Lars Von Trier is one of arthouse cinema’s most divisive filmmakers, but even his detractors likely have a morbid curiosity to check out his newest film, the two-part, five-hour erotic drama Nymphomaniac. Needless to say, the first trailer is especially R-rated, so you may not want to open it at work (or at home with the family nearby). Also, don’t expect a green-band trailer to pop up in front of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire this weekend.
The footage shown here is just as visually striking, moody and perverse as one would expect from a Lars Von Trier production. It depicts a variety of explicit sex acts, from oral sex to sadomasochism, and uses both heavy metal and classical music as part of its soundtrack. The trailer also puts a focus on the two main females: Von Trier’s frequent collaborator Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays sex addict Joe, and Stacy Martin, who plays a younger version of Joe. The film is entirely Joe’s story, as she tells a man, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), who finds her beaten in an alleyway the story of her life and the dark sexual addiction that defined it. The film also stars Jamie Bell, Willem Dafoe, Shia LaBeouf, Connie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman and Udo Kier.
Like any sexual experience, the trailer is filled with mood swings, screaming, penetrating stares and a lot of nudity. However, the spurts of sex and nudity are only a small part of what we see. Feelings of guilt and dismay, shot in both black-and-white and colour, as well as different aspect ratios, hint toward a bleak emptiness often associated with Von Trier’s films, like Dancer in the Dark and Melancholia.
Nymphomaniac does not have a North American release date yet, although the film arrives in Denmark and Norway on Christmas Day (because nothing captures the holiday spirit like a devastating chronicle of sex addiction from the guy who made Antichrist). It will then expand across Europe in early 2014, hitting France on Jan. 1 and the UK on Mar. 7.