Nymphomaniac: Volume 1

Expect anything from Lars von Trier — but when the film is called Nymphomaniac: Volume 1, and it’s in two parts, be prepared for a very wild ride. The Danish film director, screenwriter, and committed provocateur can be maddening, confusing, surreal, charming, and disarming. You may love him for his nerve, hate him for his politics, or find yourself somewhere in between. But it’s hard to turn away from the bedeviling accumulation of his images, from the beautiful to the grotesque. In Antichrist he fabricated a fantastical world of sado-masochistic eroticism, images that burned the screen and the eyeballs with writhing bodies and talking deer. Then, in Melancholia, the world exploded into an ecstasy . . .  Read More