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maltatoday, SUNDAY, 15 JUNE 2014 THIS WEEK 28 St James Cavalier Valletta Tel. 21 223200 NT Live presents The Curious Inci- dent of the Dog in the Night-Time 20:00 Embassy Cinemas Valletta Tel. 21 227436, 21 245818 X-Men: Days of Future Past (12A) 10:30, 18:00, 20:50 Simshar (12A) 10:15, 13:45, 16:10, 18:30, 20:55 Edge of Tomorrow (12A) 16:00, 18:30, 21:00 Maleficent 3D (PG) 10:30, 13:30 (2D), 15:50 (2D), 18:45, 21:10 Blended (12A) 10:30, 13:15, 16:00, 18:35, 21:15 22 Jump Street (15) 10:20, 13:30, 16:05, 18:40, 21:15 How to Train Your Dragon 2 3D (PG) 13:45, 16:10 Eden Cinemas St Julian's Tel. 23 710400 22 Jump Street (15) 14:05, 16:30, 18:50, 21:10, 23:35 Edge of Tomorrow (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:00, 23:25 Bad Neighbours (15) 14:20 16:25 18:45 20:50 23:05 Blended (12A) 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:15, 23:40 A Million Ways to Die in the West (15) 14:00, 16:20, 18:45, 21:10, 23:35 Maleficent 3D (PG) 14:15, 16:30, 18:50, 21:05, 23:20 How to Train Your Dragon 2 3D (PG) 14:05, 16:30 X-Men: Days Of Future Past 3D (12A) 20:55, 23:35 Postman Pat The Movie (U) 14:15, 16:25, 18:30 Divergent (12A) 20:45, 23:30 Locke (15) 14:20, 16:15, 18:30, 20:50, 23:00 Nymphomaniac: Vol. I (18) 14:00, 16:20, 18:40, 21:05, 23:30 The Other Woman (12A) 14:05, 16:25, 18:40, 21:00, 23:25 Godzilla 3D (PG) 14:25, 18:05, 20:45, 23:20 God's Not Dead (PG) 14:10, 16:30, 18:50, 21:15, 23:40 Empire Cinemas Bugibba Tel. 21 581787, 21 581909 Maleficent 3D (PG) 11:05, 13:45, 16:00, 18:10, 20:50 X-Men: Days Of Future Past 3D (12A) 11:00, 18:10, 20:50 Simshar (12A) 11:15, 13:35, 15:55, 18:15, 20:45 Edge of Tomorrow 3D (12A) 13:30, 18:10 Edge of Tomorrow (12A) 11:00, 15:50, 20:50 How to Train Your Dragon 2 3D (PG) 13:50, 16:00 "PEOPLE forget that the brain is the biggest erogenous zone," por- nographer Jackie Treehorn (Ben Gazzara) utters around mid-way through the cult Coen Bros come- dy The Big Lebowski (to which Jeff Bridges's 'The Dude' mordantly re- plies, "On you, maybe.") We're meant to take it as a prepos- terous quote by an equally prepos- terous character – Treehorn just wants to segue into a discussion about 'revolutionary' virtual-real- ity pornography that he's experi- menting with – but in the context of Danish director Lars Von Trier's latest, two-part arthouse shocker Nymphomaniac (whose second 'volume' will be released locally on July 9), the theory may just f ly. For while Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 does have a female sex addict as a protagonist – in the form of Von Trier-regular Charlotte Gainsbourg; whose younger, in-extended-f lash- back iteration is played by startling newcomer Stacy Martin – its real pleasures (if they can be called as such; perhaps 'curiosities' would be better) lie in the zany intellec- tual acrobatics that the ever-con- troversial writer-director indulges in this story-within-a-story. We meet our protagonist, Joe (Gainsbourg) as she lies sprawled on the snow-capped ground, ap- parently left for dead. Coming across her by accident, the kindly Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård) al- lows her to convalesce in his guest bedroom and, over several cups of tea ("with milk") is regaled to her life story: which, Joe is at pains to assure him, is nothing but the life of a bad human being. Joe's self-loathing stems from what appears to be her life-long sex addiction, which leads to mis- adventures and morally – as well as, erm, physically – sticky situa- tions. Charting her journey from childhood to adolescence, Joe's account is unapologetic – though whether it's entirely factual is left for us to grapple with – but Selig- man insists on justifying her unsa- voury escapades within an intellec- tual framework that incorporates everything from the Fibonacci se- quence, angling and the music of Johann Bach… Though some may consider the Euro-cinema mainstay Von Trier as being a firm beacon of the 'art- house' cinema camp – and this includes our local multiplex, Eden Cinemas – the fact remains that for all his taboo pushing antics and shock tactics, he's a director with an established aesthetic 'brand', whose projects have the power of magnetically attracting an inter- national array of film stars – Hol- lywood players included – and whose films, love them or hate them, are eagerly anticipated, heartily consumed and hotly de- bated. So there's little, really, to statisti- cally differentiate Von Trier from his Hollywood counterparts. And though the marketing campaign which led to the release of Nym- phomaniac may have fallen on the kookier side of things – posters depicting the actor's faces mid or- gasm; oblique, largely uneventful 'appetizer' clips culled from indi- vidual 'chapters' of the film – it al- so shrewdly and cheekily manipu- lated audience expectation, openly provoking while also stoking curi- osity at every turn. This impish approach is mirrored in the film itself, where playful – even post-modern – irony appears to be the order of the day, with nothing being taken entirely seri- ously and being left at the mercy of Von Trier's feverish mind games. It's a double-provocation: it's a film which calls itself 'Nympho- maniac', and comes crammed (look, anything will be double- entendre worthy at this point, so let's just ignore it and sail on) with explicit sex scenes, but which then uses the mouthpiece of the stodgy, scholarly mouthpiece of Seligman to turn it all into a free-association intellectual puzzle. This may feel indulgent to some, but delectable to others, especially given Von Trier's effortless hand at injecting left-field backdrops and stylistic touches. Barring Shia LaBeouf 's cack- handed attempt at a British accent, the cast is on top form, with the fragile – but fearless – Stacy Mar- tin predictably stealing the show. Hollywood actors are allowed to spread their wings too, though. Once-heartthrob Christian Slat- er delivers a surprisingly tender performance as 'Joe's Father', par- ticularly in the film's penultimate chapter, depicting his collapse to cancer in a black-and-white se- quence entitled Delirium (in an- other example of Von Trier's play- ful approach, discussion about madness gives Seligman an excuse to indulge in an Edgar Allan Poe quote). Uma Thurman – embittered wife to one of Joe's many sexual partners – delivers one of the most uncomfortable scenes in the film with gusto; a reminder that this striking actress remains un- derused by Hollywood at large (at least, by film directors who aren't Quentin Tarantino). Sharply split between an expres- sion of predatory carnal desire (Joe) and cold academic inquiry (Seligman) the film is both too hot and too cold, puppet-mastered by Von Trier, perhaps a tad too neatly. But it remains a crazy, inspired fever dream. Let's see what its sec- ond half has in store. Nymphomaniac: Vol . 2 will be showing at Eden Cinemas f rom July 9 FILM IN CINEMAS TODAY By Teodor Reljic It's what you expect, but it also isn't ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ A NIGHT TO REMEMBER ★ ★ ★ ★ MULTIPLE ORGASMS ★ ★ ★ HAPPY CUSTOMER ★ ★ 'MY FIRST TIME' ★ '…THAT'S IT? ' 'Coming' of age: Sophie Kennedy Clark and Stacy Martin (right) NYMPHOMANIAC VOL. 1 (18) ★ ★ ★ ★