Here's Nymphomaniac Volume II in review.
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| "My GOD!!! Why did it have to be Shia? Why?!!!!!" |
Nymphomaniac Volume II takes a decidedly darker route
through the rest of Joe’s (Charlotte Gainsbourg) life story. She has exited her
carefree youth and has entered the comparatively humdrum monotony of middle age.
Since she is in a monogamous relationship, her desire for sex with numerous
partners is not being satisfied. This leads her to pursue more extreme measures
to experience new sensations and pleasures. The second half of the film is
definitely shocking and at some times very hard to watch.
The wrap around story of the odd-couple interaction between
Joe and her older savior Seligman (played by Stellan Skarsgård) is still
compelling to watch and his addendums to the story continue to be enlightening.
Even though they have only known each other a short time in the film their
relationship goes through growth and change. Seligman does not judge Joe for
her actions and serves as an impartial witness to her tale. It is left to the
viewer to condemn or celebrate Joe’s story. As in real life, some of the things
Joe does in the latter part of her life can be construed as selfish or
abhorrent even. She is very objective about the events that shaped her as a
person and offers no apologies for her existence and I can respect that.
Shia LaBeouf does a turn as Joe’s “love of her life” Jerome, and I found his acting to be weaker than the rest of the cast. It’s not a bad
performance but he looks uncomfortable at times and has a hard time maintaining
consistency with his accent. I do give him kudos for going outside of his normal
roles (even with his recent odd behavior) and would like to see him in more
artsy type films. Charlotte Gainsbourg does a wonderful job carrying the film
and I loved her intelligent and sardonic portrayal of Joe. Perhaps she has been
typecast as “the damaged woman” but it is a character that she does well.
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| "Ok. I'll arm wrestle you for it!" |
I find the concept of an art-house pornography movie to be intriguing
as this is something that has not been relevant since the 1970’s. When Deep Throat
made it lucrative to release mainstream porn films to the public, it was in interesting
time for film. Lars Von Trier’s company Zentropa released Nymphomaniac but the
interesting thing is that they have also released many hardcore pornography
films as well. In fact, this is the first company ever to do so. Is it not
feasible that pornography could be considered art if given the same care and
thought? Von Trier has been the pioneer of combining beautiful cinematography
with explicit sexual imagery and he continues his vision with Nymphomaniac.
This film pushes the boundaries of what can be done in mainstream movies and I
hope he continues to buck the status quo.
-Michelle Kisner