On March 6, the second episode of “Nymphomaniac” by Lars von Trier was released in Russia. The total duration of the Danish filmmaker's latest work to date is five hours. To give viewers a chance to reach the final credits, the producers decided not only to release the film in two parts, but also to cut each of them by 30 minutes. Von Trier himself did not seem to argue with this decision, but did not take part in the final editing of the film . “Nymphomaniac”, of course, did not appear before a wide audience in all its glory, but it is still possible to appreciate the general idea after the second episode.

The film tells the story of Jo (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a middle-aged woman whom a man named Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) picks up in a gateway in not the best condition. Jo's face is broken, she can hardly walk, and her clothes stink. Seligman brings the woman into his house, gives her tea and gives her a pajama set - in response, she tells him the story of her life, gradually approaching the events that resulted in her being beaten on the street. Jo focuses primarily on her sexual experiences: the fact is that she is a nymphomaniac (the term “sexual addiction,” as it turns out later, categorically does not suit her).

The film consists of eight chapters, which, in turn, consist of flashbacks, interspersed with fragments of dialogue between Seligman and Joe. In the chapters included in the first episode of Nymphomaniac, the main character is played by fashion model Stacy Martin . At the very beginning of the second part, Jo's child is born, and after that she quickly “turns” into Gainsbourg.

“Nymphomaniac” is a classic von Trier, but now deluxe: everything is the same in the same words, but in larger volumes, more insistently and louder. It all starts with a Rammstein track playing behind the scenes, followed by Fibonacci numbers, “Mea vulva, mea maxima vulva,” Orthodox icons, fishing, the Whore of Babylon and more. One of the first shots of the first episode is seaweed gently swaying in a stream of water; towards the end of the second hour, Bach's F minor prelude is heard . Didn't recognize Tarkovsky? It doesn’t matter, they will explain to you: look, his name in the credits is the first line in the list of people whom von Trier thanks.

Still from the movie “Nymphomaniac 2” 1 /5

Quotes and references (including to von Trier's previous works, sometimes quite literally) are chopped into dust, mixed and shaken, and then seasoned with footage from videos borrowed from YouTube. The resulting homogeneous mass is spread over the screen in an even grayish layer. In fact, only one of the chapters of “Nymphomaniac” is black and white, but it seems that all eight are devoid of color.

All of von Trier's characters, as usual, do not try to be living people, they are purely functions. Does Joe leave her husband and child to please herself? Well, so what, it’s business. Everyone, in general, is good: the husband (played by Shia Labeouf, who, by the way, lately seems to be a conceptual project of von Trier) does not have enough strength to satisfy the heroine, and he invites her to turn to other men for help. The child, with his very appearance, turned Martin into Gainsbourg. “Forget about love,” says the slogan posted on the advertising posters for Nymphomaniac. At the same time, von Trier suggests forgetting about pity, sympathy and much more.

In this sense, Nymphomaniac, which is certainly not pornography, seems quite similar to pornographic films. For those, as we remember, the only goal is to excite the viewer (perhaps in this case it would be more correct to say “consumer”), to help him reach orgasm. There is no talk of any additional emotions. So von Trier deals exclusively with what tickles - not just the genitals, but the nerves.

Here we must understand that von Trier is not mocking the phenomena he is talking about, and not the elements from which his film is assembled. Roughly speaking, the object of ridicule is not romantic feelings as such, not interest in group sex, not Rammstein, not Bach or the film "Solaris" (one can assume that in fact the Dane loves the 1972 film more than anyone more). According to the author's idea, it should go first of all to naive, dreamy natures, fugue lovers, fans of Tarkovsky and further down the list. That is, virtually any viewer of “Nymphomaniac” - or, again, a consumer.

Only this time von Trier does not reach the goal. Maybe the killer timing is to blame. Perhaps the techniques used by the filmmaker, which change little from film to film, have finally become obsolete. Maybe we have all been hardened by past paintings and have grown thicker skin. One way or another, the consumer leaves the hall after four hours filled with physiological details, and the only thing left for him to do is to quote Jo herself. In the finale of the first episode of “Nymphomaniac,” the heroine loses the opportunity to receive sexual satisfaction and, not without despair, reports: “I don’t feel it! I do not feel anything!"

Lenta.ru: Culture: Cinema: The Devil of Pleasure