Warning: Nymphomaniac is an unrated, sexually explicit art film. If you do not wish to read about sexually explicit scenes, do not read this review.
And spoilers too, probs.
"The human qualities can be expressed in one word: hypocrisy. We elevate those who say right but mean wrong and we mock those who say wrong but mean right."
--Nymphomaniac
I read a review recently that referred to the films of Lars von Trier as twisted fairy tales for adults. That description set off the little lightbulb above my head: of course! That's why I like his films so much, despite their misanthropy, violence, and disturbing qualities. They're fables, filled with mysticism and magical realism. I've always loved fairy tales and fairy tale retellings, so it makes perfect sense that even though von Trier's films put me through the emotional ringer, I'm still attracted to them.
Following up Antichrist and Melancholia, which are both terrifying in their own unique ways, comes Nymphomaniac, a four hour long film (there is a 5.5 hour director's cut that I would love to get my hands on) broken up into two parts. Nymphomaniac, along with the two other films mentioned above, is part of von Trier's "depression trilogy", which I believe he has said mirrors his own struggle with depression. Nymphomaniac is actually the least depressing von Trier film I've seen. It follows the story of Joe (played by Stacy Martin as a young woman and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a mature woman), a self-described "nymphomaniac" who vacillates between believing she is a bad, destructive person, and--in her words--loving her cunt, above all.
Joe is found by Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard), beaten and bloodied on the streets on a snowy evening. He offers to call an ambulance, but she rejects that idea. He takes her back to his home for tea instead and she recounts the whole story that led up to that moment.
What I found wonderful and fascinating about this story is that Joe was never the victim of anything that one might assume would turn a person towards sex addiction. Joe has a happy upbringing and close relationship with her father (played by Christian Slater, strangely enough). She isn't the victim of sexual abuse or rape. Rather, she is influenced by her group of female friends, who form a "church" of sorts, devoted to their sexuality and to the rejection of love. There is a scene with the young women chanting "mea vulva, mea maxima vulva", a cheeky perversion of a traditional Catholic prayer of confession.
Yet, while all Joe's friends eventually fall away from the "church" by falling in love, Joe's nymphomania only increases. For a while, it seems she may end up with Jerome (Shia LeBeouf, who is actually good in this movie), the young man who took her virginity and shows up in her life again as the boss's nephew at the office where Joe works as a secretary. But when he runs off to marry another woman, Joe begins taking lovers--up to ten a day--to fulfill the demands of her body.
There is an absolutely gorgeous scene at the end of vol. 1 where she describes three lovers as the parts of a piece of organ music: there is the man submissively devoted to her orgasm, the aggressive, domineering man, and then there's Jerome--the one man she's ever loved. In a split-screen shot we see them making love to Joe as a piece by Bach plays over the scene. It sounds cheesy, but I found it to be one of the loveliest scenes I've watched in a while.
Volume 1 ends with Jerome and Joe having sex and Joe suddenly losing all sexual sensation. Volume 2 is the darker half of the film, with Joe's sudden inability to have an orgasm driving her to more and more extreme sexual experiences. She and Jerome have a baby together, which ups the emotional stakes considerably as Joe often chooses to leave her young son home alone to go out and seek sex.
Jerome gives Joe permission to have sex outside of their relationship since their love life is exhausting to him. Joe describes her encounters with "the dangerous men", particularly K. K is played by Jamie Bell (the kid from Billy Elliot, most definitely grown up in this film). He is a sadist with an artistic eye for pain. Joe's sessions with K were particularly interesting since K didn't strike me (hah!) as a cruel man at all--but more like a photographer, the way he arranges Joe and straps her down to a couch in order to beat her with a leather crop. Only when she endures the most vicious beating--40 lashes with a homemade cat o' nine tails, on Christmas Day no less--is she finally able to achieve climax. I suppose you could read this as a moral against the dangers of sex addiction, but von Trier is no moralist. His depiction of Joe's insatiable lust is not celebratory, nor is it damning. It is merely a story, presented without judgment.
After the Christmas Day session with K, Jerome leaves Joe and takes their son with him. Joe takes a job as a...debt collector. You know, one of those people who breaks the kneecaps of those who owe money to various crime bosses. Joe, of course, uses her sexuality to manipulate, terrify, and humiliate the poor souls who owe money. She eventually takes on a young, female protege, "P". But when P is faced with collecting money from none other than Jerome, she quickly begins a relationship with him, to the devastation of Joe.
The film ends with Joe attempting to kill Jerome as he walks down the street with P. For some reason, the gun does not go off, and Jerome beats Joe bloody and leaves her there, which brings us up to the point where Seligman finds her. However, the movie isn't over yet. In a bizarre and blunt ending, after Joe has told her story, Seligman leaves her to sleep...but he returns in the middle of the night and attempts to rape her (despite having admitted to Joe earlier that he is a virgin and is asexual). The screen goes black and we hear Seligman protest, "Joe, you've slept with thousands of men". Joe says "No!" and we hear the gun go off and Joe leave in a hurry. The end.
I found this ending extremely off beat with the rest of the story...yet...somehow fitting within its moral framework. Throughout Joe's myriad sexual adventures, she is never the victim of coercive sex (although, in one disturbing scene early on, she has non-consensual sex with a married man who begs her not to, making Joe the predator). To have the film end with the most sexually harmless man in the movie (up until that point) attempting to rape Joe and immediately being killed for his transgression flies so intensely in the face of our cultural narratives of what rape is and who deserves to be punished for it that I was like "Right fucking on, Lars".
However, I hesitate to claim that this--all sex is good/acceptable except for coercive sex--is the moral of the story. I don't know what the "moral" of Nymphomaniac is, or even if there is one at all. You could view the film as an almost reverent treatment of female sexuality. Or you could view it as a testament to the loneliness that comes when one is unable to love or truly connect with another human being. Joe's story does not fit into any traditional boxes about sexuality and sexual morals. This is not a "you go girl" film, as Joe does indeed lose a lot by submitting to the endless needs of her cunt. But it's not a story of warning either, since although Joe certainly faces pain, she is never "punished" for her sins. In fact, this film does not condemn Joe's behavior as "sinful". Nor does it consider her behavior "natural". It merely is. And for that, I found Nymphomaniac to be a genuinely unique film about sexuality and the human desire to "fill all our holes", physically, spiritually, and emotionally.
Nymphomaniac is not a film for everyone. It's artistic, amoral, and extremely explicit. It contains unsimulated sex which can't truly be called "pornography", or even "erotica". Although some of the scenes are indeed erotic, their intent isn't so much to arouse but to tell a story--to weave a tapestry of one woman's life. It's also an intellectual film, with tangents and asides relating to fly-fishing, Bach and Beethoven, religion, and ash trees. Many who see this movie will see it as pretentious, boring, and frustrating. I found it to be beautiful in the way only a story that delves so openly into ugliness can be. Beauty and empathy don't always come from what's right, good, noble, and self-abnegating. Sometimes beauty comes from destruction, rebellion, and all the emotions and impulses we'd rather not talk about or look too closely at. Once again, Lars von Trier (and his amazing cast) has created a challenging, engaging piece of art.
Although the film is far from perfect, I feel that I must give it
5 out of 5 stars
