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Nymphomaniac: Vol. I

  • 20132013
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 57m
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
123K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
508
12
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
Trailer for Nymphomaniac: Volume I
Play trailer1:48
14 Videos
99+ Photos
  • Drama
A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.A self-diagnosed nymphomaniac recounts her erotic experiences to the man who saved her after a beating.
IMDb RATING
6.9/10
123K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
508
12
  • Director
    • Lars von Trier
  • Writer
    • Lars von Trier
  • Stars
    • Charlotte Gainsbourg
    • Stellan Skarsgård
    • Stacy Martin
Top credits
  • Director
    • Lars von Trier
  • Writer
    • Lars von Trier
  • Stars
    • Charlotte Gainsbourg
    • Stellan Skarsgård
    • Stacy Martin
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 282User reviews
    • 353Critic reviews
    • 64Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 14 wins & 30 nominations

    Videos14

    Nymphomaniac: Volume I
    Trailer 1:48
    Nymphomaniac: Volume I
    Trailer #1
    Trailer 1:49
    Trailer #1
    Clip
    Clip 1:03
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 0:54
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 0:39
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 0:31
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 0:38
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 1:48
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 1:09
    Clip
    Clip
    Clip 1:03
    Clip
    "Chapter 4: Delirium"
    Clip 1:00
    "Chapter 4: Delirium"
    "Appetizer - Chapter 2: Jerôme"
    Clip 1:12
    "Appetizer - Chapter 2: Jerôme"

    Photos118

    Lars von Trier in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Lars von Trier in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Shia LaBeouf, Felicity Gilbert, and Stacy Martin in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Uma Thurman in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Sophie Kennedy Clark and Stacy Martin in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Charlotte Gainsbourg in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Udo Kier, Connie Nielsen, Stellan Skarsgård, Lars von Trier, Jamie Bell, Nicolas Bro, Shia LaBeouf, Sophie Kennedy Clark, Stacy Martin, and Mia Goth in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Lars von Trier in Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Timothée Chalamet at an event for Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)
    Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (2013)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Charlotte Gainsbourg
    Charlotte Gainsbourg
    • Joeas Joe
    Stellan Skarsgård
    Stellan Skarsgård
    • Seligmanas Seligman
    Stacy Martin
    Stacy Martin
    • Young Joeas Young Joe
    Shia LaBeouf
    Shia LaBeouf
    • Jerômeas Jerôme
    Christian Slater
    Christian Slater
    • Joe's Fatheras Joe's Father
    Uma Thurman
    Uma Thurman
    • Mrs. Has Mrs. H
    Sophie Kennedy Clark
    Sophie Kennedy Clark
    • Bas B
    Connie Nielsen
    Connie Nielsen
    • Joe's Motheras Joe's Mother
    Ronja Rissmann
    • Joe - 2 Yearsas Joe - 2 Years
    Maja Arsovic
    • Joe - 7 yearsas Joe - 7 years
    Sofie Kasten
    • B - 7 Yearsas B - 7 Years
    Ananya Berg
    Ananya Berg
    • Joe - 10 Yearsas Joe - 10 Years
    Anders Hove
    Anders Hove
    • Odinas Odin
    James Northcote
    James Northcote
    • Young Lad 1 on Trainas Young Lad 1 on Train
    Charlie G. Hawkins
    • Young Lad 2 on Trainas Young Lad 2 on Train
    • (as Charlie Hawkins)
    Clayton Nemrow
    Clayton Nemrow
    • Married Man on Trainas Married Man on Train
    Simon Böer
    Simon Böer
    • Man Uninterestedas Man Uninterested
    Jeff Burrell
    Jeff Burrell
    • Man on Train 1as Man on Train 1
    • Director
      • Lars von Trier
    • Writer
      • Lars von Trier
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Shia LaBeouf was asked to send pictures of his penis in order to obtain his role. He subsequently decided to send in personal tapes of him and his girlfriend having sex in order to convince Lars von Trier to cast him.
    • Goofs
      The train carriage where the two girls pick up strangers is German, but the ticket collector is wearing a British Railways uniform from the 1970s.
    • Quotes

      Joe: Perhaps the only difference between me and other people was that I've always demanded more from the sunset; more spectacular colors when the sun hit the horizon. That's perhaps my only sin.

    • Crazy credits
      Near the very end of the credits there is this disclaimer: "None of the professional actors had penetrative sexual intercourse and all such scenes where [sic] performed by body doubles."
    • Alternate versions
      The director's cut adds roughly 28 minutes of footage, expanding some of the subplots.
    • Connections
      Featured in Film '72: Episode dated 19 February 2014 (2014)
    • Soundtracks
      Führe mich
      Performed by Rammstein

      Written by Oliver Riedel, Christoph Schneider (as Christoph Doom Schneider), Richard Kruspe (as Richard Z Kruspe), Paul Landers, Till Lindemann and Flake Lorenz (as Doktor Christian Lorenz)

    User reviews282

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    A four-hour saga of disconnect, loneliness, and blowjobs.
    Denmark's notorious infant terrible, who used despair and unflinching self-mutilation as his canvas in his last few films, had already sparked a great deal of controversy and intrigue when the title of his next venture was announced. Nymphomaniac would deal with the bare-it-all, spare-no-details chronicle of a woman's sexual awakening, adventuring, and ultimate degradation. Lars von Trier, who some have accused of misogyny and making movies purely to shock, caught a good bit of flak for daring to make a movie that can be considered a woman's sexual autobiography, and most expected it to be a truly explicit film that could be considered little more than pornography.

