‘Nymphomaniac’: Lars Von Trier Won’t Provide The Final Cut


Director Lars Von Trier won’t provide the final cut of his upcoming drama Nymphomaniac.

Although the filmmaker always insists on delivering the final version of his creative endeavors, he is placing his latest flick in the hands of another. Since the movie is simply too long at the moment, someone else will cut down the flick ahead of its release date.

The fate of Nymphomaniac arrived during Peter Aalbaek Jensen’s interview with Danish magazine Filmmagasinet Ekko. According to Lars Von Trier’s longtime producer, the filmmaker turned in a five-and-a-half hour cut of the film in question. Needless to say, the movie will undergo some changes before it arrives in theaters.

Jensen explained:

“The short version is against Lars’ own will, but he accepts it because he understands market mechanisms… You cannot make a film for more than 60 million kroners (about $11 million) that is so lengthy. Five and a half hour is so extreme that it reduces market value so radically that investors would have felt they had bought a pig in a poke.”

According to Cinema Blend, the final cut of Nymphomaniac should clock in at around four hours. Forcing moviegoers to ingest the entire story in one sitting is a bit much, so producers are cutting the movie in half and releasing them separately.

Instead of releasing a softcore and a hardcore version of the flick, producers are opting to give folks one version with all the sexually-explicit scenes intact. Jensen said distributors can decide for themselves which scenes they want to blur before releasing Nymphomaniac into theaters. In other words, versions around the world will differ greatly.

The Hollywood Reporter explains that Lars Von Trier’s five-and-a-half hour cut probably won’t screen in theaters anytime soon. Although rumors suggested it could appear at Cannes next year, the producer shot down these reports. However, there’s a chance the director’s cut could arrive on home video down the road.

Unfamiliar with this movie? Here’s the official synopsis:

“‘Nymphomaniac’ is the wild and poetic story of a woman’s erotic journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe. On a cold winter’s evening the old, charming bachelor, Seligman, finds Joe beaten up in an alleyway. He brings her home to his flat where he tends to her wounds while asking her about her life. He listens intently as Joe over the next 8 chapters recounts the lushly branched-out and multi faceted story of her life, rich in associations and interjecting incidents.”

What do you think about Lars Von Trier giving up final cut on Nymphomaniac? Are you planning to catch the controversial drama when it finally arrives in theaters?

[Image via Magnolia Pictures]

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