Nicolas Winding Refn

Nicolas Winding Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 29, 1970. His mother, Anders Refn, is a prestigious film editor, a regular collaborator with Lars von Trier . This fact, his own nationality and the fact that they both competed in Cannes in 2011, forced Refn’s pronouncement of rejection of von Trier’s controversial statements at this festival, where he declared that he felt sympathy for Adolf Hitler, although he rejected the actions of the. Von Trier would remember that he had known him since he was a child and that in his opinion he could only comment “Fuck him!”, while the other described him as a “country boy”, who had put on his usual comedy show, which started to be routine.

At the age of eight, Nicolas Winding Refn moved with his parents to New York. He would return to Copenhagen to finish high school, but he would again travel to the Americas, enrolling in the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. The budding filmmaker was quite a character, because on one occasion he smashed a desk against a wall, a decisive fact for his expulsion from the institution. Determined to continue training as an artist, Nicolas Winding Refn applied for admission to the Danish Film School, where he was accepted. But when he was back in Copenhagen, a month before classes started, a short film written, directed and starring him, and broadcast on a cable television channel, drew attention. Someone thought that there were enough ideas there to sketch a long,Pusher: a walk through the abyss (1996), which would give rise to a trilogy with the sequels of 2004 and 2005, which took up secondary characters from the original, turned into protagonists.

The three films represent a vigorous look at the world of drug trafficking and crime in Copenhagen, and surprise with their enormous dynamism, the description of characters and the unusual violence. The dealings of a dealer who cannot pay a debt, the release of a criminal from jail, the attempts of a supplier to celebrate his daughter’s birthday, served to present stories that captivate, with certain moral dilemmas, and that he admitted which could be described as narratives that “begin with some violence and then end with a lot of violence”. His description of the underworld would undoubtedly have an influence on realistic television series that portray the rottenness of these underworlds, such asThe Sopranos andThe Wire (Under listening) . The background of Nicolas Winding Refn, a Nordic European and North American, undoubtedly contributed to a singular symbiosis in the aesthetic and thematic treatment of some plots that according to him spoke specifically of authenticity. Convinced of the interest of his stories and his status as an artist, Refn does not hesitate to quote William Shakespeare to say that “if he lived today he would write about crime, not about royalty.”

It connects with Pusher , although a priori it presents more normal characters,Bleeder (1999), which follows several neighborhood individuals in Copenhagen, whose adventures have a video store as a certain link. In 2003 Nicolas Winding Refn directed his first film in English.Fear X , starring John Turturro and well received at Sundance. The aforementioned sequels to Pusher would follow , then back to shooting in Danish, but the definitive consecration as a cult director would come with the also ultraviolentBronson (2009), with a surprising Tom Hardy in the lead role, and which follows a genuine and extremely dangerous British criminal who, despite being locked up in prison, has staged incredible altercations; the film, shot naturally in English, has been rightly compared toA Clockwork Orange , and shows the horror of evil when it follows irrational mechanisms and, therefore, unpredictable.

Immediately afterwards, Nicolas Winding Refn abandons the contemporary urban stories that have made him famous to tackle a story of medieval warriors that he says has been on his mind since he was 17 years old. InValhalla Rising , follows the adventures of the colossal One-Eyed warrior in the lands of Scotland, between pagans and Christians. It is a cryptic film with a mysterious journey to the crusades that instead leads to another unexpected place, and although the explicit violence characteristic of the author is well present, due to its silences and symbolism it can be said that it fits into the tradition of transcendent works. by Ingmar Bergman and Carl Theodor Dreyer . Although, curiously, its director has compared it to science fiction and the pioneers of space travel.

Far from giving rise to a crisis, turning 40 has meant for Nicolas Winding Refn his consecration as a director, having been awarded at the festival of festivals. Indeed, his first participation in Cannes has won him the award for best director.Drive , a film that marks his debut in Hollywood, has associated him with actor Ryan Gosling , with whom he is also going to shoot a remake of the science fiction titleLogan’s escape for Warner. The film was a proposal by Gosling, an admirer of Refn’s cinema. Adaptation of a novel by James Sallis , it follows the vicissitudes of a driver specialized in action scenes for the cinema, who at night collaborates as a driver in robberies. In the purest tradition of film noir, he will fall in love with his neighbor, whose husband is in prison for his relations with the mafia. Nicolas Winding Refn seems closely linked to Gosling, as the filmmaker has come to compare his union to those maintained by Steve McQueen and Peter Yates inBullitt , and Lee Marvin and John Boorman inPoint blank . In addition, Refn is preparing to shoot Only God Forgives in Thailand , with Kristin Scott Thomas and Luke Evans .

Nicolas Winding Refn is married to actress Liv Corfixen , who worked on his films Bleeder and Fear X , and they have a son. His relationship with his wife was covered in a 2005 documentary, Gambler .