Nymphomaniac

Nymphomaniac Information

Nymphomaniac (stylized onscreen and in advertising as NYMPH()MANIAC is a 2013 two-part drama art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgrd, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Connie Nielsen, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, and Willem Dafoe. The film was originally supposed to be only one complete entry; but, because of its four-hour length, von Trier made the decision to split the project into two separate films. Nymphomaniac was an international co-production of Denmark, Belgium, France, and Germany.

The world premiere of the uncut version of "Volume I" of the original five-and-half-hour-long version occurred on 16 February 2014 at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. The world premiere of the uncut version of "Volume II" debuted at 2014's Venice Film Festival. A "secret" advance screening of Part I occurred at the Sundance Film Festival on 21 January, 2014, at the Egyptian Theater with tickets distributed bearing the film title "Film X" amidst rumors the film could either be Von Trier's film, or Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel. The general release world premiere of the complete 5 hours Director's Cut took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 10 September 2014. The film was nominated for the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize.

Nymphomaniac is the third and final installment in von Trier's unofficially titled "Depression Trilogy", having been preceded by Antichrist and Melancholia.

Plot

On a snowy evening, the middle-aged bachelor Seligman (Stellan Skarsgrd) finds the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) beaten up and lying in the alleyway behind his apartment. He takes her back to his home and, over tea, listens intently as Joe recounts the eventful story of her libidinous life. Seligman, a highly-educated but cloistered man, connects and analyzes Joe's stories with what he has read about.

Volume I

1. "The Compleat Angler"

Inspired by a fly fishing hook in the wall behind her and Seligman's love of Izaak Walton's book The Compleat Angler, Joe opens her story by talking about her precocious sexual fascination during her early childhood. Her father (Christian Slater) is a tree-loving doctor whom she adores while her mother (Connie Nielsen) is, as Joe describes her, "a cold bitch". In adolescence (Stacy Martin), she loses her virginity to an arbitrary young man named Jerme (Shia LaBeouf). This first encounter, which ends with Jerme casually leaving her to fix his moped, leaves her disappointed, while Seligman observes that the combination of the number of times Jerme penetrated her, three times vaginally and five times anally, resembles the Fibonacci sequence.

Several years later, Joe engages in a contest with her friend B (Sophie Kennedy Clark) during a train journey; whichever of the two women has sex with the most passengers by the train's arrival at the station wins a bag of chocolate sweets. After having sex in the toilet with several of the men she comes across, Joe wins by performing a blow job on a passenger in a first class car, S (Jens Albinus). S is a married man who at first resists both her and B's advances, but ultimately concedes. Joe tells Seligman her encounter with S is the first of many terrible things she's done, but he waves off her accusation.

2. "Jerme"

Over rugelach and a discussion over the lack of masculinity in men using cake forks to eat pastry, Joe talks about her first experiences with actual love, something she dismisses as "lust with jealousy added." Joe takes on more lovers as she, B, and several friends create a club, "The Little Flock", dedicated to liberating themselves from society's fixation on love. Joe eventually leaves after all the other members end up developing serious attachments to their conquests. As a young adult, Joe drops out of medical school and finds work as a secretary at a printing company. Her first employer is none other than Jerme. While sexual intentions are clearly on his mind, she finds herself avoiding his advances and sleeping with other co-workers, frustrating him. When Joe finally realizes she has developed feelings for Jerme, she writes him a letter. However, she is too late as he has left along with his uncle's jealous secretary Liz (Felicity Gilbert), who was fully aware of Joe's feelings. She is immediately fired by his uncle (Jesper Christensen), the actual owner of the company, for her lack of experience and goes back to indulging her nymphomania, despite a yearning for Jerme.

3. "Mrs. H"

On one occasion with one of her lovers, H (Hugo Speer), Joe inadvertently causes conflict that makes him leave his wife for her. The distressed Mrs. H (Uma Thurman) arrives and demonizes both of them in front of her children, though Joe states in the present that this barely affected her. The situation then becomes more awkward as Joe's next lover, A (Cyron Melville), arrives at the house and finds himself in the middle of Mrs. H's mental breakdown. The family finally leaves, but not before Mrs. H verbally lacerates Joe, slaps her now ex-husband and leaves the apartment wailing.

