I have to say that, after all more than 200 movies I've seen, this can be awarded the favorite one.
It kind of reminds me of penny dreadful by those unattained, difficult words, also by quotes and discussions casted on many aspects eg. Religion, politics, emancipation, mathematics and even musical composition. But apparently when ripped off the drama embellishment, penny dreadful talks more about romantic poetry and literature, while nymphomaniac maintains its realistic attitude and serious core.
It's not just loneliness, or we can say it talks about the loneliness all women may suffer. But we better describe it as oppression, as said in the end by Seligman, the narration made will be of no interest and even commonsense-like if the lead here is a male. Hunting for no-love sex, getting into a menage a trois, trying to murder… Joe (I think she might be named dedicating to Joe of the little women because they are both brave, creative and inner-directed ) always gets to break the pattern, from asking a total stranger to take her virginity to “collecting” all the penis like an encyclopedia (big black cocks, little yellow cocks…). Even she seems to confess sometimes using phrases eg. sins born with, callousness etc. , she might not feel guilty herself actually. She is doing this only to cater on the mainstream of social judgements,even she is rebellious. It is hard to ignore the repeatedly emerged part about her father and ash trees, “Everyone has its own trees, my dad said. Once you see it, you know. I haven't found mine.” That is how I interpreted her loneliness.
I love all the metaphors it used. The first one is to compare nymph implying elegantly to our young protagonist, and then fly-fishing phases to man hunting. The most impressive one is polyphony, how Bach managed to get three independent melodies harmonious altogether. She compares it to the three most important men in her sex journey, one provides comfort and safety as bass in the chorus, one provides passion and manly fascination and the last one, Jerome, who bathed her in love, as the Cantus Firmus.“ The secret ingredient to sex is love.” Remember years ago when she lost him, sitting downhearted on a train, she said, “I was playing jigsaw puzzles.” She found every similar parts on others to Jerome, and got soaked in missing him .
Such is also my disaster, that with a considerable number of lovers before and astonishingly strong memory, I feel like nothing around could elevate my mood of exploration, and each piece may call on a review about someone. My heart is like a postwar battleground sated with ruins and smoke. But this is just digression anyway.
The last thing I like, as I expressed above, it is about sex but it's not just sex or gender discrimination or sexuality. It talks a little about democracy, which is surprisingly consistent to my standpoint—people are too stupid for democracy. Deconstruction ! Yes, that is the word I'm trying to figure out. Democracy, bourgeoisie (mentioned by the tiny cake fork as a symbol of difference between bourgeoisie and proletariat)… all fake prosperity and illusions in capitalism are deconstructed by her words and she named it "call a spade a spade" (seeking truth from facts).
Also the actress is skinny with a poker face, so her abstinence did a great favor to reduce erotic senses throughout the film, making it more like an orderly biography rather than an unscrupulously obscene novel.
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