02/09/2014 - In Venice with his own cut of Nymphomaniac: Volume 2, the director makes a return to television – 20 years after The Kingdom

Danish director Lars von Trier, whose own – and longer – cut of Nymphomaniac: Volume 2 [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] will have its world premiere at the 71^st Venice International Film Festival, which ends on 6 September, is working on an English-language television series, The House That Jack Built. It will be his first since The Kingdom (1994), which was also selected for Venice. 

According to a press release from Zentropa Entertainments, Danish producer Louise Vesth announced the news at a press conference at the Venice Festival, which will also – as a special treat – screen his extended version of Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Louise Vesth
film profile], launched at Berlin.

Boasting “a major international cast”, The House That Jack Built is “a television series without precedent – a series the likes of which you have never seen before and never will again. So, dear world, wait in suspense,” added Zentropa CEO Peter Aalbæk Jensen, who will produce with Vesth; Danish pubcaster DR’s Piv Bernth will executive-produce. Shooting will start in early 2016.

Having won both Danish Bodil and Robert awards, adding a German TV Oscar to its international prizes, The Kingdom, starring Swedish actor Ernst-Jugo Järegård and Danish actors Kirsten Rolffes and Ghita Nørby, was acclaimed for its original handheld-camera style, making good use of jump cuts; it was acknowledged as one of the first steps towards the Dogme manifesto.

Meanwhile, Zentropa and Danish distributor Nordisk Film Biografdistribution have decided to theatrically release the double bill of von Trier’s own Nymphomaniac 1+2 cuts; the version edited by Molly Malene Stensgaard has been touring Danish theatres since 25 December 2013, taking 50,046 admissions. The director’s cut will premiere at Copenhagen’s Imperial on 10 September.

French actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays the lead as a 50-year-old self-confessed nymphomaniac describing her erotic experiences, won the Danish Film Critics’ Bodil Award for Best Actress. In addition, Nymphomaniac was yesterday nominated for the People’s Choice Award by the European Film Academy.