    Most people underestimate Lars von Trier. While he does have his peculiarities, he is first and foremost an artist. And Nymphomaniac, his third outing with his muse Charlotte Gainsbourg, is perhaps his most expansive work to date. Split into two films and covering several decades, von Trier has concocted a Homeric tale of sound and fury and all sorts of sexual depravity. But this film is not designed to arouse, to titillate. Far from it; the sex is clinical, detached, almost boring at times.

    As I said, this is a woman's odyssey. This woman is Joe (Gainsbourg), who is discovered beaten within an inch of her life in a back alley by a lonely bachelor named Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard). Joe demands Seligman not call for assistance, instead accompanying the man back to his apartment for a cup of tea. And after she gets patched up, Joe finds Seligman a willing listener, a father confessor of sorts, and begins to spin a tale of promiscuity that would drive most men wild but intrigues Seligman in a much more philosophical manner. Joe's story starts from her discovery of her own sexuality at the age of two, and by the time she came to barely legal age (here played by Stacy Martin) and how she begins exploring her hypersensual nature. She abandons her virginity by bedding a motorhead (a curiously accented Shia LaBeouf), then even playing games of one-upmanship with her best friend and fellow sex addict (one scene features the girls competing to see who can bang the most guys on a train to win a bag of chocolates). As Gainsbourg's present-day Joe explains herself, Seligman picks out details and compares her sexual deviancy to the most obscure things, from fishing lures to baroque tritones. Von Trier is a very distinct writer, always seeming to verge on the arcane in his observations on the human condition, and here he gives an interesting perversion on, well, perversion. Is Seligman a truly insightful man when it comes to the human condition, or is he just the most hopelessly awkward fool imaginable?

    While Gainsbourg brings a great deal of gravitas to the role, it is her most subdued of the three films she's done with von Trier. And yet it is her most accessible, and she narrates the events of the film with such matter-of-fact certainty, her throaty voice describing the life she's led with all of the care and calm of a woman describing the weather. But in the first half of the saga's four-hour run time, it is Stacy Martin who does the heavy lifting, and she does it with remarkable skill, carefully balancing between naiveté and calculation. As Joe matures and sinks further into her addiction (a term she despises), more and more familiar faces start showing up. Her parents are briefly played by Christian Slater and Connie Nielsen, the former having an excellent "money scene" while the latter has maybe thirty seconds of screen time. Shia LaBeouf, who zigzags between admirable and awkward (sometimes in the course of the same scene), returns as Joe's first employer and ultimately her husband. And mention must be made of Uma Thurman's haughtily fiery scene-stealer of a performance that blazes on-screen as a jilted wife whose husband has abandoned her for what he expected to be a life with Joe. She follows her husband to Joe's apartment with their three tykes in tow, and in the span of seven minutes she frays and has a complete emotional meltdown.

    As the first half of the film segues in to the second, Gainsbourg takes the fore, as Joe stops seeking sexual release for joy and instead out of a desperate need to feel something. As the film goes on, she explores different fetishes and outlets, including but not limited to interracial threesomes, bondage, humiliation of all sorts. In one notable case, Gainsbourg's character submits herself to the whims of a young man who specializes in intense BDSM. The fact that this rather devious fellow is played by Jamie Bell is a bit of a shock to anyone who's seen Billy Elliot recently. But if anyone was stimulated by the first act of Joe's saga, the second act dashes it away with cold realism.

    As with all of von Trier's films, the ending is unforgettable. I confess that when I sensed the film drawing to a close, I was pleasantly surprised at how von Trier handled it, and that perhaps the Danish prince of melancholia had decided to serve up a happy ending for once. Of course, I forgot this is Lars von Trier we're talking about, and the final minute of the film may send audience members in a tizzy. It's part of the reason why I've taken so long to write my thoughts on it. But as I write this, I do think Nymphomaniac is a terrific entry in his canon, and a worthy closer to his trilogy.
    helpful•29
    25
    • Ser_Stephen_Seaworth
    • Mar 9, 2014

    FAQ1

    • What are the differences between the Theatrical Version and the Director's Cut?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • March 6, 2014 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Denmark
      • Germany
      • Belgium
      • United Kingdom
      • France
      • Sweden
      • United States
    • Official sites
      • Official Facebook
      • Official Facebook (Japan)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Nymphomaniac: Volume I
    • Filming locations
      • Klinikum Leverkusen, Paracelsusstrasse, Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
    • Production companies
      • Zentropa Entertainments
      • Zentropa International Köln
      • Heimatfilm
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $785,896
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $158,369
      • Mar 23, 2014
    • Gross worldwide
      • $13,551,156
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 57 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

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