Film
Nymphomaniac: Vol. II
The back half of Lars von Trier's two-part epic trades Vol. I's picaresque comedy for masochism, addiction and reckoning. Gainsbourg takes over from Stacy Martin as Joe's story curdles, and Seligman's fireside cross-examination gets less playful and more pointed. It's clinical, explicit, occasionally absurd, always arguing with you. For viewers who finished Vol. I and want the whole uncomfortable case made to its end.
If you liked this
Shame2011
Steve McQueen's chilly, gorgeous study of a Manhattan executive whose compulsive sex life is starving him, not feeding him — the same clinical distance as Von Trier, the same refusal to separate arousal from pain.
But It's every bit as bleak and roughly as warm as a hospital corridor — don't expect catharsis.

Antichrist2009
Von Trier's own companion piece in spirit: grief, sex and cruelty fused into something genuinely frightening, with Gainsbourg again at the centre of a director pushing intimacy toward horror.
But Contains imagery that will follow you around for days; not for the squeamish or the recently bereaved.

Blue Is the Warmest Color2013no page yet
A three-hour love story so physically and emotionally unguarded it became a festival scandal — desire here is tender first, explicit second, the opposite temperature from Joe's clinical bookkeeping.
But The famously long sex scenes sparked real debate about exploitation; some find them gratuitous rather than moving.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Belladonna of Sadness1973
Both use a woman's sexuality as the engine of a larger argument about ownership and judgment — Von Trier through clinical dialogue, this through pure hallucinatory image.
A hallucinatory Japanese animated feature where a woman's sexual awakening becomes a watercolor, psychedelic rebellion against every man who's tried to own her — gorgeous, deranged, genuinely unlike anything else you'll watch this year.
But Explicit, surreal and dated in its politics; the animation style and dreamlike pacing will alienate anyone wanting realism.

More like this (8)
Requiem for a Dream2000
Aronofsky's addiction spiral shares Von Trier's fascination with compulsion as structure — chapters ticking toward ruin, formal tricks turning need into nightmare rather than melodrama.
But Unrelentingly grim with an ending that lingers uncomfortably; not something to put on for background.

The Dreamers2003
Bertolucci's Paris '68 threesome treats transgression as intellectual play rather than diagnosis, a warmer, more romantic cousin to Joe's clinical self-cataloguing of desire.
But Its nostalgia for youthful excess can feel indulgent, even naive, next to Von Trier's harsher eye.

Secretary2002
Kink played with real sweetness instead of pathology — Gyllenhaal and Spader find tenderness in submission where Von Trier mostly finds diagnosis and shame.
But Its comic, near fairy-tale tone might feel too gentle after Vol. II's bleakness.

Elle2016no page yet
Huppert plays a woman refusing to be defined by what's done to her body — a defiant counter-argument to every attempt, Seligman's included, to explain a woman's sexuality from outside.
But Verhoeven's tonal games with a violent premise will unsettle anyone wanting something straightforwardly serious.
Black Swan2010
Obsession, self-punishment and sexuality collapse into one psychological unraveling — Aronofsky's ballet horror shares Von Trier's taste for a woman's body as the site of her own undoing.
But It's melodrama dressed as prestige horror; some will find its excess more silly than harrowing.

9 Songs2004no page yet
Michael Winterbottom strips a relationship down to gig footage and unsimulated sex, cataloguing intimacy with almost the same chapter-by-chapter rhythm as Joe's own confessions.
But Thin on plot and character by design; some will find it more experiment than movie.
Belle de Jour1967
Same central puzzle — a woman's desire treated as a mystery to be diagnosed by the people around her — solved with implication instead of confession.
Buñuel's cool, elegant portrait of a bored housewife's double life as a prostitute told the 'respectable woman with a secret sexual self' story decades before Von Trier, with none of the shouting.
But Its restraint and ambiguity feel almost coy after Vol. II's explicitness; nothing here is shown outright.

Don Jon2013no page yet
It takes the exact same clinical interest in sexual compulsion as a structuring device and plays it for warmth and comedy instead of dread.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directing debut turns porn addiction into a breezy, funny rom-com about a man learning intimacy isn't a highlight reel — same compulsion, entirely opposite mood.
But It's slight and crowd-pleasing where Vol. II is punishing; don't expect it to sit with you afterward.
People
Cast

Stellan SkarsgårdSeligman
Stacy MartinYoung Joe
Shia LaBeoufJerôme
Udo KierThe Waiter
Jean-Marc BarrDebtor Gentleman

Michaël PasOld Jerôme
Shanti RoneyInterpreter
Kate AshfieldTherapist
Directing
- Anders RefnAssistant Director
- Lars von TrierDirector
- Florian EngelhardtFirst Assistant Director
- Alexandra HajokSecond Assistant Director
- Peter HjorthSecond Unit Director
Writing
- Lars von TrierWriter
Production
- Ida HarderAssociate Producer
- Des HamiltonCasting Director
- Bert HamelinckCo-Producer
- Jessica AskCo-Producer
- Madeleine EkmanCo-Producer
- Marianne SlotCo-Producer
- Olivier PèreCo-Producer
- Rémi BurahCo-Producer
- Véronique CaylaCo-Producer
- Bettina BrokemperExecutive Producer
- Marie Gade DenessenExecutive Producer
- Peter Aalbæk JensenExecutive Producer
- Peter GardeExecutive Producer
- Marianne Jul HansenLine Producer
- Sascha VerheyLine Producer
- Louise VesthProducer