Nymphomaniac Vol. I (2013)

Not everyone can be Martin Scorsese. By this I mean that in the current filmmaking climate, it is extremely difficult for a director to find the proper budget to realize a project of any significant scope. Some auteurs like Brian De Palma and David Cronenberg have had to result to making small movies where the lack of budget is plainly visible in the so-so effects and underpopulated crowd scenes. They seem to understand that most people will not be seeing these films in a theater and have adjusted to a more television aesthetic. David Lynch and John Waters aren’t even able to drum up a budget at all. But thankfully there’s Lars Von Trier.

While everyone else is getting smaller and smaller, the man who made two films where the sets were merely outlines on the ground, has opted to get bigger and bigger. Beginning with Antichrist, Von Trier started incorporating what he has referred to as his, “monumental style” which consists of extremely precise, high definition, slow motion photography that runs contrary to the more handheld, run and gun style he’s come to be associated with. It’s a style that could not be further from the Dogme ’95 movement Lars began with Thomas Vinterberg back in the mid-90’s, and he continues with it in the absolutely gorgeous Melancholia. So where do you go from there?

Though he seems to have abandoned the, “monumental style” for Nymphomaniac, Lars has still opted to get even bigger by putting together a two-part, four-hour, widescreen epic, with all sorts of visual tricks, a huge cast and explicitly graphic sexuality. He even implemented the head-replacement technology that David Fincher pioneered in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network to make it seem as though the movie stars onscreen are actually copulating with one another. So what if the majority of viewers will be watching this on flat screens, in the privacy of their own home? Lars doesn’t care. He’s put everything he has into this funny, sad, erotic and thought provoking magnum opus. He’s attempting to fill all of your (aesthetic and emotional) holes, and for the most part he’s successful. Can’t wait to see Vol.II!

If you live in Southern California and want to see this film in all its widescreen glory, get thee to The Frida Cinema where it will be running through April 10th...when Vol. II comes out!