Been a tiny bit slack on the curation commentary right here. Here Nymphomaniac connects to an art film tradition by demonstrating that intercourse is particularly intense and fascinating between informal strangers because they have no bonds, no emotional or social connections to one another. It applies to movies like Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966) (two ladies have an orgy with strangers at the beach), Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967) (a young wife works secretly in a brothel), Final Tango in Paris (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1972) (strangers meet and have intercourse in an empty apartment), Emmanuelle (Bruno Mattei, 1983) (strangers have intercourse on an airliner) and Eyes Huge Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999) (a spouse has an impulse to depart her husband and child
go to hell motherfucker elope with a stranger).
