Why all thinking people should love the films of Nicholas Winding Refn

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

For the release of Too Old to Die Young, Lifehacker talks about the inimitable style of the creator of Drive and Neon Demon.

Nicholas Winding Refn is an unusual and distinctive director. His work can balance on the brink of art house and crime thriller, but always look exciting. Even though the action in them sometimes develops very slowly.

In her first series, Too Old to Die Young, Refn will once again return to her favorite themes of crime and revenge, mixing noir detective with a samurai aesthetic.

Refn's manner cannot be confused with any other author. The director grew up in a family of filmmakers and watched classics of cinema since childhood. Creating his films, he often copied what he liked in his youth. Nevertheless, he created his own unique style, which is easy to recognize even from a small video or a set of frames.

Almost every film directed by the director is an original creation that all moviegoers and intellectuals must watch. After all, no one else can find such an approach to filming, the depth of stories and unbroken images.

Refn shoots actors in unexpected ways

Will Smith, Robert Downey Jr., Jennifer Aniston - if you name these names, viewers come up with very specific and similar screen images from different films. However, Refn shows actors like no other.

Now everyone knows Mads Mikkelsen as one of the most textured European actors. "Casino Royale", "Doctor Strange", "Hannibal" - stylish and unusual images immediately come to mind.

But if you include the film "Dealer" - Refn's debut in directing and Mikkelsen in a big movie - you can see the ridiculous bully Tony, who helps the protagonist sell drugs. He is an emotional criminal with a shaved head in a blazer and a tattoo on the back of his head.

In Bleeding, the actor is already reincarnating as a modest and introverted salesman of videotapes. Mikkelsen's hero here watches dozens of films and knows everything about them, but he cannot speak to the girl he likes.

And all the same Mikkelsen appears in the film "Valhalla: The Viking Saga" in the role of a silent one-eyed warrior, ruthlessly cracking down on his enemies.

It is difficult to imagine that in the same actor one can see images so dissimilar to each other. This is partly, of course, thanks to Mikkelsen's skill. But still, it is the director who creates such vivid types.

The charming Tom Hardy in the film Refna "Bronson", based on the biography of a real person, turned into an aggressive prisoner. For the role of Charles Bronson, the actor gained almost 20 kilograms. But most importantly, the director did not turn the film into a standard biography.

The main character seems to be telling about his life from the theater stage. And Hardy has room here both to reflect the real character of the hero, and for the circus grotesque, emphasized by the make-up.

Ryan Gosling had already appeared in films in various roles by the time Drive was filmed, but he was still known as an actor in love dramas and romantic comedies. But Refn showed him in the form of a real hero in "Drive" and a fighter in "Only God will forgive."

And it goes without saying how brightly "Neon Demon" revealed the actress Elle Fanning. The beauty of a young girl became the main theme of the film, where the heroine's model appearance turned into an ominous attribute of the story.

Refna's films are incredibly beautiful

The director's work is usually divided into three periods: Danish, British and American. They really differ in style and visuals, but each of them is aesthetically pleasing in its own way.

The effect of presence and visualization of emotions

Refn's early paintings look as realistic as possible - they were shot with a hand-held camera, which follows the characters everywhere. This allows the viewer to participate in the events himself.

But even in low-budget works, the director found a place for graceful artistic techniques. At first, color was used - even in the film "Bleeding", in which an ordinary family man becomes a cruel killer from depression, the author hinted at the inner state of the hero, showing the view from his eyes filled with red. The master will use this bloody filter in most of his works. But it's better to talk about it separately.

Nicholas Winding Refn focuses on the emotions of the characters, inventing more elaborate techniques with each film. Violence and murder in the paintings are often presented not directly, but through the reaction of witnesses - it is more important to see not death itself, but how others perceived it.

In the film "Fear X" ", where a shopping center employee is investigating the murder of his wife, her death is shown through the lens of surveillance cameras - the picture is very bad, you can hardly see anything on it. But the video is played over and over again so that the viewer feels the experience of the hero.