4. "Delirium"

A conversation about Edgar Allan Poe and his death from delirium tremens reminds Joe of the last time she saw her father. She is the only one to visit him in the hospital as he dies of cancer. Joe"?s father asks her not to slander her mother, who is afraid of hospitals, for not being by his side, explaining they said their goodbyes. Joe is a firsthand witness as her father deteriorates into fits of violent spasms, paranoid delusions and screams for his wife. To take her mind off her father"?s suffering, Joe has sexual intercourse with several people at the hospital. When he finally dies, Joe lubricates in front of the body and becomes numb with depression.

5. "The Little Organ School"

After Seligman explains how he feels Bach perfected polyphony, Joe uses his example to talk about three lovers leading up to her "cantus firmus." The "bass voice", F (Nicolas Bro) is a tender, but predictable man who puts her sexual needs above his own. The "second voice", G (Christian Gade Bjerrum), thrills Joe because of his animalistic control of her in bed. During one of Joe's regular walks in the local park, Jerme finds her after separating from Liz, a coincidence Seligman finds preposterous, and they embrace. As the two engage in authentically passionate sex - set alongside Joe's experiences with F and G - Joe becomes emotionally distraught when discovering she can no longer 'feel anything'.

Volume II

Joe becomes annoyed with Seligman, accusing him of overlooking the severity of her lost sexuality to focus on the allegorical before realizing he can't relate to her stories. He goes on to confirm his asexuality and virginity, but assures her his lack of bias and "innocence" makes him the best man to listen to her story. She becomes inspired to tell him another portion of her life after noticing an Rublev-styled icon of the Virgin Mary and a discussion about the differences between the Eastern Church ("the church of happiness") and the Western Church ("the church of suffering").

6. "The Eastern and the Western Church (The Silent Duck)"

Joe reminisces about a field trip as a young girl that suggests she had a vision of Valeria Messalina and the Whore of Babylon looking over her as she levitates and spontaneously has her first orgasm, which shocks Seligman as he explains her orgasm is a mockery of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the Mount. Returning to where she left off in "The Little Organ School", Joe falls into a crisis upon losing her ability to achieve sexual pleasure, though she does find a different sort of pleasure in her time with Jerme. When the two conceive a baby together, Marcel, Jerme struggles to keep up with her sexual needs and allows her to see other men. This is shown to be detrimental later, however, as he becomes jealous of her endeavors.

Several years later to no success, Joe's sexual endeavors become increasingly adventurous by engaging in a tryst with a pair of African brothers, that turns into a botched threesome; the frustration to reclaim her orgasm culminates in visits to K (Jamie Bell), a sadist who violently assaults women seeking his company. The more she visits him, the more neglectful she becomes in her domestic duties. On Christmas, after stopping an unattended Marcel from accidentally falling out a window, Jerme forces her to choose between the family and K. She picks the latter and, after receiving an especially brutal beating from K with a cat o' nine tails that allows her to climax again, takes a path of loneliness away from her one and only possibility of a normal life. Marcel is sent to live in a foster home because Jerme has no room in his life for him.

Joe concludes the story, to keep it from ending on an unhappy note, with the first time K introduced her to "the Silent Duck", which leaves Seligman surprised and impressed at K's talents.

7. "The Mirror"

Looking at the mirror facing Seligman's bed, Joe jumps ahead in time. Several years later, Joe has regained pleasure, but her genitalia are left with some irreversible damage due to a lifetime of sexual activity mixed with K's brutality. Her habits are known around her new office, prompting the boss to demand she attend sex addiction therapy under the threat of losing her current and any future jobs she takes.

