Chris Knipp
04-05-2014, 03:17 AM
Lars von Trier: Nymphomaniac: Vol II (2013)
http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nympho2.jpg
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG AND STELLEN SARSGARD: STORYTELLER AND LISTENER
Volume II: Erotic obsession grows old: Joe finishes her story
In this second half of von Trier's Nymphomaniac things turn grimmer and more extreme in Joe's story recounted to Seligman. Vol. II shows the decreasing returns and increasingly desperate measures of a life devoted to sexual pleasure as one ages. Somewhat surprisingly, since Charlotte Gainsbourg is only 42, her character, Joe, turns out at time of frame-tale to be 50. No wonder the rough sex she has turned to to revive faded sensation is hard on her. We have to decide if the whole makes a good impression, even if this is not up to the level of von Trier's most powerful work. It clearly does, because the scenes Joe narrates remain original and striking, and the interruptions to discuss with Seligman maintain the film's emphasis on cool, self-reflexive narrative. If this is porn it's a surprisingly unpornographic and thoughtful kind, which is interesting to contemplate, even if it leaves us unmoved as well as unaroused. But who's to say it's not moving? It's strong enough to leave an impression and make you think, anyway. As always with von Trier some will hate and dismiss; others will love, puzzle over, and debate.
As the narrative recommences, Joe is back with Jerôme, her deflowerer, in a loving relationship, and they have a child, but she has lost all sexual sensation. Now Seligman, not inappropriately, reveals to Joe he's a virgin with no interest apart from intellectual in sex. This explains and perhaps justifies his odd comments all along on how Joe's stories remind him of Fibonacci numbers, fly fishing, and so on: he cannot relate sex to sex. He insists his situation makes him the ideally fair and neutral judge of her sex-drenched personal history. More high-toned discussion comes in, of Beethoven's fugues, and of the difference between the eastern and western churches, contrasted by Seligman as churches of joy (eastern) and suffering (western). Joe begins the sixth "chapter" of her story. These chapters up to now are 1. The Compleat Angler; 2. Jerôme; 3. Mrs. H; 4. Delerium; 5. The Little Organ School. Now comes 6. The Eastern & Western Church (the Silent Duck). In the numerology of the film's two parts, the chapters are 5 and 3, corresponding to the 5 and 3 thrusts with which Jerôme deflowered the young Joe.
Now we see a lot of of poor Shia LaBeoef for a while. Nobody who's written about this film seems to have much use for him or his performance or the "contemporary London accent" he was coached to use here. Perhaps all this was just what von Trier desired. LaBoeuf may be doing his best but seems out of his depth, though he does show a playful side in a restaurant scene were he dares Joe to put a long spoon up her cunt and she puts a whole bunch of them there that fall out as they leave the table, to the surprise of the waiter (Udo Kier).
In a sudden jump, Joe begins to be played in the narrative action by Charlotte Gainsbourg for the scene where she has a quick liaison in a cheap hotel with two Africans found on the street. It is the conceit that the African (it's his choice to bring his brother) speaks not a word of English, and Joe thought that would be a turn-on. No mention of the clichéd more obvious turn-on for a white woman of black men with the large penises. But that aspect is clearly emphasized in the camera's many furtive glances at these men's muscular nakedness and ample members, the first real male frontal nudity in the film, complete with erections, though the men begin arguing and Joe slips away. This leads to a discussion of "political correctness" with Seligman when Joe refers to the men as "Negroes."
Jamie Bell is chillingly effective as the cool, soft-spoken S&M master K, to whom Joe goes for stimulation (which she gets), the film's most terrifying and disturbing sequence. This is pure sadomasochism, drained of its usual style, trappings and posturing. More interjected points from Seligman include the Prusik mountain climber's knot, which K might have used to tie her up; Freud's idea that "polymorphous perversity" (which would include S&M) is a propensity found in infants; and the assertion that the Passion of the Christ (as viewers of Mel Gibson's film might agree) is full of sadomasochism. Joe's slavish involvement in K's sessions leads to an incident replaying one in Antichrist, of fatal parental neglect, and when Joe chooses K over her parental duties, Jerône takes their child, Marcel, and leaves her. Her attempt at recovery meetings, prompted by her boss at work (we may be surprised that she has a paying job) leads her to reject the notion that she's a "sex addict," with a problem, and insist she's simply and defiantly a "nymphomaniac." She stalks out of the meeting after declaring her love of her cunt and her "filthy, dirty lust." This was chapter 7: The Mirror -- Joe has taken a good look at herself. She will take another look later, though, and conclude differently.
