The story kicks off in Volume 1. A middle-aged Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is found lying in an alley by a kindly middle aged asexual, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard) who proceeds to bring her to his intellectual abode (his Apartment). There, Joe makes a statement : She's a Nymphomaniac and proceeds to tell Seligman his life story.
Vol.1 mainly follows Joe (portrayed brilliantly by newcomer Stacy Martin) through her teenage and young adult years in a story divided into 5 chapters. At the end of each Chapter Seligman would offer an intellectual take on every single act of perversions that Joe committed. For example: he likened Joe's competition with a friend to have sex with most men on a train in a Chapter of the film, to the art of fly fishing.
Seligman's intellectualisation injects a lot of wit into the entire Apartment sequences and saves them from becoming the boring bits between the sexy bits.
Vol.2 heads into darker territories. The story now follows Joe as portrayed by Gainsbourg in her quest to reclaim her lost ability to have an orgasm. Joe is now married, but in order to fulfil her needs, her husband allows her to engage in plenty of "side activities". One of which is spending time with a sadistic s&m provider, K (brilliantly played by Jamie Bell). But there are still moments of levity, but mainly sadness and well..depression.
It would be a mistake to watch these two films separately. They are meant to be enjoyed as one film (with a little intermission, of course). Watching them one at a time is the same as eating a plain bread without butter, or Pancakes without syrup. Always missing something.
Overall, a great, great film. Entertaining, touching, shocking, sometimes profound, and sarcastic to hell. I cannot wait to see what the proper 5 hours version would contain when it comes out (if it ever does). Note to fellow fans, there's a very entertaining recreation of 'Antichrist' in Vol. 2 that is both funny and terrifying at the same time.
4.5/5
