A new image has been released for Lars Von Trier's upcoming two-part drama, Nymphomaniac.  Charlotte Gainsbourg stars as Joe, a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac who recounts her life story to Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard), an old, charming bachelor who finds Jo beaten up in an alley.  Joe then recounts to him the story of her erotic life, from birth to the age of fifty.  The film will be released in hard-core and soft-core versions, and Magnolia has announced that they'll be distributing the film in the U.S.  However, we don't know if they'll be distribution both versions, and how those versions will be distributed.  The standard release plan for Magnolia has become VOD before theatrical, and it looks like Nymphomaniac won't be playing at Cannes because it missed the submission deadline rather than Von Trier being declared Persona Non Grata after his comments at the festival in 2011 when he was doing press for Melancholia.

Hit the jump for more including the new image. Nymphomaniac also stars Shia LaBeouf, Jamie Bell, Connie Nielsen, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Willem Dafoe, Jean-Marc Barr, and Udo Kier.

Producer and CEO of Zentrope Entertainment's Peter Aalbæk Jensen tells Cineuropa [via The Playlist]:

Four editors were working around the clock to meet the Cannes deadline, but we had to give it up - after 268 script pages, 11 weeks of shooting and with 100 hours of material it would have been [a race] to finish the two films in time for the festival.  But there is absolutely no bad blood between us.

I'm glad Von Trier is taking the time to get it right (I'll let you form your own definition of what a "right" Von Trier movie looks like), and hopefully Nymphomaniac will be making its debut during the fall festival circuit since I'd rather see it with an audience rather than via VOD.