When asked why she refused to attend therapy, Joe talks about becoming pregnant after leaving Jerme and Marcel. Joe forcibly asks her doctor to abort the 11-week pregnancy immediately, but he insists she speak to a counselor first. The visit to the psychologist (Caroline Goodall) ends disastrously due to Joe's attitude towards the situation. She decides to take matters into her own hands and perform the abortion on herself. Using the knowledge she had retained from medical school, Joe aborts the fetus with the use of several household implements and a wire hanger. Back in the present, Joe and Seligman get into a very heated argument regarding Joe's actions, abortion rights in general and Seligman's potential hypocrisy in supporting them while wanting to know nothing about how the actual procedure is performed. This scene can be seen only on the Director's Cut edition.

Joe reluctantly attends the meetings and, after ridding her apartment of almost everything in it, attempts sobriety. During one meeting three weeks later, she sees a reflection of her younger self in the mirror, harshly insults every member of the group, including the therapist, and proclaims pride in her sexuality before walking out.

Joe tells Seligman she isn't sure where to conclude her story as she's used every item from around his room to help inspire each "chapter". After a suggestion from him, she notices how the stain from a cup of tea she threw in anger at the climax of "The Eastern and the Western Church" looks like a Walther PPK, the same kind of gun her favorite literary character James Bond uses, and knows exactly how and where to end her story.

8. "The Gun"

Realizing she has no place in society, Joe turns to organized crime and becomes a debt collector, utilizing her extensive knowledge of men, sex and sadomasochism. She reminisces about a memorable house call to a man (Jean-Marc Barr) who she initially finds sexually unreadable. She ties him to a chair, strips him and attempts to provoke him with every sexual scenario she can think of. Upon further interrogation, Joe gleans that he is a deeply closeted pedophile. She takes pity on him and fellates him. Joe explains to Seligman how she feels deep compassion for people born with a forbidden sexuality. She strongly identifies with the man's loneliness and status as a sexual outcast, and applauds him for going through life without acting on his aberrant desires.

Joe's superior, L (Willem Dafoe), recommends that she groom an apprentice and suggests P (Mia Goth), the 15-year-old daughter of criminals. Joe is initially repulsed by the idea, but ends up sympathizing with the girl in question. P is a vulnerable, lonely, emotionally damaged young girl who quickly latches herself onto Joe. The two of them click and form a special connection. Joe opens her heart to P and eventually invites her to move into her home. Over time, Joe and P's relationship develops a sexual dimension, leading to romance. As P seems to mature, Joe hesitantly decides to teach her young female lover the ropes of her trade.

During one round of debt collection, Joe notices that they are at a house belonging to Jerme (now played by Michal Pas) and, to make sure she is not seen, tells P perform her first solo job. This proves to be a mistake as Joe eventually discovers P is having an affair with Jerme. After finding her "soul tree" in a failed attempt to leave town, Joe waits for Jerme and P in the alley between his home and her apartment and pulls a gun she confiscated from P earlier on him. When she pulls the trigger, she forgets to rack the pistol. Jerme viciously beats Joe and then has sex with P right in front of her, thrusting into P in exactly the same way he once took her virginity. P urinates on her before leaving her as she was at the beginning of the film.

In the present, Seligman suggests how the circumstances of Joe's life might have been due to differences in gender representation; all of the stigma, guilt and shame she felt for her actions made her fight back aggressively "like a man", ultimately "forgetting" to rack the gun because her human worth wouldn't allow her to kill someone, even Jerme. Joe, who has until this moment been playing devil's advocate to Seligman's assumptions, finally feels at peace, having unburdened her story. She says she is too tired to go on and asks to go to sleep.

As Joe begins to drift off, Seligman silently returns. He climbs into the bed with his pants off and attempts to rape her. Joe wakes up and, realizing what Seligman is doing, reaches for and racks the gun. Seligman protests and attempts to justify his behavior, but Joe shoots him, grabs her things, and flees the apartment.