Thus, for Refn, cruelty becomes not a method of provocation, to which another famous dachtanian Lars von Trier is inclined, but an artistic device for revealing the characters' characters.

The director mixes reality with fantasies and visions, and in later films he completely moves to artistic analogies. In The Neon Demon, a cute girl goes to work as a model and is faced with the cruel world of show business. And when she gets closer to her make-up artist, a cougar bursts into her house - a predator personifying the character of a new acquaintance. And artificial blood from the beginning of the film turns into a real murder at the end.

Refn does not try to convey hidden experiences with voice-over or other frontal techniques. He deliberately slows down the pace of the story by moving the camera very slowly, and sometimes making people practically freeze in place. This turns his films into almost meditative stories, where feelings are often more important than action.

Symmetry and reflections

Refn's favorite trick for creating a breathtaking picture is symmetrical shots. That is, the left and right halves (or the top and bottom) reflect each other.

"Neon Demon"

"Bronson"

"Only God will forgive"

"Drive"

Valhalla: The Viking Saga

This creates an atmosphere of limited space and closed history. In addition, the characters often look in the mirror and sometimes the reflection may look different from the original. Thus, the inner world of the characters is revealed.

In Bronson, Hardy's character becomes his own reflection, using different makeup on different sides of his face, like a mime.

Less obvious, but even more catchy, is to divide events on the screen into halves or quarters. This is imperceptible to a simple viewer, but this only makes the effect stronger.

The fact is that the so-called rule of thirds is most often used in cinema. That is, each frame is divided by conventional lines into three parts vertically and horizontally, and all important details are at the intersection of these lines.

Refn complicates this concept. In his films, one action can take place in the left half of the frame, and another in the right. Or the screen is divided into top and bottom. And sometimes the location of the actors in the frame reflects their place in the story.

There are many videos devoted to this approach. But it is much more important that the paintings will capture even those who do not notice such subtleties. The thing is that such a separation forces you to constantly monitor different parts of the screen and focus your attention.

Red and blue

The color scheme for Refn is an integral artistic technique. It is not enough for him to make the frame too orange or blue, as most mainstream filmmakers do. Through color, the director conveys the feelings of the characters. And most often red and blue are used.

The already mentioned bloody filter often reflects cruelty or any negativity. In Valhalla: The Viking Saga, this is clearly associated with the theme of Christianity and the crucifixion of Jesus. And in the film "Only God Will Forgive" Refn so unequivocally alludes to the hero's affection for his mother.

Blue often looks like a symbol of tranquility, sometimes they even say that this is the "color of God." "Drive" initially emphasizes the detachment of the characters, separating their colors. But when they find a common language, the whole picture becomes uniform and calm.

In "Neon Demon", which can be considered the apotheosis of Refna's color schemes, in the first shots, the main character in a blue dress is wiping artificial blood from herself. At the same time, her original ordinary light world is gradually turning into a dark club reality, in neon color, which symbolizes the departure from natural beauty to the world of vice.

Picture and sound

Nicholas Winding Refn is one of those directors whose films are no less interesting to listen to than to watch. And this is also an important component for a full story. At the same time, the director does not overload the picture with sound. He does exactly the opposite. Silence in his paintings is often more important than music or noise.

By removing the unnecessary sound in time, Refn emphasizes the tension of the situation. In absolute silence, even the sound of boots sounds ominous. Or, on the contrary, in the movie "Drive" the chase is not accompanied by loud music, traditional for Hollywood. There is only a deafening roar of engines, squeak of brakes and abuse of heroes. There is nothing to distract from the race itself.

During the conversations of the characters, you can literally hear where they are, and feel the volume of the room, the noise of a big city or the wind in the mountains.

If the dialogues do not carry a semantic load, then Refn can drown them out and leave only silently moving lips. And in "Valhalla" just over a hundred phrases are uttered for the whole picture - this is not a film about conversations.

