A.A. Dowd — you mentioned a bunch of the references in "Nymphomaniac" to Von Trier's previous films. You caught a lot of those references that I missed, but I think I caught one that you left out: The early portion of the scene in which Jo has her first orgasm during an epileptic seizure was distinctly reminiscent of…

You're assuming that you're not one of the 10,000 or so individuals every year who fall victim to anesthetic awareness.

Well it's a review, not a plot synopsis. It's meant to provide perspective, not summarize the film's narrative. Yes, this film most certainly has a plot, but there wouldn't be much point in discussing that in a review. Any writer can summarize a plot. The point of a good review is to analyze and bring into focus…

I've always called "Europa" Von Trier's best film. "Nymphomaniac" gives it a run for its money, in a very different way. "Europa" was a nihilistic neo-noir, and it was successful because it did not bear so clearly the mark of pretension that some of Von Trier's other films wore so well (e.g. "The Element of Crime").…

I think Von Trier's point would be that all cinema (and all art) is masturbation, and that he's just being a bit more honest about that reality than others are. ("In my line of work it's always been a mark of honor to call a spade a spade.")

Also Soderbergh's "The Good German", which wasn't good.

"Judgment at Nuremberg" — for me the quintessential post-WWII film.