Nymphomaniac (stylised as NYMPH()MANIAC onscreen and in advertising, and sometimes as NYMPH(;)MANIAC) is a 2013 erotic drama art film written and directed by Lars von Trier. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, Jean-Marc Barr, Willem Dafoe, Connie Nielsen, and Mia Goth; both Martin and Goth appeared in their film debut. Separated into two films, the plot follows Joe (played by Gainsbourg and Martin), a self-diagnosed "nymphomaniac" who recounts her erotic experiences to a bachelor who helps her recover from an assault. The narrative chronicles Joe's promiscuous life from adolescence to adulthood and is split into eight chapters told across two volumes. The film was originally supposed to be only one complete entry, but, because of its length, von Trier made the decision to split the project into two separate films. Nymphomaniac was an international co-production of Denmark, Belgium, France, and Germany. The world premiere of the uncut Volume I occurred on 16 February 2014 at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, while the uncut Volume II premiered at the 71st Venice International Film Festival. The world premiere of the Director's Cut took place in Copenhagen on 10 September 2014. It was nominated for the 2014 Nordic Council Film Prize. Nymphomaniac is the third and final installment in von Trier's unofficially titled Depression Trilogy, following Antichrist and Melancholia.
Plot
Highly educated but cloistered middle-aged bachelor Seligman finds nymphomaniac Joe beaten up and lying in the alleyway behind his apartment. He takes her to his home and listens as Joe recounts the story of her libidinous life. Seligman parallels much of what she has experienced with various methods of fly fishing, his favorite sport.
Volume I Joe is raised by a loving father and detached mother. In adolescence, she loses her virginity to neighbor Jerôme, who then leaves her to fix his moped. Seligman notes that Jerôme penetrated her three times vaginally and five anally, resembling the Fibonacci sequence. Years later, Joe and her friend B engage in a contest to see who can have sex with the most passengers on a train before its arrival, the winner receiving a bag of chocolate. Joe wins after fellating S, a married passenger who resists both girls' advances until Joe forces herself on him. Joe relays her first experiences with actual love, which she calls "lust with jealousy added". She and her friends establish a club, "The Little Flock", dedicated to freely having sex in an effort to reject society's fixation on love. Joe leaves after all the other members develop serious attachments to their conquests. As a young adult, Joe drops out of medical school and finds work as a secretary at a printing company. Her first employer is Jerôme. She avoids his advances in favor of sleeping with other co-workers, to his consternation. Joe writes Jerôme a letter after realizing her feelings for him, but realizes he has left with the jealous secretary, Liz. She is immediately fired by Jerôme's uncle, the owner of the company, and goes back to indulging her nymphomania despite yearning for Jerôme. While Joe is with one of her lovers, H, his wife arrives and admonishes them in front of their children, which the present-day Joe admits barely affected her. Another lover, A, arrives in the middle of Mrs. H's breakdown. The family eventually leaves, after Mrs. H verbally attacks Joe, slaps H, and flees the apartment, wailing. A conversation about Edgar Allan Poe's death reminds Joe of the last time she saw her father; she is the only one to visit him in the hospital as he dies of cancer. Joe watches her father experience violent spasms and paranoid delusions, screaming for his wife. To distract herself, Joe has intercourse with several people at the hospital. When he finally dies, Joe becomes aroused before becoming overwhelmed with depression. After Seligman asserts that Bach perfected polyphony, Joe discusses the lovers leading up to her "cantus firmus" - F, a tender but predictable man who prioritizes Joe's sexual needs over his own, and G, whose animalistic control of Joe thrills her. While walking in a local park, Joe encounters Jerôme, who has left Liz. They embrace and engage in authentically passionate sex, but Joe is distraught when she can no longer "feel anything".
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