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Friday, March 21, 2014
MOVIE REVIEW
Nymphomaniac Vol. 1
A Mathematical Hypotenuse Of Orgasm, Or Something
A screenshot
from Lars Von Trier's four-hour epic "Nymphomaniac", which is being released in
two parts.
Magnolia
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
FOLLOW
Friday,
March 21,
2014
"The secret ingredient of sex is love," whispers a friend
to young Joe (Stacy Martin, excellent here) during Lars Von Trier's epic
"Nymphomaniac", a psychosexual drama released in two parts. "Nymphomaniac
Vol. 1" reveals this whisper as a kind of nagging Achilles heel, a
countervailing force to the heavily mathematical sex analysis of present-day Joe
(Charlotte Gainsbourg), who has been left for dead in a back alley (cruel
metaphor for a botched abortion?) at the start of the film. Rescued as if
a beaten stray pussy cat (more Von Trier psychoanalysis?) by Seligman (Stellan
Skarsgard), who may be connected to Joe's beating, Joe insists on avoiding
hospital to treat her wounds. Does she lack health insurance? Does
she "deserve" her punishment?
As with many of Mr. Von Trier's films almost every scene of "Nymphomaniac"
appears designed to tweak you. As Joe tells the avuncular Seligman about
her sexual history in multi-chaptered bedtime story-like fashion, images of
nature, felines, insects and other assorted free-associational moments flood the
screen. Joe is convinced her sexual prowess, boldness and alacrity with
men comes not from the healthy relationship with her father (Christian Slater)
but from a need to let go and explore. Joe is mesmerized by Jerôme (Shia
LaBeouf), who is the only man aside from her father she has truly loved.
Jerôme, a cold, indifferent sort, is a source of endless confounding mystery to
Joe, a somewhat emotionally repressed (if not abused) figure herself.
"Nymphomaniac", an interesting and bewildering sexual odyssey through a female
lens, appears to be based loosely on the Swedish film "Anita", which tenders
very similar subject matter. Mr. Skarsgard starred in the 1973 film, which
details a teenage girl who recalls her obsession with sex and self-destruction.
Mr. Skarsgard is a more active participant in "Anita", involved in a symbiotic
relationship with the title character. Mr. Von Trier, who wrote
"Nymphomaniac", may have utilized "Anita", about a nymphet, as one of his
influences. The Danish director's film, however, is more clinical and
sensory, if not sensual. The "Nymphomaniac" anthem, Rammstein's hard metal
song, "Führe Mich"
("Guide Me"), is addicting, an aural juggernaut out of place yet like a primal
engine representing the hard-wired animalistic beat of sex in Mr. Von Trier's
sometimes persuasive and always thought-provoking dissertation.
There's serenity to Joe as she recalls her nymphomania but there's immense
pretentiousness by Mr. Von Trier in the way he frames these coolly melancholic
stories. The pretension is glimpsed through the Seligman character, who
engages in a professorial discourse with Joe as if biding his time before a
lasciviously pounce on his fantasy student. Since Seligman is a filter
between the audience and Joe, any daring aspects of "Nymphomaniac Vol. 1" are
diffused. Alas, Joe isn't talking directly to us, though she should be,
and Mr. Von Trier, who Joe may be referring to as she recalls a balding, dutiful
man who does whatever she asks him to sexually, most certainly is.
There's a fear of love, and a mutilation and repudiation of love in all of Mr.
Von Trier's work, and his own troubled personal background is a huge marker for
the power and relentlessness of his characters' refutations and sometimes
nihilistic or anti-social ways. "Nymphomaniac Vol. 1" isn't soft-porn as
much as it is sexual anarchy, with the female protagonist as big bad soft-core
wolf in sheep's clothing taking the reins of the narrative without compromise.
If the women in "Breaking The Waves", "Dogville", "Manderlay", "Dancer In The
Dark", "Anti-Christ" and "Melancholia" appeared helpless or doomed, the woman of
"Nymphomaniac" celebrates in a droll way her feast over men but she feels
somewhat regretful and pained.
Ms. Gainsbourg, Mr. Von Trier's muse of the moment, is good here as always, the
one actress who lends authenticity to the director's chaos and alchemy, to the
point where her character Joe can look ridiculous but remain enormously
credible. It's a complex undertaking, and while the narrative has her Joe
mostly bedridden (and deliberately so), her pallid expressions highlight both
the absurdity and full-throated commitment of going the distance for such a
brilliant, perceptive and iconoclastic director.
Mr. Von Trier, who never makes it easy on women in his films (or his audiences),
sincerely explores sexuality or sexual obsession from the point of view of one
woman, and much of "Nymphomaniac Vol. 1" is engaging and intriguing, as well as
frustrating and indulgent. Talking about sex, intellectualizing about it,
and doing it, involve aspects of one or each of those feelings, and Mr. Von
Trier place holds the audience as observer, voyeur and captive of Joe's
exploits.
Sometimes I felt as if I was watching a Calvin Klein underwear commercial only
an orgasmic one. Other times "Nymphomaniac Vol. 1" plays like an American
tragicomedy, a sex-shaming of men and parody of guilt-ridden characters,
especially in a scene involving one man Young Joe has been with. The man
is married to Mrs. H. (Uma Thurman), who volcanically erupts in a way not unlike
you'd see in an Ingmar Bergman film. The scene plays awkwardly and very
funny.
"Nymphomaniac Vol. 1" isn't sexy. I don't think it's meant to be.
Most films about sex aren't. Rather, Mr. Von Trier's film is about the
architecture and strategy of sex, from Joe's point of view, with all its
calculations, equations, angles and positions -- a cerebral method of a woman's
approach to sex, or at least, this woman's approach. The film
shows us the artifacts of sex -- vaginas, penises, bodily fluids, orgasms --
anatomical and objectified things and elements borrowed from a biology and
reproduction or animal wildlife class, things that Mr. Von Trier may posit are
shallow representations and ingredients of, yet integral to, the act of sex.
But what lies behind and beyond those representations? Isn't it love?
Or just plain narcissism? Joe appears to represent the latter.
Joe fights love by using sex. She uses sex for pleasure but also
defensively, as a mask from the closeness she has with her father. Scenes
with Joe's father are just as faithfully and achingly rendered as scenes
involving bodily fluids, including a key scene showing Young Joe sexually
excited. Mr. Von Trier uses nature as a statement about the inevitable
position of sex as a predatory act, not necessarily a loving one. It's a
conundrum and discussion I was enthralled by, as well as by the way Mr. Von
Trier handles and addresses it. Joe's self-satisfaction with sex invites a
measure of conflict within herself as she swears that love is something divorced
from sex. The truth, at least in that careful whisper to Young Joe, and
those nagging feelings about Jerome that won't go away, suggests otherwise.
Also with: Sophie Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen.
"Nymphomaniac Vol. 1" is not rated by the Motion Picture Association Of
America. It contains graphic male and female full frontal nudity, strong
explicit sexual content and language. The film is in black and white and
color. The film's running time is one hour and 56 minutes. Note:
"Nymphomaniac Vol. 2" will be released in the U.S. on April 4th and is currently
on demand, as is Vol. 1.
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