Nymphomaniac: Volume I

The question of whether this is art or exploitation hangs over controversial filmmaker Lars von Trier’s latest provocation Nymphomaniac: Volume I, one of the most sexually explicit art films to come out in years. It all begins with the lonely middle-aged Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) finding a battered woman named Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) lying in an alley. After Joe is taken to Seligman’s home and given tea, she improbably decides to recount her sex life in very explicit details to the hospitable but complete stranger.

At first, Seligman appears to be interested in Joe’s sexual exploits simply so he can make a clunky ongoing comparison between his hobby of fly fishing and the woman’s methods of attaining men. Essentially, Joe talks about sex, while Seligman describes fishing techniques.

Played by doe-like newcomer Stacy Martin, the young Joe within the older Joe’s tale begins her sex life at a young age by “playing frog” or sliding her body across a wet floor. Later, she loses her virginity to Jerome (Shia LaBeouf, with a passable British accent).

Eventually, Joe and her young friend B (Sophie Kennedy Clark) decide to see how many men they can have sex with on a train. Some of these moments are quite funny like one where Joe asks an awkward young man where he comes from and he responds by meekly saying he is “from home.”

One memorable scene in Joe’s retelling of her sex life finds her dealing with the unintended wreckage of one of her sexual conquests. In it, a jilted wife confronts Joe about stealing her husband; the wife even takes her three sons to see the “whoring bed” where their father cheated on their mother. The scene is so extreme it feels like it must be a nightmare Joe is having – credit Uma Thurman’s performance as the spurned wife for a lot of its power.

Though Nymphomaniac: Vol. I features as much skin as a dermatologist sees on a busy day, the movie is more than just a collection of titillating sex scenes. The film includes diversions into discussions about esoteric subjects as well as a bit about whether using cake forks makes men look feminine. Throughout, von Trier, who is always at the very least an interesting filmmaker, tells his tale using different film stocks, graphics, mathematics, historical digressions and footage of wild animals. Unfortunately, one scene finds Seligman stating that he is not anti-Semitic, which feels like von Trier is simply using the character as a mouthpiece to defend the director’s own execrable comments at a 2011 Cannes Film Festival press conference.

As for the sex scenes, the director used digitally manipulated sleight of hand to make it appear characters played by LaBeouf, Martin and others were having actual sex. The process involved digitally combining porn doubles performing real sex acts with actors in the film who were simulating sex.

There are aspects of Nymphomaniac: Vol. I that are more offensive than its parade of penises or sizeable amount of sex scenes. Some of these include a few moments that find the film’s characters spouting cringe worthy clichés including “love is blind.”

It is difficult to determine if this film is art or exploitation without having seen the second part, which comes to the Osio on April 18. Why was Joe found beat up in an alley at the start of the film? What is the deal with Seligman? While many characters climaxed in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I, we’ll have to wait until Nymphomaniac: Vol. II to see if the story in this ambitious film finishes in a way that will satisfy its viewers.

NYMPHOMANIAC: VOLUME I (2½) • Directed by Lars von Trier • Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater • Not rated • 118 min. • At Osio Cinemas.