Reimagining a Film Poster: Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac

Lars von Trier is a complicated director, and while some love to hate him, others are enamored with his films. Make no mistake, his films are cruel, violent, visceral, graphic, and even misogynist, but at the same time they are beautifully filmed and they do comment about the human condition in thoughtful ways.

Nymphomaniac (2013) is a typical Von Trier film, though there is nothing typical about his films. The film stars Charlotte Gainsbourg who relates her various sexual exploits to Stellan Skarsgård’s character after he finds her severely beaten on the side of the road. The sexual vignettes throughout the film are graphic and leaves very little to the imagination. Later versions of the film’s posters portrayed the cast in various stages of sexual throws, but the first poster, designed by Von Trier himself, is simply genius.

Von Trier’s original poster for Nymphomaniac (2013).

This elegantly minimalist poster says so little while simultaneously saying everything about the film. I marvel at its clever simplicity. I wanted to do something similar, while still playing with tongue in cheek symbols. I associate sex with the ocean, namely wet, rhythmic, and beautiful. The human body is exhausted as it is continuously pelted by wave after wave of cold wetness. From this idea I created the poster below. It is not meant to be an improvement of the original. It is just me playing with Von Trier’s toys and reimagining it.

My reimagined version of the Nymphomaniac film poster.

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