Nymphomaniac: Vol. II

The continuation of Joe's (Charlotte Gainsbourg) sexually dictated life delves into the darker aspects of her adult life and what led to her being in Seligman's (Stellan Skarsgård) care. “As in “Antichrist”, which he consistently continues in quotes, the director exposes sexual idleness as the logic of various social systems: When young Joe, for example, has her virginity taken by a mechanic while he fiddles with his Vespa, or copulates with her girlfriend in a train, von Trier reveals contemporary sexuality, as it is becoming universally consumable, as a mechanical rubbing together of bodies. In another scene, on the other hand, when his protagonist talks about her vagina constantly offering itself for sale, he fades in the automatic sliding door of a department store. The unmasking of the sexual relationship between man and woman as a capitalist model of exploitation and emptying could hardly be more clear. [...] Regardless of superficial readings, Lars von Trier is by no means a despiser of women, the protagonists are merely in what he sees as a hopeless, nihilistic hellish existence. Admittedly, his women may not always win the eternal battle, but they always leave the stage as heroines. [...] Anyone who ventures into this bleak soul-searching will discover a sick fate, but will be rewarded by a cinematic artistry borne of genius, visual power and ambiguity. Beyond the unembellished view into the orcus, the Danish grandmaster of psycho-cinema masters the art of showing the mountains of our longings and hopes like no other.” (Björn Hayer, at: nzz.ch) ------------------------------ “Nymphomaniac 1: This is unmistakably Lars von Trier, and it is Lars von Trier at his best. A movie, carefully crafted, beautiful, clever. A man and a woman who meet for the first time, an excursion into the history of art and culture. And a dialectical treatise on the fact that much - everything - is merely a question of personal point of view. It begins with a dark screen, a soundtrack that has perhaps not been so strikingly precise and quietly rhythmic since “Dancer in the Dark”. [...] It is not Joe's increasingly perverse sex practices and experiences [...] but the fact that she betrays her feelings as well as her son and husband in return that make “Nymphomanic - Part 2” a harrowing experience: Joe is unmistakably a soulmate of the dysfunctional mother from “Antichrist” emotionally disturbed protagonist from “Melancholia” - making “Nymphomaniac” the masterful conclusion to von Trier's trilogy on depression.” (Irene Genhart, at: filmdienst.de)