The festival will feature five films that will be released over the next five weeks, from Friday, 8 August to Friday, 5 September, at its four cinema complexes across South Africa – Brooklyn Nouveau in Brooklyn Mall, Pretoria; Rosebank Nouveau in The Mall; Rosebank, in Johannesburg; Gateway Nouveau in Gateway, Durban; and V&A Nouveau at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

The five films to be included in the festival are Nymphomaniac – Volume I and II, Venus in Fur, Lovelace and The Canyons. With award-winning directors such as Lars von Trier and Roman Polanski behind the camera, and celebrated actors including Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman, Christian Slater, Amanda Seyfried, Sharon Stone and Lindsay Lohan in front of it, the Erotic Art-House Fest provides the perfect platform to screen these art-house films, each with its own complex characters and richly layered messages.

“The launch of this festival builds on the ever-expanding repertoire of exclusive film content that Cinema Nouveau continues to offer to movie-lovers. It also provides an opportunity to expose different cinematic genres from across the world to those cinema audiences with a passion for this evolving art form. As we say, those who know cinema know Nouveau,” says Lola Gallant, brand manager of Ster-Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau and Select brands.

The fest launches on Friday, 8 August with the first of the two-part 2013 drama art film, Nymphomaniac I, directed by acclaimed Danish director, Lars von Trier. Nymphomaniac I (stylised in advertising as NYMPH()MANIAC) stars Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgård, Stacy Martin, Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Connie Nielsen, Jamie Bell, Uma Thurman, and Willem Dafoe.

The film was originally supposed to be only one movie but, because of its four-hour length, the director took the decision to split the project into two separate films. The world premiere of the uncut version of ‘Volume I’ of the original five-and-half-hour-long version was on 16 February at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival. The world premiere of the uncut version of ‘Volume II’ had its debut at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Nymphomaniac is the third and final entry in Von Trier's unofficially titled ‘Depression Trilogy’, having been preceded by Antichrist and Melancholia.

Nymphomaniac: Volume I is the story of Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg), a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac. She is discovered badly beaten in an alley by an older bachelor, Seligman (Stellan Skarsgård), who takes her into his home. As he tends to her wounds, she recounts the erotic story of her adolescence and young adulthood (portrayed in flashback by newcomer Stacy Martin). The first film also stars Shia LaBeouf, Christian Slater, Uma Thurman, Sophie Kennedy Clark and Connie Nielsen.

Releasing on Friday, 22 August, Nymphomaniac: Volume II picks up on the story of Joe’s adulthood, where her journey of self-discovery leads to darker complications. The film stars Jamie Bell, Willem Dafoe, Mia Goth and Jean-Marc Barr, in addition to Gainsbourg, Skarsgård, Martin, LaBeouf and Udo Kier.

Venus in Fur, which is the second film to be released as part of the Erotic Art-House Fest, releases at Cinema Nouveau on Friday, 15 August. This play-within-the-play is an adaptation of the 1870 novel Venus in Furs by the Austrian author Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, which inspired the term Masochism.

From Oscar-winning director Roman Polanski comes this drama comedy focusing on Thomas Novachek (Mathieu Amalric), a writer-director of a new play. After a long and unsuccessful day trying to cast his leading lady, he is about to head home when actress Vanda Jordan (Emmanuele Seigner) arrives in a whirlwind. She's brash, vulgar and unschooled. But she convinces him to let her audition for the part of Wanda von Dunayev, with the director/writer reading the part of Severin von Kushemski in the play.

To Thomas’ amazement, Vanda shows great understanding of the character and knows every line by heart. They both become caught up in the characters they are reading and the balance of power is reversed. As the audition progresses, the intensity is doubled and the attraction of Thomas turns into obsession.

Lovelace, directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman and written by Andy Bellin, releases on Friday, 29 August at Cinema Nouveau. This drama chronicles the dark side of Linda Lovelace’s experiences in the wake of the 1972 success of Deep Throat. The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Linda Lovelace, with Peter Sarsgaard cast as her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor. It also features Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, James Franco as Hugh Hefner, and Sharon Stone.

Based on the autobiography, Ordeal, by Linda Lovelace (born Linda Susan Boreman), Lovelace is a drama that tells the story of adult actress Linda Lovelace, who married young and was forced into performing in pornography films by her abusive husband, Chuck Traynor. She rose to fame following her appearance in the pornographic film, Deep Throat, which, to her horror, became popular with mainstream audiences.

In 1972, before the Internet and the porn explosion, Deep Throat was a phenomenon: the first scripted pornographic theatrical feature film with a storyline, some jokes, and an unknown and unlikely star, Linda Lovelace.

Fully inhabiting her new identity, Lovelace became an enthusiastic spokesperson for sexual freedom and uninhibited hedonism. Six years later however, she presented another and utterly contradictory narrative to both the world and herself, as the survivor of a far darker story. She claimed that she had allegedly been threatened and coerced into her performance by her abusive husband, and described the tragic reality of what went on behind the scenes in her autobiography. She later became an outspoken activist for the anti-pornography movement, before her death at the age of 53 following a car accident.

The final film in the Erotic Art-House Fest releases on Friday, 5 September, and stars Lindsay Lohan in the role of Tara in The Canyons. Directed by Paul Schrader and written by Bret Eatson Ellis, the film also stars James Deen, Nolan Gerard Funk and Amanda Brooks.

A calculating young movie producer with casual ties to Hollywood, Christian (Deen), makes films to keep his trust fund intact. When he becomes aware of a secret affair between his girlfriend, Tara, and the lead of his latest film project, Ryan (Nolan Gerard Funk), he spirals out of control. Christian embarks on a violent, sexually-charged tour through the dark side of human nature, as his cruel mind games escalate into an act of bloody violence.

All five films featured in the Erotic Art-House Fest feature explicit content of a sexual nature and are not suitable for viewers under the age of 18.

For booking information on the Erotic Art-House Fest, visit www.cinemanouveau.co.za or call Ticketline on 0861 668 437. Alternatively, follow @nouveaubuzz and visit and like Cinema Nouveau’s page on Facebook, here.