MovieChat Forums > Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2014) Discussion > What exactly got cut from the Director's...

What exactly got cut from the Director's Cut?

posted 10 years ago by DwarvesAreVeryUpsetting
13 replies | jump to latest

I watched the full edition on Xfinity and I find it difficult to imagine that this film could be substantially cut without the essence being wrecked. While I can understand trimming out some of the very hardcore shots, why would they cut 90 minutes??????

So, what did they remove from Volume II? Is the abortion sequence intact? What about the pedophile? P getting screwed in the alley? All very graphic scenes but undeniably are a huge part of the crux of the story. Does the censoring actually make a difference in the quality of the film?

[–] WiC-19862016 10 years ago

- The ENTIRE abortion plot was missing from Chapter 7
- The movie opens with Joe talking about her spontaneous orgasm as a young girl and the vision of Valeria Messalina and the Whore of Babylon
- The scene with the Debtor Gentleman (the pedophile) is intact in the Producer's Edit
- P's betrayal is shown, but not the penetration shots
- Several of Joe's visits to K are truncated.
- An additional explanation for why Chapter 7 is called "The Mirror".

There are some other things, but those are the primary ones I remember.

[–] DwarvesAreVeryUpsetting 10 years ago

Do the cuts significantly tame or damper the experience of the story?

[–] WiC-19862016 10 years ago

The removal of the abortion definitely does in retrospect because it puts Joe in a new light and makes her a much darker character.

[–] DwarvesAreVeryUpsetting 10 years ago

That's interesting........ how does it make her a darker character? I'd think ripping her own fetus out of the womb in such a manner would make her a pretty objectionable figure to many audiences.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ciprianl 10 years ago

Perhaps also Les fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire were not needed to be written?

I have nothing personal against you, since I don't even know you, but I detest censorship - and you sound like a wannabe censor, telling people what is needed to be shown and what is not.

Better say that you didn't like it, or even that you consider it immoral. That would have been perfectly fine by me.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ciprianl 10 years ago

Sorry if I've been presumptuous. I really couldn't have known that you are a filmmaker.

It's true you did not advocate directly for censorship, but the words that you've used can be understood also in this sense: "don't think you need to show" could be interpreted as meaning "there is no need for this to be shown", leading (if the speaker has the means to achieve this) to "let's make sure this is not shown, since it's garbage." The reasoning of a censorship committee always starts from such "don't think you need to show".

I admit I'm not an expert in artistic worth, but ethically speaking, my comparison with Baudelaire is pertinent, since he also wrote his poems using similarly macabre imagery (and with similarly provocative intent) - the beauty of a woman's corpse that's leaking from decay etc.

Theoretically, I agree with Nietzsche that art doesn't have to be concerned neither with Truth, nor with the Good (this last point being pertinent here, since what von Trier shows is clearly morally repugnant).

Personally, it so happens that I like von Trier's latter work. Maybe I'm immature myself.

[–] 10 years ago

[deleted]

[–] craigbhill 10 years ago

You're a foolish immature child who thinks there is no saving grace when you can't think of one. NOTHING should be censored if it's real. Except maybe your fat ego. Try working on that, coward.

~ Native Angeleno

[–] Hasek 9 years ago

Nightcaller2 I think we all know no one has ever seen whatever pathetic "works" you've spewed onto the public space.

[–] jeroen-106 10 years ago

Wow, that's a lame responds to someone who helps you answering your question and expresses his opinion.

[–] oldcapecod-425-966198 10 years ago

A little TMI to support how excruciatingly vivid it was: I have not been a fertile woman for almost a decade, which means I no longer experience things like cramps. I just saw that scene about 10 minutes ago and I feel like I'm in the early stages of labor. It literally affected my organs.

I don't know what I *think* about the scene yet, but I certainly know how I feel and, to me, that says it's powerful, albeit uncomfortable to watch.

"Someone has to protect this family from the man who protects this family." - Skyler White, BrBa