Nymphomaniac Analysis

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Lars von Trier is undoubtedly a polarizing filmmaker. His repertoire invokes a range of emotions from earnest avoidance to curious infatuation. He’s been pointed out as a purveyor of misogyny as he famously and deliberately places many of his females in rather unkind situations to say the least (i.e. the brain-searing climax in Antichrist). And his penchant to depict the uncomfortable and sometimes unfathomable has been interpreted as obscene and sensationalist for its own sake. And yet his work continues to prevail, standing on its own, whole and unapologetic.

Nymphomaniac: Volumes I & II is the last installment of his Depression Trilogy which also includes the preceding Antichrist and Melancholia. The trilogy purportedly transpired as the director dealt with his own struggles with depression. Although each tale shares its own harrowing interpretation of the crippling emotional turmoil, Nymphomaniac may just be the boldest chapter to come to fruition.

Nymphomaniac, split into two parts due to its unpalatable running time is a story framed within a story. Wounded and left in an alley, presumably to die, Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), is taken in by an older gentleman Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard). Coaxed by the sympathetic Samaritan and perhaps simply by her need for any semblance of a cathartic release, Joe shares her history: her sexual evolution leading up to present. Her candid even nonchalant recount begins from the age of two, the beginning of a bold exploration of the equivocal and teetering link between self and sex.

In the first volume, Joe begins to narrate her erotic history with an uncommon degree of candor which is both startling yet well received by the nonthreatening Seligman who eagerly lends an ear. He is an activ...

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...raphy masqueraded as art. Von Trier’s films continue to serve a more acquired taste (and those with a strong stomach) and Nymphomaniac continues this fashion. It’s a bold meditation on sexuality saturated with intellect, absurdity, dark humor, and with Von Trier at the helm, there’s definitely nothing quite like it.

Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that I've always demanded more from the sunset.

reconcile, irreconcilable a true embodiment of her circumstances and actions which

The insatiable woman and her desire for the unattainable is

It offers the audience a disturbing and yet beautiful consideration of matters that are for the most part left untouched.

A meditation

naught

, is a startling testimony to his capacity to explore the unsavory and contraband without having to answer to anyone of a higher power.
copulation

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