Cast

Main cast

Charlotte Gainsbourg as Joe (ages 35-50)
- Stacy Martin as young Joe (ages 15-31)
Stellan Skarsgrd as Seligman
Shia LaBeouf as Jerme Morris
Christian Slater as Joe's father
Jamie Bell as K
Uma Thurman as Mrs. H
Willem Dafoe as L
Mia Goth as P
Sophie Kennedy Clark as B
Connie Nielsen as Katherine (Joe's mother)
Michal Pas as Older Jerme
Jean-Marc Barr as the Debtor Gentleman
Udo Kier as The Waiter

Vol. I cast

Maja Arsovic as Joe (7 years)
Sofie Kasten as B (10 years)
Ananya Berg as Joe (10 years)
James Northcote as Young Lad 1 on Train
Charlie G. Hawkins as Young Lad 2 on Train
Jens Albinus as S
Felicity Gilbert as Liz (Secretary)
Jesper Christensen as Jerme's Uncle
Hugo Speer as Mr. H
Cyron Melville as Andy (A)
Saskia Reeves as Nurse
Nicolas Bro as F
Christian Gade Bjerrum as G

Vol. II cast

Shanti Roney as Tobias (Interpreter)
Laura Christensen as Babysitter
Caroline Goodall as Psychologist
Kate Ashfield as Therapist
Tania Carlin as Rene
Daniela Lebang as Brunelda
Omar Shargawi as Thug 1
Marcus Jakovljevic as Thug 2
Severin von Hoensbroech as Debtor in greenhouse

Production

Pre-production

Executive producer and Zentropa co-founder Peter Aalbk Jensen revealed that the film is to be two parts. "We are making two films. It is a big operation. I personally hope that we should be ready for Cannes next year. We will shoot both and edit both - and we want to finish both at the same time."? He explained there will be two versions of each film: an explicit cut and a softer cut.

LaBeouf said in August 2012 that, "The movie is what you think it is. It is Lars von Trier, making a movie about what he's making. For instance, there's a disclaimer at the top of the script that basically says we're doing it for real. Everything that is illegal, we'll shoot in blurred images. Other than that, everything is happening. ... [V]on Trier's dangerous. He scares me. And I'm only going to work now when I'm terrified."

Filming

Principal photography occurred between 28 August-9 November 2012 in Cologne and Hilden, Germany, and in Ghent, Belgium.

To produce scenes of simulated sex, von Trier used digital compositing to superimpose the genitals of pornographic film actors onto the bodies of the film's actors. Producer Louise Vesth explained during the Cannes Film Festival:

We shot the actors pretending to have sex and then had the body doubles, who really did have sex, and in post we will digital impose the two. So above the waist it will be the star and the (sic) below the waist it will be the doubles.

Gainsbourg and Martin further revealed that prosthetic vaginas and closed sets were used during filming. Martin stated that her acting experience for the film was enjoyable and, after explaining that the film's characters are a reflection of the director himself, referred to the process as an "honour." Martin also stated that shooting the sex scenes was a bit boring due to their technical nature.

The film makes several references to the other films in the trilogy. For example, the scene showing Marcel approaching an open upper floor window references the similar sequence during the beginning of Antichrist and even uses the same background music from that aforementioned scene. Furthermore, Joe's monologue about loneliness is edited to shots of the universe from Melancholia. As a reference to von Trier's comments at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, during a scene available in the director's cut only, "Joe says she could understand dictators such as Hitler. Seligman shakes his head in disbelief. After she showed sympathy for racists and pedophiles, it is quite obvious that she "also has to sympathize with the biggest mass murderer in history." Joe has been referred to as a "proto-fascist heroine."

Music

A seven-track soundtrack was released digitally by Zentropa on 27 June 2014, containing a mix of classical and modern rock music, along with two sound clips from the prologue of the film.

Track listing

Prologue part I - Kristian Eidnes Andersen
"Fhre mich" - bonus track from Rammstein's 2009 album Liebe ist fr alle da
Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, arranged for cello (Csar Franck) - Henrik Dam Thomsen and Ulrich Staerk
Waltz from Jazz Suite No. 2 (Dmitri Shostakovich) - Russian State Symphony Orchestra
"Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 639", chorale prelude by Johann Sebastian Bach - Mads Hck
Prologue part II - Kristian Eidnes Andersen
"Hey Joe" - Charlotte Gainsbourg