Joe has largely given up sex due to the damage to her sex organs caused by years of overindulgence. Leaving her office job, she starts her own illegal debt collecting business on the suggestion of L (Willem Dafoe), who's in the same line of work. Here, she makes use of her experience with cruelty learned from K. Her forgiveness of a revealed pedophile (Jean-Marc Barr) leads to an elaborate explanation to Seligman: basically she identifies as a fellow sexual outlaw, and she forgives him because he has resisted his impulses.
At L's suggestion later Joe semi-adopts a girl, P (Mia Goth), who develops a lesbian attachment to her and becomes her assistant, whereupon they're sent to pressure none other than: Jerôme! It's "One of those coincidences you don't like," she warns Seligman. These bizarre turns may nudge us into seeing this has all along been basically a picaresque tale. P carries a gun, against Joe's will, and this is chapter 7: The Gun, a hint of violence, attempted and real, to come. Joe has declared friendship. Seligman has given a pro-feminist speech seeing Joe's sexual extremism as heroic female self-realization. A joke? One never knows, and one's not meant to. But whatever its comic moments, Joe's story is more heroic and tragic than any kind of mere homily or remonstrance. Nymphomaniac: Vol. II's conclusion is strange, perverse, and disturbing, with curiously touching moments, and bears out the promise that the relationship between a narrator and his listener, when the tale is one of sex, is one that's both intimate and dangerous. And von Trier's ambition has been rewarded by an overlong (if unfortunately divided) film that, whatever its unevenness of tone and sometimes dubious use of actors, remains bold, memorable and thought-provoking.
Nymphomaniac: Vol. II, 123 mins., debuted at various times in various countries starting in Dec. 2013; its US theatrical debut was 4 April 2014.
http://www.chrisknipp.com/newpictures/nympho2.jpg
CHARLOTTE GAINSBOURG AND STELLEN SARSGARD: STORYTELLER AND LISTENER
Volume II: Erotic obsession grows old: Joe finishes her story
In this second half of von Trier's Nymphomaniac things turn grimmer and more extreme in Joe's story recounted to Seligman. Vol. II shows the decreasing returns and increasingly desperate measures of a life devoted to sexual pleasure as one ages. Somewhat surprisingly, since Charlotte Gainsbourg is only 42, her character, Joe, turns out at time of frame-tale to be 50. No wonder the rough sex she has turned to to revive faded sensation is hard on her. We have to decide if the whole makes a good impression, even if this is not up to the level of von Trier's most powerful work. It clearly does, because the scenes Joe narrates remain original and striking, and the interruptions to discuss with Seligman maintain the film's emphasis on cool, self-reflexive narrative. If this is porn it's a surprisingly unpornographic and thoughtful kind, which is interesting to contemplate, even if it leaves us unmoved as well as unaroused. But who's to say it's not moving? It's strong enough to leave an impression and make you think, anyway. As always with von Trier some will hate and dismiss; others will love, puzzle over, and debate.
As the narrative recommences, Joe is back with Jerôme, her deflowerer, in a loving relationship, and they have a child, but she has lost all sexual sensation. Now Seligman, not inappropriately, reveals to Joe he's a virgin with no interest apart from intellectual in sex. This explains and perhaps justifies his odd comments all along on how Joe's stories remind him of Fibonacci numbers, fly fishing, and so on: he cannot relate sex to sex. He insists his situation makes him the ideally fair and neutral judge of her sex-drenched personal history. More high-toned discussion comes in, of Beethoven's fugues, and of the difference between the eastern and western churches, contrasted by Seligman as churches of joy (eastern) and suffering (western). Joe begins the sixth "chapter" of her story. These chapters up to now are 1. The Compleat Angler; 2. Jerôme; 3. Mrs. H; 4. Delerium; 5. The Little Organ School. Now comes 6. The Eastern & Western Church (the Silent Duck). In the numerology of the film's two parts, the chapters are 5 and 3, corresponding to the 5 and 3 thrusts with which Jerôme deflowered the young Joe.
