Nymphomaniac

I recently watched Lars von Triers’ new movie ‘Nymphomaniac’ and my feelings are a bit mixed about it. But how can they not be mixed since it is a Trier movie! The story is about Joe a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac. Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard) finds her badly beaten and abandoned in an alley and this is how our story starts. They end up in his apartment and Joe starts narrating her story since she remembers herself. He carefully listens and expresses his opinions often making metaphors linking Joe’s sex stories with fishing techniques, Fibonacci numbers, Bach and the way he wrote his music, Judaism, Edgar Alan Poe and religion conflicts between eastern and western Christianity. During this back and forth of giving and taking information about sex addiction and general knowledge you get the impression that he tries to comfort her pain and her emptiness about life. Both movies are divided into short chapters which is actually a very common ‘Trier way’. Part I finishes with Joe losing completely her sexual sensation because she falls in love and settles down with Jerome. Jerome is played by Shia LaBeouf and he is Joe’s first sexual experience. Part II is not as good as part I and in my opinion it could be one movie instead of two. In part II she tries to reclaim her sexuality mainly by exploring masochistic paths. Jerome leaves her, takes away their son and Joe ends up badly wounded physically and emotionally.

I found Charlotte Gainsbourg and her performance a little bit bland but I really liked the young blood in both movies Shia LaBeouf, Stacy Martin and my favourite Jamie Bell who plays the sadist in volume II. During the movie you can tell that the director doesn’t suffer from severe depression anymore and I actually found it happy compared to the last two films made by him. It is made to cause controversy and of course provoke. Sometimes I had the impression that I was watching a documentary and I was almost relaxed, but this feeling wasn’t lasting for long since the nymphomaniac was getting back in the game with only one purpose in mind, to shock you, leaving you speechless staring at the screen with your mouth and eyes wide open. Although it is suppose to be the last part of his depression trilogy after Antichrist and Melagholia I found it less dejected than the first two but equally confrontational.

In part II Trier reveals his real thoughts and purposes. Skarsgard is a virgin who perceives himself as asexual and he ends up confessing his secret to a nymphomaniac, very sarcastic actually. You can see strong antitheses in part I that evolves and finally explodes in part II. But I won’t reveal any further details for the ones who haven’t watched it. During the movie we also see Christian Slater, Uma Thurman and Williem Dafoe. Nymphomaniac is not recommended for the ones that haven’t watched any other Trier movie since it could be characterised as shocking and sadistic. For von Trier I can say with certainty that you either love his work or you just hate it and overall Nymphomaniac is a good film and I enjoyed it, but definitely not one of his best.