Nymphomaniac 1 & 2 – DVD review

Lars von Trier, 2013

Artificial Eye

Those who saw Charlotte Gainsbourg cut off her clitoris in Antichrist will know they’re in for a bumpy ride. Von Trier’s two-parter begins in sombre mood with Gainsbourg recounting her life of carnal carnage in confessional mode to a priest-like Stellan Skarsgard.

With lengthy flashbacks to youthful exploits and tortuous digressions loaded with metatext and metaphor from Skarsgard, it sometimes feels like four-hour foreplay to a climax that will never come. But Von Trier is a master tease, balancing wickedly un-PC humour and provocation with an unnerving ability to bare the suffering human soul.