With films to his credit like Dogville and Antichrist, Lars von Trier is a professional provocateur. The Danish writer-director revels in making audiences squirm with onscreen violence, cruelty and sex that are too extreme for mainstream audiences. As follow-up to his critically championed end of the world drama Melancholia, von Trier is readying Nymphomaniac, a movie whose premise you could probably guess.
Recurring von Trier collaborator Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as Joe, the titular self-proclaimed nymphomaniac. After she's been attacked and found beaten in an alley by Stellan Skarsgård's character, Joe recounts her lifetime of erotic experimentation and sexual exploration. The first image released gave us a look at Gainsbourg in the aforementioned alley. The second teases something far more salacious. Check it out below, courtesy of Nymphomaniac's distributor, Artificial Eye:
The caption gives us little detail on what's going down here. But really do you need an explanation? Clearly, Joe (Gainsbourg) is gearing up for a threesome. I must confess, I'm not familiar with the actors flanking her. But Nymphomaniac boasts an impressive star-studded cast that includes Willem Dafoe, Charlotte Rampling, Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, Connie Nielsen and Uma Thurman.
Currently in post production, Nymphomaniac is slated to make its theatrical debut in von Trier's native Denmark on May 30th, 2013. We suspect it will tour of the prestigious festival circuit—including Venice and Toronto—before coming to the United States. But first, this challenging film must find a US distributor with the stomach to take it on. Since von Trier is reportedly working on two versions (one hardcore, one lacking the rumored real onscreen sex scenes), this might make its release Stateside a bit more palatable to art house distributors.