Songs not included

Waltz from Jazz Suite No. 2 (Dmitri Shostakovich) - Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin
"Born to Be Wild" - Steppenwolf
The Carnival of the Animals: XIII. Le Cygne (The Swan) (Camille Saint-Sans) - Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Missa Hodie Christus natus est: I. Kyrie (Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina) - Schola Cantorum of Oxford
Das Rheingold: Verwandlungsmusik (Richard Wagner) -
Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 "Fr Elise" (Ludwig van Beethoven) - Balzs Szokolay
"Lascia ch'io pianga" (George Frideric Handel) - and Barokksolistene
Requiem Mass In D minor, K. 626: I. Introitus: Requiem aeternam (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) - Slovak Philharmonic & Chorus
"Burning Down the House" (live) - Talking Heads

Marketing

In early 2013, the first teaser poster was released from the film's official website. Shortly thereafter, Zentropa released a promotional photo shoot featuring the film's main characters posing in suggestive positions and a list of the film's chapters. This was followed by the release of a picture of Trier himself with duct tape covering his mouth, accompanied by a press release explaining the official launch of the film's campaign.

An incremental marketing campaign was used to promote the film, as brief video segments, each described as an "appetizer" by the film's production company, were released on the Internet leading up to the film's release date. Each appetizer represented each of the eight chapters of Nymphomaniac and the first one, entitled "The Compleat Angler," appeared on 28 June 2013, the last Friday of the month"?this pattern would be followed for the monthly release of the subsequent clips. Following "The Compleat Angler," "Jerme," featuring Martin and LaBeouf, was released in August; "Mrs. H" in September; the predominantly black-and-white "Delirium" (containing a voice-over by Skarsgrd) was released in October; in November, the appetizer for "The Little Organ School" was uploaded to YouTube, but was quickly removed due to its explicit content; on 29 November, "The Eastern and the Western Church" was released exclusively for Vimeo; in December, the appetizer for "The Mirror" was released, again on Vimeo; and on 25 December, leading into the European release of the film, "The Gun" was released on the film's official website.

In October 2013, a series of posters were released, each depicting the film's characters during the moment of orgasm. Along with the appetizers and the character posters, five theatrical posters (three for the complete feature and one for each volume) and an international trailer featuring some of the explicit sexual scenes, were released.

In July 2014, Zentropa revealed the poster for the Extended Director's Cut when announcing the extended version's premiere at the Venice Film Festival. The poster combined the original teaser with Lars von Trier standing in between the two parentheses.

Controversy

In Pinellas Park, Florida, it was reported that the international trailer had been shown by mistake to the audience before the Disney PG-rated animated film Frozen. However, it was later acknowledged that it was extremely unlikely that any section of the film could have been played; it is believed that the film accidentally played was Dallas Buyers Club, which opens with a sex scene.

Rating

Nymphomaniac initially received an NC-17 from the Motion Picture Association of America in early 2014. The film, however, surrendered the rating and was released without any MPAA rating.

Release

Von Trier's complete five-and-a-half-hour version was released in few territories and only long after the original premiere. Instead, a four-hour version was edited without the director's involvement and has been used for the film's international release, divided into two volumes "? Volume I and Volume II "? with ninety minutes missing.

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The film's UK premiere took place on 22 February 2014. In the United States, the film was also released in two parts, billed as Nymphomaniac: Volume I and Nymphomaniac: Volume II, but on separate dates: 21 March 2014 and 4 April 2014. Volume I was released 6 March 2014 on demand.

In Australia and New Zealand, the four-hour version of the film was distributed by the Transmission Films company. Released on 20 March 2014, the two volumes were shown back-to-back with an interval.

In February 2014, a complete Director's Cut version of the film's Volume I was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. In September 2014, a complete Director's Cut version of the film's Volume I and Volume II was screened at the Venice Film Festival.

The complete five-and-a-half-hour Director's Cut, including both volumes, was finally released to a general audience in Copenhagen, Denmark, premiering on 10 September 2014, where it was shown with a half-hour intermission at a red carpet gala screening with von Trier present in the audience; at this premiere, during the film's restored abortion sequence, where Joe performs an abortion on herself, three male audience members fainted and had to be carried out of the cinema.

