By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown to Cannes: Nicolas Winding Refn

Posted Saturday, April 27th, 2013 - Comments Off on Countdown to Cannes: Nicolas Winding Refn
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NICOLAS WINDING REFN

Background: Danish; born Copenhagen, Denmark, 1970.

Known for / styles: The Pusher trilogy (1996, 2004, 2005), Bronson (2008), Valhalla Rising (2009), Drive (2011); working with Mads Mikkelsen, stylized violence, shooting chronologically, heavily contrasted palettes (due to claimed color blindness).

Notable accolades: When it comes to awards, Drive is Winding Refn’s most successful film, starting with the Best Director win at Cannes. The film also landed him a BAFTA nomination in the same category, and he continued to rack up directing prizes from critic circles and film festivals. In 2008, Bronson won Best Film at the Sydney Film Festival.

Previous Cannes appearances: Drive is Winding Refn’s only film to play the Festival. In terms of Festival prizes, the Dane is one for one. This leads us to his second Competition entry:

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Only God Forgives, a Thai-French-Danish co-production that follows a Muay Thai boxing-club manager, Julian (Ryan Gosling), who seeks vengeance for the recent death of his brother. Kristen Scott Thomas plays Jenna, Julian’s “Mafia godmother,” while Vithaya Pansringarm plays Chang, the “Angel of Vengeance.” Hyper-violence is to be expected.

Could it win the Palme? According to Ryan Gosling, Only God Forgives is “the strangest thing [he’s] ever read”—which actually spells good things for the film’s Palme pitch. While action movies don’t typically play well in Competition, Only God Forgives promises to be something especially artful: with the release of some red band trailers, we know that the film looks stylistically and aesthetically slick; almost like the spiritual sequel of Drive. When Drive premiered back in 2011 after a solid week of dramas, the sudden surge of energy enlivened the Croisette and left an unforgettable impression on audiences. It rode a wave. If Only God Forgives’ Muay Thai gong-show is similarly great (and the timing is just right), an award-winning ass-kicking could prevail in the very near future.

Why you should care: As if to taunt the rest of the Competition, Winding Refn’s trailer ends with Julian muttering: “Wanna fight?” Regardless of who wins the Palme d’Or, though, the stage is set for Only God Forgives to be an excellent showdown of arthouse action. Oh, and Drive’s head-bobbing soundtrack? Composer Cliff Martinez is back for another mix, so the needle-drops and bass lines should be on point. It’s time to get pumped… again.

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown to Cannes: Nicolas Winding Refn

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

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~ David Simon