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Nymphomaniac (film)

2013 film by Lars von Trier

Nymphomaniac is a 2013 European two-part erotic art film about a self-diagnosed "nymphomaniac," who recounts her erotic experiences to a bachelor who helps her recover from an assault.

They said that love was the secret ingredient in sex, but, to me, love was just lust, with jealousy added.
Written and directed by Lars von Trier.

Joe

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  • Perhaps the only difference between me and other people is that I've always demanded more from the sunset. More spectacular colors when the sun hit the horizon. That's perhaps my only sin.
  • It's actually the souls of the trees we're seeing in the winter. In summer everything is green and idyllic but in the winter, the branches and the trunks all stand out. Just look at how crooked they all are. The branches have to carry all the leaves to the sunlight. That's one long struggle for survival.
  • For me, love was just lust with jealousy added; everything else was total nonsense. For every hundred crimes committed in the name of love, only one is committed in the name of sex.
  • They said that love was the secret ingredient in sex, but, to me, love was just lust, with jealousy added.
  • Basically, we're all waiting for permission to die.
  • We elevate those who say right but mean wrong, and mock those who say wrong but mean right.
  • Each time a word becomes prohibited, you remove a stone from the Democratic foundation. Society demonstrates its impotence in the face of a concrete problem by removing words from the language. And I say that society is as cowardly as the people in it, who in my opinion are also too stupid for democracy.
  • The human qualities can be expressed in one word: Hypocrisy. We elevate those who say "right" but mean "wrong" and mock those who say "wrong" but mean "right." By the way, I can assure you that women who claim that negros don't turn them on, they're lying.
  • It's said to be difficult to take someone's life. I would've said that it's more difficult not to. For a human being, killing is the most natural thing in the world. We're created for it.

Seligman

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  • [narrating] During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. ("The House of the Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe)
  • But you... you've fucked thousands of men.

Mrs. H

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  • [to Young Joe] Would it be alright if I show the children the whoring bed? After all, they also have a stake in this event.
  • [to her children, referring to Joe's bedroom] Let's go see daddy's favorite place! C'mon boys! Ooh, so this is were it all happened!
  • Well, if three is a crowd, then seven must be a bit of a challenge for the pretty miss. I must say I have a hard time picturing her enjoying loneliness.
  • Whatever? It must be hard, when you've got everything, to know what to say!

B

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  • The secret ingredient to sex is love.

K

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  • That's not how this goes. Most people don't scream until I hit them.

Repeated line

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  • Mea Vulva, Mea Maxima Vulva!

Dialogue

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Young Joe: If I asked you to take my virginity, would that be a problem?
Jerôme: No, I don't see a problem.
B: Smile, make eye contact.
Young Joe: But what if it doesn't work?
B: Then you have to talk to them. Remember to ask lots of 'what?' questions if you want more than a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Then it'll just happen on its own. You just take them to the lavatory and you have sex with them.
Young Joe: What if it's nasty?
B: Then you just think about the bag of chocolate sweeties.
Joe: It's my own fault. I'm just a bad human being.
Seligman: I've never met a "bad human being."
Joe: Well, you have now.
Seligman: I'm Seligman.
Joe: What a fucking ridiculous name.
Seligman: Love is blind.
Joe: No, no, no. It's worse. Love distort things. Or even worse, love is something you never asked for. The erotic was something that I ask for or even demanded of men. But this idiotic love... I felt humiliated by it. And all the dishonesty that follows.
Joe: The erotic is about saying yes. Love appeals to lowest instincts, wrapped up in lies. How do you say yes when you mean no? And vice-versa. I'm ashamed of what I became. But it was beyond my control.
Mrs. H: [to her sons] Boys, now is the time to be alert and ask all the questions your hears desire. Because I hope that you shall never have to encounter such people or be in such a situation ever again.
[boys remain silent]
Mrs. H: Well? Hm? You don't have any questions? No? Well I'll start, shall I?
[referring to Joe]
Mrs. H: Approximately how many lives do you think she has time to destroy in one day? Five? Fifty? Or several hundreds? I admit the latter sounds improbable but where there's a will, there's a way!
Young Joe: [to Jerôme] Fill all my holes.
Jerôme: What's wrong?
Young Joe: I can't feel anything.
Jerôme: What?
Young Joe: I can't feel anything. I can't feel anything. I can't feel anything!
Joe: Nobody knew his secret. Most probably not even himself. He sat there with his shame. I suppose I sucked him off, is a kind of apology.
Seligman: That's unbelievable!
Joe: Listen to me. This is a man who had succeeded in repressing his own desire, who had never before given into it right up until I forced it out. He had lived a life full of denial and had never hurt a soul. I think that's laudable.
Seligman: No matter how much I try, I can't find anything laudable in pedophilia.
Joe: That's because you think about the, perhaps 5% who actually hurt children. The remaining 95% never live out their fantasies. Think about their suffering. Sexuality is the strongest force in human beings. To be born with a forbidden sexuality must be agonizing. The pedophile who manages to get through life with the shame of his desire, while never acting on it, deserves a bloody medal.
Joe: Dear everyone, don't think it's been easy, but I understand now that we're not and never will be alike.
[to Tania]
Joe: I'm not like you, who fucks to be validated and might just as well give up putting cocks inside of you. You already got your bloody kick a long time ago when it turned out that someone was even bothered to fuck you.
[to Brunhelda]
Joe: And I'm not like you. Eat yourself to death if you want. I have no pity for you. All you want is to be filled up and whether it's by a man or by tons of disgusting slop makes no difference because it's all just a pathetic attempt at filling out your own resounding emptiness and hiding your ridiculous egocentric self-loathing.
[to the Therapist]
Joe: And I'm definitely not like you. That empathy you claim is a lie because all you are is society's morality police whose duty is to erase my obscenity from the surface of the Earth so that the bourgeoisie won't feel sick.
[to the entire group]
Joe: I'm not like you. I am a nymphomaniac and I love myself for being one, but above all, I love my cunt and my filthy, dirty lust.
Joe: By the way, I can assure you that women who claim that negroes don't turn them on, are lying.
Seligman: So do they satisfy you, those negroes?
Joe: No, but they showed me there was a world far from mine I had to explore. And there perhaps on the other side get my life back.
Joe: I seem to remember that the systematic approach to the crucifixion is of a violent and not to say sadistic nature.
Seligman: Oh yes, the passion of Christ is full of systematic violence... The Via Dolorosa, the nine stations of the cross and the 39 lashes.
Joe: I believe I possess some qualifications in that I'm rather unscrupulous.
L: I know all about your qualifications and they're excellent.

Cast

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Cast and crew of the film at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival.

Quotes about Nymphomaniac

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  • Lars von Trier ends up hitting the G-spot of avant-garde filmmaking with a movie only he could ever make, and gives the open-minded members of the audience one of the most powerful and sensational experiences ever seen in arts.
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