After much foreplay in the form of increasingly graphic trailers that to me skate the edges of pornography, the release plan for Lars von Trier‘s Nymphomaniac has come together. Magnolia Pictures has announced that von Trier has cut his work into two films. The first, Nymphomaniac: Part One, will open in theaters March 21 after premiering on-demand March 6. This will climax in the April 18 release of the second film, which first will be on-demand April 3.
Von Trier is no stranger to controversy, as witnessed by the dopey comments he made promoting Melancholia which resulted in getting banned from the Cannes Film Festival, but the subject matter of this film should sell itself. In fact, he has vowed to do no press as both films premiere in Denmark on Christmas Day. Despite that, I wouldn’t be surprised if Magnolia has itself a multi-platform juggernaut that could be reminiscent of Last Tango In Paris, a squarely adult art film with something for everyone. That includes the voyeur crowd, as Magnolia boasts it has an unprecedented amount of explicit sex. The films haven’t yet been rated, but getting an R would probably work against the multi-platform release pattern of this pic.
The first film tells the story of Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac who is badly beaten and left in an alley. She’s helped by an older bachelor, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), who takes her into his home. As he tends to her wounds, she recounts the erotic story of her adolescence and young-adulthood (portrayed in flashback by Stacy Martin). This film stars Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Connie Nielsen and Udo Kier. The second part focuses on Joe’s adulthood and stars Jamie Bell, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth and Jean-Marc Barr in addition to Gainsbourg, Skarsgård, Martin and LaBeouf. Here’s the most recent and rather graphic trailer:
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