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| Joe (Gainsbourg) in a rather uncomfortable position. |
The second volume begins with a teenage Joe (Stacy Martin) with her eyes wide open naked in bed as she is living with Jerome (Shia LaBeouf). All of her lovers are trying to contact her -- calling her, knocking on the door incessantly. But, Joe tries everything to get rid of her past. Then, the movie goes into another narration by present-day Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) when she tells of a story when she was 12 years old, she was lying on the grass and as the ground shakes violently, and she is up in the air levitating beside two other females, one with a veil and one with a child in her hand. Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) criticizes her dream as religious blasphemy relevant to the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ. Then, Seligman compares young Joe's incessant masturbation to some religious themes in the beginning of Volume II.
The sixth chapter begins with young Joe's vagina being unresponsive to pleasure but is comfortable with the domestic relationship with Jerome as she asks him a nasty request regarding a spoon when they are both in an ice cream parlor. The irony was that Joe could not feel any sexual pleasure during her period. She became careless to safety (birth control pills) since she gets pregnant. She wants a Caesarian operation and as the baby is born, Joe thinks that the baby is laughing demonically at her. I thought it was a subtle reference to Rosemary's Baby.
Joe still cannot feel any sexual pleasure as she still has sex with Jerome. As time passes by, the situation becomes awkward and uncomfortable as Joe still seduces men and wear frumpy clothes and when she comes back to Jerome and their son, Jerome become jealous inside but he remains calm inside his car when on his way to work. She also attends appointments to a sadomasochist (Jamie Bell), where she gets "punished". It is an interesting scene because it recreates Joe's living sensation with sex. It's like restarting her battery.
15 years pass and Joe constantly masturbates and has sex with any man in her way and it interferes with her work life. She goes to become a "debt collector" as she had experiences with sex and sadomasochism. This hasty decision goes on the path to the her destructive lifestyle which I cannot spoil for the rest of the review.
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| Joe and the sadomasochist (Jamie Bell). |
This movie introduces some new characters: Jamie Bell as K, a dominator who unlocks Joe's interest of sex which connects both characters in a submissive fashion. L (Willem Dafoe), a shady character who Joe works for as a "debt collector". P (Mia Goth), a lesbian who develops a relationship with Joe. They are all interesting in this second part of the series.
Volume II is a bad movie on its own because 1) the viewer will be confused going into this film cold without watching Volume I and 2) the movie is full of arbitrary decisions that is inserted by Von Trier himself. He went beyond the lengths of making a complete adult masterpiece. But, he really went too far with his own creation. Volume II is a little more explicit and graphic than Volume I. But, the movie lacks of invigorating originality. This movie is just another lap on a track for the characters to do same thing over and over again. This volume is a disappointment.
And, on the whole, this movie is a mixed experience because when I was watching both of these movies, I thought to myself: "How the heck did Von Trier do something this courageous with these bizarre scenes?" But, in the end, the movie was a bit vacuous in my mind after the series was over.
My review of Volume I: http://joncaro24.blogspot.com/2014/04/nymphomaniac-vol-i-2014-unrated-3-stars.html
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