The first part of Lars von Trier’s scandalous, Nymphomaniac will air today on most cable systems. Having just recently been banned from theatres in Turkey, this picture will feature the highly acclaimed stars, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Therman, Jamie Bell, Christian Slater, and Stellan Skarsgard.

The Danish director Von Trier is well known for his ability to artfully convey intelligent ideas through purely visual means (evident in his most previous film, Melancholia, which examines two sisters reactions to the end of the world). Although his dismal view was aesthetically pleasing in Melancholia, the amount of erotica in Nymphomaniac makes its intellectual drive more difficult to digest.

The provocative movie follows a self-diagnosed nymphomaniac, Joe, dramatized by Charlotte Gainsbourd (Melancholia, Antichrist, and 21 Grams). The story unfolds as she evaluates an ongoing sexual awakening with a man who saved her following a beating.

Turkey is a Muslim country, and the country’s film board generally does not sign off on excessive nudity. Though previously been set for a release this month, the graphic nature of the movie was not deemed to be sufficiently artful enough for public viewing. According to Yahoo News, Cem Erkul (head of The Cinema General Directorate) declared that the eight-member board voted 6-2 opposed this week because the film is “pushing the boundaries of porn.” It was determined that there were too many sex scenes for censoring to even be considered as an option. Although the film is banned from a theatrical release in Turkey, the first part of Von Trier’s Nymphomaniac will still air at the Istanbul Film Festival next month.

The American public does not face these same limitations, and the unrated film remains on board for the U.S. theatrical release of March 21. In fact, if the controversy has made you too impatient to wait for the theatrical release, it is possible to view the first of two volumes of Nymphomaniac starting today. According to Variety, for a fee of $9.99 the first part of the film will be shown on Time Warner, Comcast, Cablevision, and on Dish and Direct TV.

Additionally, it will be accessible online through Amazon, FixFling, Xbox Zune, and the Playstation 3. The second film will be shown on demand April 3 and theatrically April 18, similar to the fashion in which Kill Bill was released.