Von Trier’s ‘Nymphomaniac’ gets racy ad campaign

Danish director Lars von Trier’s upcoming "Nymphomaniac", an epic about a woman’s sexual evolution, is getting a provocative promotional roll-out. Pictured, three of the film's stars: Christian Slater, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Shia LaBeouf. Danish filmmaker-provocateur Lars von Trier last made headlines at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, when he was sent packing after a disastrous press conference at which he declared his sympathy for Hitler. But with his next film, a two-part, five-hour sexual epic called “Nymphomaniac”, set to premiere in Denmark in December and in France a month later, von Trier is creeping back into the public eye with a typically titillating, cryptic and carefully calculated marketing campaign. Over the last several weeks, the director has released brief clips of the film, which reportedly recounts the erotic life and evolution of a woman named Joe (played by French-English actress Charlotte Gainsbourg) from youth to middle age. And this week, a series of promotional posters was published online, each showing a different character from the star-studded cast in the throes of an orgasm. The featured actors include not only Gainsbourg, but Uma Thurman, ‘80s heartthrob Christian Slater, rising star Shia LaBeouf and Willem Dafoe. The film is said to span decades and to be closer in tone to von Trier’s early black comedy “The Idiots” than to graver recent works like “Melancholia”, the film he presented at Cannes two years ago. After initial rumours, floated by La Beouf himself, that “Nymphomaniac” would feature the actors actually having sex live on camera, von Trier finally opted for body doubles and digital maneuvering in the most explicit scenes. Among the clips released are a sequence showing a teenage Joe and her friend plotting to seduce men on a train; a mother (played by Thurman) showing her children what she calls “the whoring bed” or “Daddy’s favourite place”; and a slick executive (La Beouf) getting stuck in an office elevator with the young Joe. American fans of von Trier will have to sit tight; US distributor Magnolia Pictures has not yet revealed an American release date.