Now we see a lot of of poor Shia LaBeoef for a while. Nobody who's written about this film seems to have much use for him or his performance or the "contemporary London accent" he was coached to use here. Perhaps all this was just what von Trier desired. LaBoeuf may be doing his best but seems out of his depth, though he does show a playful side in a restaurant scene were he dares Joe to put a long spoon up her cunt and she puts a whole bunch of them there that fall out as they leave the table, to the surprise of the waiter (Udo Kier).
In a sudden jump, Joe begins to be played in the narrative action by Charlotte Gainsbourg for the scene where she has a quick liaison in a cheap hotel with two Africans found on the street. It is the conceit that the African (it's his choice to bring his brother) speaks not a word of English, and Joe thought that would be a turn-on. No mention of the clichéd more obvious turn-on for a white woman of black men with the large penises. But that aspect is clearly emphasized in the camera's many furtive glances at these men's muscular nakedness and ample members, the first real male frontal nudity in the film, complete with erections, though the men begin arguing and Joe slips away. This leads to a discussion of "political correctness" with Seligman when Joe refers to the men as "Negroes."
Jamie Bell is chillingly effective as the cool, soft-spoken S&M master K, to whom Joe goes for stimulation (which she gets), the film's most terrifying and disturbing sequence. This is pure sadomasochism, drained of its usual style, trappings and posturing. More interjected points from Seligman include the Prusik mountain climber's knot, which K might have used to tie her up; Freud's idea that "polymorphous perversity" (which would include S&M) is a propensity found in infants; and the assertion that the Passion of the Christ (as viewers of Mel Gibson's film might agree) is full of sadomasochism. Joe's slavish involvement in K's sessions leads to an incident replaying one in Antichrist, of fatal parental neglect, and when Joe chooses K over her parental duties, Jerône takes their child, Marcel, and leaves her. Her attempt at recovery meetings, prompted by her boss at work (we may be surprised that she has a paying job) leads her to reject the notion that she's a "sex addict," with a problem, and insist she's simply and defiantly a "nymphomaniac." She stalks out of the meeting after declaring her love of her cunt and her "filthy, dirty lust." This was chapter 7: The Mirror -- Joe has taken a good look at herself. She will take another look later, though, and conclude differently.
Joe has largely given up sex due to the damage to her sex organs caused by years of overindulgence. Leaving her office job, she starts her own illegal debt collecting business on the suggestion of L (Willem Dafoe), who's in the same line of work. Here, she makes use of her experience with cruelty learned from K. Her forgiveness of a revealed pedophile (Jean-Marc Barr) leads to an elaborate explanation to Seligman: basically she identifies as a fellow sexual outlaw, and she forgives him because he has resisted his impulses.
At L's suggestion later Joe semi-adopts a girl, P (Mia Goth), who develops a lesbian attachment to her and becomes her assistant, whereupon they're sent to pressure none other than: Jerôme! It's "One of those coincidences you don't like," she warns Seligman. These bizarre turns may nudge us into seeing this has all along been basically a picaresque tale. P carries a gun, against Joe's will, and this is chapter 7: The Gun, a hint of violence, attempted and real, to come. Joe has declared friendship. Seligman has given a pro-feminist speech seeing Joe's sexual extremism as heroic female self-realization. A joke? One never knows, and one's not meant to. But whatever its comic moments, Joe's story is more heroic and tragic than any kind of mere homily or remonstrance. Nymphomaniac: Vol. II's conclusion is strange, perverse, and disturbing, with curiously touching moments, and bears out the promise that the relationship between a narrator and his listener, when the tale is one of sex, is one that's both intimate and dangerous. And von Trier's ambition has been rewarded by an overlong (if unfortunately divided) film that, whatever its unevenness of tone and sometimes dubious use of actors, remains bold, memorable and thought-provoking.
Nymphomaniac: Vol. II, 123 mins., debuted at various times in various countries starting in Dec. 2013; its US theatrical debut was 4 April 2014.