Reception

Censored four hour version

On Rotten Tomatoes, Volume I achieved a 75% "Fresh" rating with an average rating of 6.8/10, based on 178 reviews; the consensus states: "Darkly funny, fearlessly bold, and thoroughly indulgent, Nymphomaniac finds Lars von Trier provoking viewers with customary abandon." Volume II received a 59% rating with an average rating of 6.2/10"?based on 116 reviews; the consensus states: "It doesn't quite live up to the promise of the first installment, but Nymphomaniac: Volume II still benefits from Lars von Trier's singular craft and vision, as well as a bravura performance from Charlotte Gainsbourg." On Metacritic, the first volume holds a 64/100 rating based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". However, on Metacritic, the second volume received a 60/100 rating based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

In England, Martin Solibakke of Mancunion praised Martin's performance, saying he had "never felt so sure about an actress' future success since I saw Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone four years ago". He ended his review with hailing the film, saying "Lars von Trier ends up hitting the G-spot of avant-garde filmmaking with a movie only he could ever make, and gives the open-minded members of the audience one of the most powerful and sensational experiences ever seen in arts."

In Australia, David Stratton explained in The Australian newspaper that he "detested" some of Trier's films, and states that Nymphomaniac "seems designed to be his magnum opus, the film in which he gets to rail against everything he loathes about contemporary life and contemporary cinema." The modified version is screening in Australia, officially referred to as the "international" version. Stratton further stated on the television review program At the Movies that he found the four hour runtime of the film to be "daunting", but praised some of the performances, particularly those of Stacy Martin and Jamie Bell. Stratton's co-host Margaret Pomeranz meanwhile, while also praising the boldness of the performances, felt the film's unsimulated depictions of sex didn't add to the narrative and as such had, "such an undercurrent of sadism that I was, not repelled, but distanced". ThoughtCatalog remarked on how the plot failed to be consistent or plausible.

On the Melbourne community radio station, 3RRR, film criticism program "Plato's Cave" praised von Trier's work on Nymphomaniac and presenters, Thomas Caldwell and Josh Nelson, defended the director against accusations of misogyny. Both presenters agreed that actresses who von Trier has worked with, such as Nicole Kidman and Bjrk, have delivered excellent performances in his films, while Nelson referred to Antichrist and Melancholia, the first two installments of the Depression Trilogy, as "masterpieces". Caldwell concludes the review by stating, "... if you're coming new to him [Von Trier], I think this is a real crash course in all his preoccupations."

Extended 5 hour Director's Cut version

When the complete Director's Cut had its general release world premiere in Copenhagen on 10 September 2014, major Danish critics gave it high ratings. In spite of this, the Director's Cut sold only 3,494 tickets in Danish cinemas.

Accolades

Award	Category	Recipients and nominees
Bodil Awards	Best Danish Film	Lars von Trier
	Best Actress	Charlotte Gainsbourg
	Best Actress	Stacy Martin
	Best Actor	Stellan Skarsgrd
	Best Supporting Actress	Uma Thurman
	Best Supporting Actor	Jamie Bell
Robert Award	Best Danish Film	Lars von Trier
	Best Original Script	Lars von Trier
	Best Photography	Manuel Alberto Claro
	Best Costume	Manon Rasmussen
	Best Makeup	Dennis Knudsen, Morten Jacobsen, and Thomas Foldberg
	Best Visual Effects	Peter Hjorth
	Best Sound Design	Kristian Selin Eidnes Andersen
	Best Editing	Molly Malene Stensgaard and Morten Hjbjerg
	Best Cinematography	Simone Grau Roney
	Best Production Design	Peter Grant
	Best Supporting Actress	Uma Thurman
	Best Supporting Actress	Stacy Martin
	Best Actor	Stellan Skarsgrd
	Best Actress	Charlotte Gainsbourg
	Best Director	Lars von Trier

Home media

Nymphomaniac was released both together (in a two-disc set) and separately via DVD and Blu-ray in the United States on 8 July 2014. The Extended Director's Cut was made available in the US on both home media formats on 25 November 2014. In December 2014, the Director's Cut was released on Netflix, where the theatrical versions were already streaming.