The explicit sex in Nymphomaniac has earned an R18+ classification for Lars von Trier's provocative drama.
The Classification Board judged the film has ”high impact sexual themes, actual sexual activity and nudity.”
Transmission Films will open the 4-hour opus, which explores a woman’s life and lovers over five decades, on March 27 at nine cinemas: Dendy Newtown, Palace Verona, Palace Norton Street, Nova Carlton, Palace Brighton Bay, Palace Nova Eastend, Palace Electric, Palace Centro and Luna Leederville.
The R18+ was no surprise to Transmission. “I think the rating will just reinforce what is already out there on this film and it is something that we were fully expecting when we acquired it,“ said Matthew Soulos, Head of Sales, Theatrical
In Part 1, an elderly bachelor (Stellan Skarsgård), discovers Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, badly beaten up in an alley. He takes her to his home and tends to her wounds, while she recounts the erotic story of her adolescence and young adulthood.
UK actress Stacy Martin plays her as a teenager. Shia LaBeouf is cast as a young guy who deflowers her.
Part 2 chronicles her later experiences, which include a threesome with two African men she spied outside her apartment window and an interlude with an S&M practitioner.
The original cut ran for 5½ hours. Gainsbourg was critical of the decision to release the shorter version, telling journalists, “I was disappointed, because I was all the time seeing sequences, which weren’t there.”
Transmission said the extended director's cut will premiere later this year, premiere date and venues yet to be announced.