Nymphomaniac

The steamy Danish drama Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 hits US multiplexes in limited release Friday.

Distributor Magnolia submitted the sexually-graphic Nymphomaniac to the Motion Picture Association of America ratings board earlier this year, and unsurprisingly it came back with an NC-17. Instead of submitting to the MPAA's edit suggestions for an R rating, Magnolia decided to release the film unrated. Magnolia's sr. vice-president of marketing and publicity Matt Cowal told TheWrap:

It's not a huge distinction. But we went this route rather than accept the restrictions on promotions and marketing materials that an NC-17 would require.

In the last five years, more than 1,000 movies have been released without a rating, while only three have gone out with an NC-17. The most recent prior to Blue is the Warmest Color was William Friedkin's Killer Joe , which grossed almost $2 million in 2012; the top-grossing was Steve McQueen's Shame , which grossed $3.9 million in 2011.

So while many exhibitors shy away from unrated fare, Magnolia will turn to independents and smaller chains for screens when it expands over the next few weeks.

The critics have been impressed but at this point no one expects Nymphomaniac to run up major grosses.

Turkish censors have banned Danish director Lars Von Trier's cmovie epic Nymphomaniac from theatres for its extensive nudity and no-holds-barred sex scenes.

The first part was planned to be screened in Turkey on March 14 and the second part on March 21. But Turkey's cinema board, which includes representatives from the culture, interior and education ministries, banned the movie outright by a majority vote on Monday.

Yamac Okur, a dissenting member of the board, said the decision was tantamount to censorship .

Barring any cinema movie from commercial screening is unacceptable. It could have been displayed by age rating. Otherwise, it is censorship.

Update: Classified as porn

7th March 2013. See  article from  hollywoodreporter.com

Turkey's film board banned the film outright on a vote of six to two that Nymphomaniac be classified as pornography.

The board includes members of Turkey's cultural, interior and education ministries as well as a psychologist and a sociologist.

This film is in the porn category...because of its explicit sexual scenes, Turkey's cinema general director Cem Erkul told AFP: It also depicts extreme violence against women.

Nymphomaniac: Volume II is a 2013 Denmark/Belgium/France/Germany/UK mystery drama by Lars von Trier.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård and Stacy Martin.

The Romanian cinema board has banned Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac II as supposedly unfit for public viewing, a decision the distributor says is unique in Europe.

The movie was due to be released Feb. 7 but the National Center of Cinematography told the distributor the film would be labeled IM 18 XXX, banned to minors and the general public.

Distributor Independence Film called it a case of censorship which is unique in Europe, and said it would appeal.

Nymphomaniac I is already running in Romanian cinemas.

Update: Romania shamed into sacking the censor and unbanning the film

1st February 2013. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

A ban on the second half of Danish director Lars von Trier's two-part film Nymphomaniac in Romanian cinemas has been reversed. The film will now be released as planned on 7 February.

Its distributor, Independenta Film, called the initial decision to ban Nymphomaniac: Volume II by the CNC (Centrul National al Cinematografiei) a case of censorship which is unique in Europe .

Georgica Severin, chairman of the Romanian senate's culture committee, also criticised the decision, pointing out the fact that Nymphomaniac: Volume I was already running in the country's cinemas.

The Hollywood Reporter said the president of the ratings commission, Cristina Corciovescu, had been dismissed and that the film's rating had been changed to Romania's version of an 18 certificate. It quoted an email from Antoine Bagnaninchi, managing director of Independenta film, which said it was great publicity for the film but very bad for the image of Romania .

  Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 is a 2013 Denmark/Germany/France/Belgium/UK drama by Lars von Trier.
With Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård and Stacy Martin.

Danish filmmaker Lars von Trier has been steadily hyping content too shocking for mainstream audiences. Former child stars in hard-core sex scenes, and soon we will get a chance to check out the claims.

The Hollywood Reporter says that the prestigious Berlin Film Festival will play host to the world premiere of to the director's cut version of Nymphomaniac: Volume 1.

Nymphomaniac stars recurring von Trier leading lady Charlotte Gainsbourg as Joe, the self-confessed sex addict for which the drama is named. After being beaten and left for dead in the street, Joe is taken in by a kindly stranger. With him, she shares her life story, full of twisted trysts, casual sex, and serious kinks.

The initially reported plan was Nymphomaniac would be cut in two versions. One would be a (digitally faked) hardcore version The other would be a tamer version. However, Joe's odyssey of sexual adventure ballooned into a running time of over four hours, and from there talk switched from two versions of one film to two volumes divided by chapters.

The Wall Street Journal reports that In general, apart from scenes with oral sex, the onscreen activity is not as graphic as in adult fare (In addition, unlike in real porn, body doubles are used). Also, the film often portrays sex as a mechanical, unemotional act. Von Trier seems to want to show that appetite for sex is human, but that it also sometimes makes humans act inhuman.

Von Trier's cut clocked in at over five and a half hours long. From there, producers were looking to trim Nymphomaniac to four hours, and then split that running time in half for Volumes 1 & 2 . This trimmed producer's cut is what is expected to debut in Denmark on Christmas Day.

Those seeing Nymphomaniac in Berlin will be seeing the director's cut that those in the US and Denmark will see the Producer's Cut..

In the US, Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 will be On Demand March 6th with a limited theatrical release following on March 21st. Nymphomaniac: Volume 2 will make its way to On Demand by April 3rd, with its theatrical run following on April 18th.