Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2013)

Director: Lars Von Trier
Writer:    Lars Von Trier
Cast:       Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Willem Dafore, Shia Lebeouf

The continuation of Joe's sexually dictated life delves into darker aspects of her adulthood, obsessions and what led to her being in Seligman's care.

From what I understand these two volume versions of the film were not personally edited by Lars Von Trier from the five and half hours of the footage he had and there will be full single version release of the film in 2014 which could be the director's cut. The second volume is significantly darker and less funny than the previous one with lots of violence involved. It can be very difficult to watch and overall the theme that he is exploring seems to be hypocrisy evident by the conversation the protagonists have regarding democratic societies in which word like negros are frowned upon whereas it essentially contradicts its ideal of people exercising their choice. Many of the same actions like a parent leaving their children for their sex life is done by characters of both genders and the film points out that depending on their gender our reaction towards it differs. This kind hypocrisy is being talked about at the end but in my opinion most of it is a by-product of our evolutionary past and we are predisposed to follow them. Film's last scene brings this fact to the viewers by having the Seligman character, who is portrayed as an asexual intellectual, making sexual advances towards Joe telling her that she has fucked thousands of men and this would make no difference to her.

Volume one is significantly better but this one is also good. Pretty early on in volume two, Charlotte Gainsbourg herself starts portraying her flashback character instead of Stacy Martin which I thought was Lardone in a seamless way. If I were to rank Lars Von Trier's depression trilogy, the order would be Melancholia, Nymphomaniac and then Antichrist at a distant third.

Rating: 3.5/5  

Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)

Director: Lars Von Trier
Writer:    Lars Von Trier
Cast:       Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgard, Stacy Martin, Shia LeBeouf, Uma Thurman

A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.

Lars Von Trier wanted the film to be released as a single one initially, but due to the run time of four hours he decided to release it in two volumes like Tarantino did with Kill Bill. It is the final one in Lars Von Trier's 'Depression Trilogy' with Antichrist and Melancholia preceding it. Melancholia is my favorite film of his from what I have seen. Like in Tarantino films, Nymphomaniac is divided into different chapters with Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) narrating them to Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard) during their conversation. Lars Von Trier uses the character Seligman as the representative of the audience with him asking questions that come to our mind and also sometimes he represents the director himself by delivering some worldly wisdom and clarifying his anti-Zionist stance which he says is different from antisemitism (Recall the controversy Lars was in at Cannes which got him banned from there). I was also reminded of the Dogme 95 movement in which he was part of when Joe was talking about the club that she founded with several rules.

As she narrates her story from childhood we are left to judge whether she is in the truest sense a Nymphomaniac. For a film that is part of a Depression Trilogy, it is very funny or at least the volume one of it. It is like a philosophical inquest into sex, love and loveless sex. According to Joe, Love is just lust with jealousy and lies associated with it. It is good that even though Seligman is in back-foot most of the time during their conversation, he is not intellectually slouch. The way she connects her story to his tales about fishing, music etc may not sound natural but I think it is intentionally so. Some of the illustrations, especially the geometric ones kind of reminded me of Dogville. Out of all the chapters, I found Mrs. H to be the most hilarious and I didn't even recognize that she was played by Uma Thurman. Fucking hell.

They show some scenes from Vol 2 during the end credits and it seemed more serious and violent. Critical reception was also less flattering for the volume two but I will certainly catch up with it.

Rating: 4.5/5

Melancholia (2011)

Director: Lars Von Trier
Writer:    Lars Von Trier
Cast:      Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland
Two sisters find their already strained relationship challenged as a new mysterious planet threatens to collide with the earth.

Its another character study on depression and also dwells on Haneke like bourgeoisie. The contrast between the behavior of sisters when is planet is going to collide is highlighted.

Rating: 4.5/5