Lars Von Trier making both hardcore and softcore versions of new movie, "Nymphomaniac"

If you thought Lars Von Trier's next movie would be about a young girl who develops a friendship with a duck over one magical summer, you would be wrong. The controversial Danish director is actually working on a film with the working title of Nymphomaniac, which he will release in both hardcore and softcore versions. The softcore version is his reluctant concession to European TV and mainstream cinemas.

The film will apparently trace the erotic life of a woman from infancy to middle age, and Von Trier's business partner, Peter Jensen, says:

"Lars wants to see the sexual arousement of a girl [on screen]. Of course you have some legal problems that you have to work around. Right now he's in the writing process."

I suppose we'll continue to get provocative, non-mainstream psychosexual offerings from Von Trier, and never a loud, shiny 3D extravaganza, because the Dogme 95 movement strictly forbids it. He's been on a roll lately, with the genital mutilation of Antichrist, the Nazi comments at Cannes, and the starving of his own puppy. (Joke.)

Von Trier suffers on occasion from depression, so the news that the Norwegian monster Anders Behring Breivik listed Von Trier's Dogville as a favorite movie on Facebook isn't likely to cheer him up. Since the movie features a mass-murder scene, guilt over inadvertently influencing a heinous crime may be sinking in. A call from Roman Polanski reassuring Von Trier that film directors are above moral standards could alleviate that quickly though. I can't wait to hear from the lead in Nymphomaniac about how Von Trier treated her worse than Hitchcock treated Tippi Hedren while shooting The Birds.