It's a teaser and an unimpressive one at that.
I understand that it's hard to take 4 hr movie in one sitting these days, but it's exactly half of the movie. So I can't make judgment on it let alone be satisfied in any way.
It tells a sex life of Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), an self admitted nympho, who is found beaten and laid out in an alleyway. It's Seligman (Stellan Skasgård), a good samaritan who finds her and brings her home. He is curious as to what happened to Joe. So he gently pushes her to tell her story.
Nymphomaniac is done way too tongue-in-cheek, I had a hard time taking it seriously. What I mean is that I can't really buy that von Trier is that corny to use Kaiser Sose/Kobayashi style free association, split screen and an old nickelodeon style moving image of walking naked man for Joe to tell her stories. Blasting Rammstein music bookending the film adds to my uneasiness whether he is knowingly fucking with you or not. I was deeply disturbed when the credits rolled with the preview of Vol. 2 appeared in partial screen, but not because of what's being played but because of its icky TV style preview. Only thing that was missing was a smokey voiced narrator saying, "Now from the next episode of Nymphomaniac, brought to you by Hyundai."
Graphic sex scenes don't make a ripple these days. If von Trier 's banking on young flesh (Stacey Martin, who looks like young Eva Green, rather than Gainsbourg), he is grossly mistaken in this day and age. Not that I'm not going to watch the next installment, but I really don't think Vol. 2 is going to make it a lot better. It might have some more emotional resonance and some meaning to it all, but there is no indication of it would be mindblowingly better than what I've just witnessed. But here's hoping. Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment