Diary of a Nymphomaniac 2008

Val Alba Ribas is a 28-year-old woman whose vigorous sexual energy shapes much of her life. She moves through a string of partners, including Alex, David Vert, who already has a girlfriend. After Alex ends things in anger, Val heads to an empty train station and, in a chance encounter, has sex with a stranger.

Val is unsettled by her own behavior and cravings. She talks openly with her grandmother, a steady presence in her life, who urges her to follow her desires and suggests keeping a diary to gain clarity. When Hassan, an old friend, visits Barcelona, Val leaves work early to sleep with him. The next day she arrives late for work and is fired.

Val attends two job interviews. The second interviewer, Jaime, Leonardo Sbaraglia as Jaime, is clearly drawn to her and asks her out; she agrees to date him but chooses not to have sex on the first date. Jaime buys a luxurious home for both of them, which unsettles Val given his extravagant lifestyle. Meanwhile, her grandmother becomes ill and dies.

Val and Jaime move in together. She is disappointed by their first sexual experience but tells herself to endure. She also lands a job from her first interview. Soon she discovers Jaime is bipolar, fluctuating between affectionate kindness and cruel abuse. One day he storms into her office and accuses her boss of having sex with him; on another occasion, he brings a prostitute to their home and asks Val to pay her. Val decides to leave Jaime and move out. When she is packing with her friend Sonia, Jaime appears and threatens her, and they manage to escape to Sonia’s house.

Sonia eventually tracks Val to a small, run-down apartment. Unemployed and having lost all her savings to fund Jaime’s lifestyle, Val contemplates suicide from her window but decides against it. Desperate for money, she begins working as a prostitute in a brothel where a controlling madam runs the operation. There she meets Cindy, Judith Diakhate, and the two women form a close bond.

Val begins to enjoy the work and attracts regular clients, including Giovanni, Antonio Garrido. He books her again with enthusiasm, but in a hotel suite he signals that he intends to hand her off to a friend. Pedro, another client, declares his love for her and tries to control her with money and aggressive demands. Val escapes his suite with her money left behind. The next day, Cindy kills herself by jumping from a window.

This tragedy prompts Val to rethink her life, and she tells the madam that she wants to leave the brothel. The madam resists and threatens her, but Val remains resolute and walks away. She goes back to Sonia’s house, where Sonia is happily married. When Val returns to her own apartment, she notices a man living in the building who had been spying on her earlier; she invites him in, and he reveals he has no money. She replies with a quiet defiance: “That’s okay, it’s not necessary.” > “That’s okay, it’s not necessary.”