Today's Double News: survive these Nymphomaniac posters

Not one but two whole pieces of MovieScene news today, thanks to neglicence on my part in the last two days:

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150732/milla_jovovich_en_pierce_brosnan_gecast_voor_survivor

http://www.moviescene.nl/p/150765/nieuwe_posters_van_lars_von_triers_nymphomaniac

An action thriller starring Milla Jovovich... what's next, a romcom starring Jennifer Aniston? Jovovich is basically one of the obvious go-to gals if you want a tough girl shooting people up in your film. In this regard Survivor is sure to deliver what the term 'action' usually promises, since Jovovich's catchy enthusiasm in all her roles of this type (and there have been few memorable movies in her resumé that don't fit that bill) carries those films, if nothing else does. Brosnan, once quite an action star himself but in the last few years choosing the route of diversification to show his capabilities as an actor instead of a moviestar, is not an unlikely choice for a film like this, though of course his exact role has yet to be revealed. My guess would be the mentor of the heroine, since he's not exactly villain material (though I wouldn't mind if he was for a change). James McTeigue is an interesting pick as director for this project, indicating this will either be a totally over-the-top action flick (like his Ninja Assassin), or a more serious and intelligent drama similar in approach to The Raven and the excellent V for Vendetta, both also by his hand. At this point, Survivor can go in any direction so there's little point to idle speculation.

Speculation however, is exactly what drives us when talking about Nymphomaniac. The carefully developed marketing strategy certainly keeps fueling our expectations and imagination as to just how this film, controversial from the get-go, will pan out. It's about sex and it contains explicit sexual material that deliberately borders - or indeed simply crosses that border altogether - on the pornographic, despite starring established actors. This is what we've been hearing for over a year now, but we have yet to see any fleshy substance. So far we've been treated to a single clip from each of the eight chapters the movie will be composed of every month (four in total at this point), and none of them revealed the steamy sex scenes we have come to anticipate are in store for us (which of course is the point, since we're expected to pay for them by going to the cinema). However, we have been provoked by excessively teasy promotional material, including the infamous original poster. And now the film's marketing campaign unleashes fourteen new character posters on us, all of them telling us the same single thing: male or female, this is gonna be a sexually charged film for every spectator. Wheter it will actually be a good film on its own merits remains to be seen, but it undoubtedly will be fascinating to behold what a rebel like Lars von Trier has to say about the nature of human sexuality and its role in contemporary society. And I can imagine these particular promotional materials becoming cult commodities in future years, since you don't find many theatrical posters this thought provoking, daring and suggestive. Hopefully the movie will be able to live up to the hype its advertising campaign is creating, instead of ending up hurt by it as our expectations have grown too outrageous to be satiated by the actual final content.