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Welcome to this new episode of Direct'it dedicated to Nicolas Winding Refn.
Drive's director managed in 8 films to impose his cinematographic views
to the world, including Hollywood, while staying independant.
But who hides behind these extreme characters,
these violent stagings, and these colorful and refined visuals?
Nicolas was born in Denmark on the 29 September 1970.
He is the son of the editor Anders Refn,
who recently worked for Lars von Trier, and of the photographer Vibeke Winding.
As Refn says, he was born and raised on images.
After he studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts,
he came back to Denmark to write and shoot the first part of a trilogy
that was to become cult: Pusher.
The film tells the story of Frank, a famous dealer who misses
an important transaction because of the presence of the police.
He then must repay Milo for this fiasco,
a drug lord.
Each part of the Pusher trilogy adopts the point of view of
one of the characters of the drug trafficking world.
The second part follows the adventures of Frank's colleague, Vic,
and the third part focuses on Milo's point of view,
the drug lord whose power radically decreased.
The first film of the young Danish director was released in 1996
and was celebrated by critics and the public alike.
The worldwide re-release of the trilogy in 2005
was Pusher's consecration.
It is also the date when the third part was released.
The trilogy was considered as a revelation on the genre,
making Refn a new hope for cinema.
The plots, dark and realistic, full of visual refinement and violence,
became his trademark.
Refn's whole filmography features
psychologically unbalanced characters: Frank, Vic and Milo in Pusher,
Leo and Vic in Bleeder, Harry Cain in Inside Job...
All these characters are at the same time conscious and unconscious
of reality, but also have an unstable personality
ready to explode inside and to go crazy.
I want my room back, is that clear?
I'm sure that even there, you'll find loneliness.
We can say that Michael Peterson, alias Bronson,
or One-Eye in Valhalla Rising,
and the driver in Drive
are the climax of this extreme state of mind.
These characters are remarkably calm.
Bronson is a gentleman, One-Eyed stays silent,
and the driver is an introvert.
But suddenly, these characters erupt into violence,
showing a dark and barbaric side of humanity.
These outbreaks of violence are not only suggested,
on the contrary: blood spurts,
the guts go out, and skulls are kicked.
Refn shows the violent scenes through sliding movements on the viscera,
as close as possible to the emaciating bodies,
and through static wide-angle shots, in a documentary style.
Besides, he says about this:
"Art is an act of violence.
I'm interested in extremes.
A mix between poetry and violence."
Thanks Refn...
This poetry Refn is refering to is to be found in his characters
who, at the end of the films, have a much greater awarenes.
Bronson mangaged to become famous,
and considered leaving the stage as he was condamned to life in prison.
The driver saved these two people who made him more human
and is in the end unworried.
One-Eyed managed to reach the Valhalla,
in North America, and dropped his arms
to lead his ultimate fight: sacrifice himself,
fight himself to save the child who understood and helped him.
To embody these characters, Refn called upon old friends:
Kim Bodnia in Pusher and Bleeder,
Mads Mikkelsen in Pusher I and II,
as well as Valhalla Rising.
He also called upon new friends, such as Tom Hardy,
who plays Bronson,
and Ryan Gosling, who plays the driver in Drive
and Julian in the new and brilliant Only God Forgives.
Let's talk about a refnian visceral lyricism,
in particular with the choice of
classical and electro music
between symphonical explosion and electronic calm.
This visceral lyricism is also to be found in the stage work,
in particular in some scenes where violence and poetry
go together.
Let's take as an example a famous scene where Bronson
holds hostage the art teacher, to literally make of him and himself
human paintings.
Similarly, in Inside Job, Harry Cain's psychology
is shown through dark shots, but with a great pictorial dimension.
Visceral lyricism could be linked to a colour: red.
The colour of blood, at the same time life and death,
is to be found in numerous settings and visual elements of the film.
But mostly, when the characters reveal their true nature,
dark and violent, to explode.
These colourful sequences could be seen as the characters' transitional
states of mind.
Refn has already established some characteristics of his cinema,
but constantly stays in search for visual references.
Thus, through his 8 films, different visual styles emerge.
There is an unstable and documentary style in the Pusher trilogy.
This allows us to get closer to the criminal underworld.
The frame is stabilized in Bleeder with a less documentary style,
and a slightly stylised colour scheme. It is also more clever
in particular when the characters watch tapes:
real images look like films.
Bleeder could be considered as a shapeshifting film.
With Inside Job, Refn stabilizes all the shots
to control and work on the field of vision.
Thus, the hotel's corridors seem to belong to another dimension.
Similarly, the shopping centre could suggest an anthill.
With Bronson, Refn reaches a visual balance
between a documentary style, sylised images, static shots
and virtuoso camera movements.
All these styles to adapt the story of a multi-faceted character,
at the same time balanced and unbalanced.
Valhalla Rising adopts a documentary style during some fight scenes,
but most of all, a stable shot
with visual fields worthy of paintings,
and numerous establishing shot on the landscapes travelled through.
The film, which is an initiatory journey to the Holy Land,
is shot like a science-fiction film.
Refn said in numerous interviews
that he was inpired by films like Planet of the Apes
by Franklin Schaffner,
but most of all by 2001: A Space Odyssy by Stanley Kubrick
visually and scenaristically.
There are also the famous captions dividing the film into chapters.
With Drive, Refn manages to master the staging
that could almost be qualified perfect in speed chase scenes.
He won the Best Direction Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
After he received the scenario entitled The Dying of the Light,
written by Paul Shrader, who also wrote Taxi Driver,
the Danish director decided to try his luck in Hollywood.
But let's listen to Nicolas:
"When I arrived, everything had changed.
I was in Los Angeles and everything was headed for a crash.
The same day, Ryan Gosling called me.
He sent me the scenario of Drive, written by Hossein Amini.
It was excellent!"
The director then met the actor.
This is when the film was born.
"I was depressed, wondering what I was doing there.
This was a studio project, I didn't know anything about cars...
I was talked about the film very superficially.
It was a very "Fast and Furious" project.
At some point, I asked Ryan if he could send me back home,
as at the end of a first date that went wrong.
We went into his car, in an embarrassed silence.
He put the radio on to break the silence,
and it was "Can't Fight his Feeling" by REO Speedwagon.
I was lost, drunk, and this music did something to me,
I was ovewhelmed by emotion.
Ryan was petrified.
Yeah, I saw the film. I turned toward Ryan,
and said: "I know. We'll make a film
about a guy who drives at night listening to pop music."
He answered: "Let's go."
That's how the film was born."
The film found his fundings in Cannes,
before competing, pushed by Wild Side Video,
to become a huge success.
Did you know..?
Did you know that The Dying of the Light
was supposed to have Harrison Ford as the lead actor?
He was very interested by the project.
When he arrived in Hollywood, Refn was amazed to hear that
he didn't want to die at the end of the film.
However, the director doesn't regret this meeting,
and even says that the actor was very kind to him.
News section.
On the 22nd of May, Refn's 9th feature film
will be released: Only God Forgives,
starring once again the actor Ryan Gosling.
The film is about Julian, a boxer who must,
under his own mother's direction, avenge his brother's death
who was murdered for he brutally killed a young ***.
This film promises to be as violent as the previous ones.
We assume the film will also raise questions about sexuality
since we've seen a scene with Kristin Scott Thomas,
the mother on the film, comparing the size of her two sons' sex.
Refn says:
"This is a film about *** impotence.
Male *** impotence.
Only God forgives *** impotence."
See you in two weeks, with the next episode about Sofia Coppola!