Denmark's most important and most self important troublemaker Lars von Trier is back with the two-part Nymphomaniac. Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as the title character and recounts her lifelong sexcapades. Is there really 5 hours of story to tell? Or is it just hard to edit yourself when you're doing something vignette style? And how do we count this in his filmography anyway... as one or two films?
Is it really one film delivered at two separate chunks or two separate films? Not that Von Trier's filmography is easy to parse in the usual way, making posterized a bit more challenging. [more...]
We try to include all theatrical released feature films, excluding shorts, made for television entries, and documentaries but Lars is a special case even here. I didn't want to leave out The Five Obstructions, for example, because ask yourself: is it really a documentary or is it more of a playful scripted hybrid-genre conversation between filmmakers? And then there's the student film he made before his traditional features (if you can ever use that word with the Mad Dane)-- it was actually released theatrically. And then there's his famous miniseries The Kingdom... which I still haven't attacked I admit but which I've always heard is worth the time. And then there's Medea, his TV feature. He's done more work than just the 12 below.
So herewith the not exactly complete but also complete 12 wide filmography to date in poster form. How many have you seen?
LARS VON TRIER'S 12 FEATURES
or thirteen if you'd like to count Nymphomaniac as two
The Europa Trilogy
Element of Crime (1984), Epidemic (1987), Europa (1991)
The Golden Heart Trilogy
Breaking the Waves (1996), The Idiots (1998), Dancer in the Dark (2000)
The USA Trilogy (Not Completed) Dogville (2004), Manderlay (2005)
... and The Boss of it All ()
The Depression Trilogy
Antichrist (2009), Melancholia (2011), Nymphomaniac Pt 1 & Pt 2 (2014)
And, since this is a movie poster series in which we actually don't talk that much about the posters themselves, can we stop for a moment to appreciate how significantly brilliant the promotion has been on Nymphomaniac from the "O" face character posters through to this two-part brilliant minimalist design.
BRILLIANT, I say.
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How many of his pictures have you seen and which are your favorites? I love the entire Golden Heart Trilogy and think The Idiots remains the best among the lesser known titles. I also wish he'd do a whole trilogy of his Five Obstructions thing because that was such mischievous fun. Melancholia was, of course, a true return to form but I'm hoping he shifts stylistic gears again after this as he is prone to do every three or so films.