Lars Von Trier is probably one of the best living directors currently, the fact that his not well known in the mainstream cinema viewing public, is a credit to his provocateur nature and his visionary ways. He is something between the thinking man's director and the technical man's director.
His films from
Dancer in the Dark,
AntiChrist to
Dogville have been technically brilliant but also very cutting edge when it comes to issues of form and content and how one influences the other. Yet I hate to admit it, Nymphomaniac volume 1, a film about sex ,filled with graphic sex, left me cold.
Nymphomaniac sees Von Trier re-teaming up with Charlotte Gainsbourg (Joe), who had to slit her clitoris the last time the two teamed up - this time she is telling us about her tales of why she’s an evil person. As we go through her many sexual escapades, Shia LeBeouff (yes, him of Transformers fame) and Stellan Skarsgard (he who ran naked in Thor: the Dark World), are also there for the ride. The real highlight for me is Uma Thurman's very comedic turn half way through the film - that’s a cameo of epic proportion and the crazyness of it would make those who believe Dadaism laugh to no end.
Technically, Von Trier is on point, the man has an eye for creating provocative images and sound design that stays with you. Like the snow falling opening shot … it's a very beautiful image. His play with inserts and split screens is quite intriguing. Form-wise the film is very poetic in it's use of imagery and how it contrasts certain images together.
It's in the story and ideas department that Nymphomaniac Volume 1 does not hold it together for me. Maybe 'cause the film had to be censored and recut - it was deemed too graphic. I found it hard to connect with the self destructiveness of the film. Don’t get me wrong, I was not expecting a 3 Act structure from Trier, but when the film was done, I still couldn’t really say what was it truly all about.
Maybe I will have to wait for Volume 2 for it to all make sense, but it has to be said though. The film may not be accessible but never reached porno-level. Yes the sex is graphic - I can’t remember the last time I saw so many penises on screen - yet you do get a sense of the character and the self destructiveness trip she’s on.
The sex is not there for the sake of having two bodies rubbing up against each other ... so don’t expect dirty old men in trench coats in the cinema. It’s just that I didn’t get what the point was, or if Von Trier was trying to make point at all … maybe it went all over my head.
Nymphomaniac Volume 1 is currently playing on circuit at nouveau and Volume 2 is coming out in two weeks time.
Rating ***
*junk **almost bearable ***now we cooking ****almost perfect *****classic ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++