Smut and Art in Lars von Trier’s NYMPH()MANIAC

SHOW US YOUR O FACE

NYMPHOMANIAC is perhaps the only pornographic film to have broken into the mainstream, at least enough to feature advertisements — of the main cast’s face mid orgasm — in Times Square (with the caption, ‘show us your O face’). This is thanks to that infamous name hanging below NYMPHOMANIAC’s director’s label, whose presence, resulting in either excitement or groans, is, regardless, “household” in the world of Art House: Lars von Trier, cinema’s enfant terrible and the Cannes film festival’s persona non grata.

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4

Fig. 5

Fig. 6

Fig.7

Fig. 8

Fig. 9

NYMPH()MANIAC PLOT

The plot of NYMPHOMANIAC is as follows: Seligman, an asexual virgin man in his early 60s (played by Stellen Skarsgård), discovers Joe, a nymphomaniac in her early 40s (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg), lying unconscious in an alleyway, seemingly having suffered some attack. Seligman takes Joe to his apartment where she recounts her life as a nymphomaniac, starting as a little “nymph,” as it were, and leading up to the denouement event which left her beaten in the alley where we first met her. The story is split into various chapters, each of whose title is inspired by something Joe sees in Selingman’s room; these usually provide allegories and bridges to various topics within each chapter, e.g., a Nymph — a lure used in fishing, meant to represent a insect in a larval stage (though there are obvious parallels between Nymphomania as well as goddess Nymphs) — which Joe uses as a means of explaining to Selingman how she went “fishing” for men. Each chapter is split between moments wherein Joe is recounting her story, and moments portraying the present conversation between her and Selingman, which itself often cuts to stock footage used to illustrate various philosophical points one or the other is trying to make.

Fig. 10

Fig. 11

Fig. 12

Fig.12a

Fig. 13

Fig.13a

Fig. 14

Fig. 15

Fig.15a

UNSIMULATED

A particularly controversial aspect of NYMPHOMANIAC was that the sex was unsimulated. For each scene of intercourse in which penetration is, rather proudly, shown by the camera, porno doubles were used, specifically their genitalia, which were then transposed onto the actress or actor playing the character waist up, who had to record the scene with what were essentially ping pong balls attached to their body so that it could all be synced in post. This was not actually the first time Lars von Trier featured penetration in his films: Antichrist, the film preceding NYMPHO, and the first part of Trier’s depression Trilogy of which NYMPHO is the second installment, featured a shot of penetration ostensibly between Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg (porno doubles); and The Idiots featured an orgy scene which had unsimulated sex (also porno doubles).

Fig. 16

Fig.16a

Become a Premium member now and check out the extended version of the article including an extensive investigation into the question: is the film erotica or pornography?, the distinction between erotica and pornography, and numerous, additional pics including bold (explicit!) stills from the film.

Click HERE for the frivolous sex comedies of the "Ass Man" Tinto Brass