, FROM LUST TO DESIRE
Review date: 2005-09-06 Rating: 6 out of 10
Usually it's not my game to publish spoilers on this site but fret not, there isn't much to spoil here (were it not for film-like credits and sporadic bursts of tub-thumping music, you might in fact mistake this for a soft core video) -- they meet at a butcher's, eye oh so suggestively, then meet again, and again, and again. That's your film there. Humble apologies.
Both Rourke and Basinger should look fetching to their respective audiences. Their attire showcases delicious variety over all the rendezvous, ranging from wet and clingy to missing in action. Yet they traipse through their shenanigans like cyborgs, hissing much of the time and looking so painfully unsure one has an uncontrollable urge to furnish an obligatory smack on the head and a pointer to get on with it already.
I'm delighted for reviewers here who found something to enjoy in this teenage fantasy yarn -- the delicate vicissitudes of romance, the subtle games thereof, the dynamics of eros, all that jazz.
Frankly, this reviewer would much rather have some semblance of a story, thank you. That failing, some goofy chitchat of the Before Sunrise variety would be fine. But all play and no talk makes 9.5 weeks an awefully dull time. I watched it with a 4x fast-forward, stopping at strategic locations as fitting, but that hardly makes for a recommendation does it.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
David Margulies
Mickey Rourke
Kim Basinger
Margaret Whitton
Christine Baranski
Creators:
Mickey Rourke (Primary Contributor)
Kim Basinger (Primary Contributor)
Antony Rufus-Isaacs (Producer)
Frank Konigsberg (Producer)
Keith Barish (Producer)
Elizabeth McNeill (Writer)
Patricia Louisianna Knop (Writer)
Sarah Kernochan (Writer)
Zalman King (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036007412
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2002-02-04
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 112 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1986-02-21
Language: English (Original Language)