16/08/2011

While Danish director Lars von Trier’s Cannes entry, Melancholia [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lars von Trier
film profile] – ”a beautiful film about the end of the world” – is waiting to be released in the US on November 4, he is preparing an early 2012 shoot for Nymphomaniac, his upcoming feature detailing a woman’s sexual life from birth until she is 50.

”From what he has told me on the phone it will be very entertaining – very erotic, but also very funny,” said his partner, Danish producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen, of Zentropa Entertainments, who confirmed the eight chapters on female sexuality would go into production in the first half of 2012, on a €7-8 million budget.

Von Trier has declared: ”As a culture radical, I can hardly explore a woman’s sexual development without a graphic depiction of intercourse - an actual penetration. It does not mean it will be a porn movie, simply a film with a lot of sex and a lot of philosophy,” he explained to the US press.

”The solution could be that we make two versions of Nymphomaniac – one with hardcore sex scenes, the other a softer edition suitable for television. Most of the finance for our films comes from television, and there are limits to how explicit you are allowed to be there. But Lars is considering this in his writing,” Jensen explained.

According to the Zentropa chief, von Trier has already decided on the actors for two of the main parts in the film, who cannot not yet be named, and nor neither is there information concerning whether they will have doubles for their sex scenes. The main part of the shooting will take place in Sweden or Germany, where the director has lensed most of his films.

Meanwhile, his Melancholia – which garnered US actress Kirsten Dunst a Best Actress award at Cannes – is now being released worldwide, in spite of the boycott announced after von Trier’s controversial remarks at the press conference after the screening in Cannes, which officially made him persona non grata at the festival.

”In fact, the only consequence of his, let's say ’unfortunate' statements, was that the Argentine distributor backed out of our contract, but then we sold the film to somebody else,” Aalbæk Jensen added. In Denmark it opened at number three on the charts for Nordisk Film Distribution, but is still behind its 70,000-admission target.