For whatever reason, Lars Von Trier just likes to watch Charlotte Gainsbourg suffer. Whether it's the physical and sexual torment of a film like Antichrist, or the emotional turmoils of Melancholia, the controversial director seems to have a fetish for seeing the actress rode hard and put up wet. Apparently she's more than happy with that arrangement, and she'll be taken to the limit once again for Nymphomaniac, Von Trier's next film which already has some folks in a lather due to the promise of featuring some hardcore pornography. Sweet.
Starring Gainsbourg and Stellan Skarsgard, the most basic premise we've heard so far sounds like an erotic version of the fake Seinfeld film, "Rochelle Rochelle", following a woman's sexual journey from birth until the age of 50. As the European Film Market takes place, Nymphomaniac is being shopped to investors, and Twitch has discovered a more complete synopsis which further explains the rigors Gainsbourg's character will be subject to....
NYMPHOMANIAC is the light and poetic story of a woman's erotic journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-‐diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe.
On a cold winter's evening Seligman, an old bachelor, finds Joe semi‐unconscious and beaten up in an alleyway. After bringing her to his flat he sees to her wounds while trying to understand how things could have gone so wrong for her. He listens intently as she over the next 8 chapters recounts the lushly branched-‐out and multi faceted story of her life, rich in associations and interjecting incidents.
It almost sounds like some of the same sexual themes Von Trier presented in Breaking the Waves will be explored here as well. He famously pushed Gainsbourg nearly to her breaking point with Antichrist(check out her comments to The Guardian here), and based on some of the things she's said we can probably expect the same from Nymphomaniac.
