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.

TMDb rating6.7

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Requiem for a Dream poster

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.

The Dreamers poster

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.

Secretary poster

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.

Black Swan poster

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.

Belle de Jour poster

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.

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