Charlotte Gainsbourg Signs On to Do More Art Porn for Lars Von Trier

How do you know a director has a crush on an actress? When he puts her in three consecutive films. After winning Best Actress at Cannes for Antichrist, in which she performs a violent self-clitoridectomy, Charlotte Gainsbourg took a more nuanced part in this year's Melancholia. Now comes word that Lars von Trier has again recruited the musician-actress, this time to play the title role in Nymphomaniac, shooting this summer. The film, which promises to be more explicit than even Antichrist, follows a "woman's erotic journey from birth to the age of 50 as told by the main character, the self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe."

That's how the just-released synopsis describes it, while ironically sprinkling in the words "light" and "poetic." Perhaps a better gauge, here's what Gainsbourg said about her role to the Guardian: "I haven't read the script. I sort of had to commit to doing the film without reading it. I know he wants to use porn actors as doubles, like we did in Antichrist, so they would do those shots but then we'd do the rest. I don't know at what point, but I know I have limits. I had limits on Antichrist. I remember he asked me to jerk off the porn actor and that's when I said I couldn't. So we will see what my limit is for the next one." It's enough to make you forget your safe word.

With both a hardcore and softcore version planned, it looks like Nymphomaniac will put Shame to shame.

• Posted Feb 19, 2012
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