But if a soundtrack appears, then it is perfectly matched. Refna's first crime films are accompanied by harsh rock music - in the opening credits of Bleeding, each character even has his own melody. But in later films, the master is already leaning towards non-rhythmic ambient and electronic music.

The correct soundtrack allows you to immediately get acquainted with the hero of "Drive" - the work of DJ Kavinsky here reveals the atmosphere no worse than the visual series.

The roar of Neon Demon's club music gives way to a leisurely soundtrack from Cliff Martinez, the director's permanent composer, and ends with a song by Sia. And the musical accompaniment does not become just a pale background to the picture, as it happens in blockbusters. The compositions tell their own story, no less important than what is happening on the screen.

Refna's films are emotional and understandable

Nicholas Winding Refn once started out with gangsters and then moved on to art house. But if you think about it, all the stories look casual and familiar. The director almost never takes on global plots (with the exception of Valhalla), and all his films tell about the most ordinary people.

Cruelty and beauty

Most of Refn's paintings are about human cruelty. It can manifest itself in different ways, and the director shows it naturalistically in The Dealer, exaggeratedly in God Only Forgives, or allegorically in The Neon Demon. But the master over and over again tries to understand the causes of anger and aggression.

In a strange way, it turns out that cruelty is often the result of banal boredom. This is noticeable in the finale of "Dealer", when the drug dealer is simply forgiven for his debt - the supplier does not really need money.

Or the hero of "Bleeding One" begins to attack others for almost no reason. And the story of Charles Bronson directly shows: he beat people only because he liked it.

In Drive, the protagonist gets into trouble and faces killers simply because he decided to help a new acquaintance. And that is why it is purely humanly pity for him - circumstances force him to commit crimes.

And the "Neon Demon" carries another very unexpected subtext for such stories. It turns out that beauty owes nothing to anyone. It doesn’t save the world, it doesn’t make it better. She just is, and many are so obsessed with her that they are ready to do terrible things.

Fathers and Sons

The theme of intergenerational relationships often creeps into Refn's paintings. In the second part of The Dealer, Mikkelsen's character suddenly becomes a father. But the problem is that he himself does not feel old enough.

A hint of this can be seen even in the shots where the young man holds the baby in his arms - they both have no hair. And only after breaking the connection with his father, Tony decides to take care of the child.

"Only God will forgive" is dedicated to the hero's revenge for the death of his brother. But not because he wants so - he is forced by a tough and domineering mother. Moreover, the hero looks like an already accomplished man, but he cannot overcome childhood complexes and the eternal comparison with his brother.

Biography and mythology

In many ways, the vitality and sincerity of Refna's films is due to the fact that autobiography can be noticed in the films. Rumor has it that during the filming of Bleeding, Mikkelsen, who played an introverted movie buff, told the director, "I'll just play you."

The idea for a second "Dealer" dedicated to fatherhood came about when Refn had her first child. And even in the film "Bronson", which tells about a real person, the director adds a little autobiography. In one scene, a child in a rage throws a desk at the teacher - Refn himself once threw a chair at his teacher. After that, he was expelled from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Well, in the plot of The Neon Demon, many see the director's confession about his relationship with art. Once he made simple films, but then decided to create more mainstream cinema, the result of which was the disastrous "Fear X".

And at the same time, Nicholas Winding Refn sometimes turns to mythological plots. "Valhalla" is allegorically dedicated to the battle of two religions, and the one-eyed Mikkelsen in it clearly plays the god Odin.

The director himself emphasized that the hero of "Drive" is almost a fairy-tale character. He appears at the right time in the right place, and the plot of the picture is built on the principles of the works of the Brothers Grimm. Well, the ending of "The Neon Demon" frankly refers to the legends about Elizabeth Bathory, who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth.

Refn's films are often complex and confusing. In fact, all the stories told in them are understandable to everyone. You just need to carefully look and listen, without missing out on details.

Dramaticism and excellent acting in early work, the beauty of the visuals in recent films - all this complements important and life topics that should be comprehended by every thinking person. But first, you just need to immerse yourself in the creative world of the director.