The life and work of Nicholas Winding Refne

I have a peculiar relationship with Refine. I love his “drive”, I recognize the “neon demon”, I don’t understand “too old to die young”, I received a fraction of the buzz from “only God will forgive” and “valgla”. But at some point, I was interested in delving into the halls of the mind of this Danish guy and a little stubborn by his filmography and biography.

Board in shorts

Nicolas Winding Refin was born on September 29, 1970 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the family of Danish filmmaker and editor Anders Refine and film operator Vibekee Vinding. With such a ancestor, the fate of the boy was quite transparent. But before Nicholas began to try himself as a director, he first attended an acting school, but was soon excluded from there due to the fact that during improvisation he threw a table into the wall, so, this is quite in his style. Be that as it may, Refne loved cinema all his life. According to the boy’s stepfather, when his parents scolded him and forced him to do his homework, he even imagined how it would look in the film, where the camera would be, whatever the music sounds, that is, he already shot films and showed them in his head, in his head. Parents of Refne in every possible way supported the young talent, but according to Nicholas himself, they were very radical in their judgments, and then, the only way to this teenage confrontation of the young director was films about cruelty and violence, which he constantly watched, thereby shocking his parents who lived in the Hippi era. From that time to this day, Nicholas Winding Refne considers the Texas Mastery of the Chainsaw of the Best film ever created. On the second date with his future wife, he invited her to watch one beautiful film and the fact that such “frirty” inclinations of Refine did not frighten her, I find it pretty cute.

When Niculos was 23, he removed a short film, which in the future will grow into the first dealer (Pusher). And then, the young man had a choice, he had money either to study in a film school, or, he throws training and makes his own film, which was not approved there. On this occasion, Refne had a serious conversation with his father, who tried to explain to the kid how lucky he was with this movie school, that they take 6 students every second year and would give many hands for the opportunity to get there, to which the future director said, “No, I will go my own way”. After which his father could only wish good luck to his son. According to the Refne family, Denmark is a very small country, so each event is quite quickly diverging around the district. In addition, on the territory of Scandinavia there is the so -called “law of Yante”, which helps to better show the Scandinavian mindset. The Law of Yante is a set of ten rules formulated by the Danish-Norwegian writer Axel Sandemusem in the novel “The Fugitive crosses its mark”, according to which society does not recognize the right of its members to personality. They sound like this: do not think that you are special, don’t think that you are even, don’t think that you are smarter than us, don’t imagine that you are better than us, don’t think that you know more than us, don’t think that you are more important than us, don’t think that you can laugh at us, don’t think that someone can do it, don’t think that you can teach us that you can teach us that you can teach us.

And, of course, with such a mentality, it is difficult to imagine a 23-year-old upstart, who just takes and shoots the film like that, without graduating from a film school. However, not in the case of Refine, which, as if from childhood, cultivated this Protestant spirit, but had a rather wealthy family, who considers the boy a genius.

Of course, I did not hold a candle, but I think that Nicholas at that moment reveled in this position, because, according to him, when he began filming a cannon, he had no idea how to make a movie, so he did it with some kind of admixture of ignorance. He was so arrogant about this, as if in the absence of experience there were no problems at all.

Talking about the filming, MadS Mikkelson (playing the role of Tony, a friend of the protagonist) recalls that during the filming the atmosphere of a real rock and roll was hung, the apartment was rented, where the next year was shooting. They left the apartment, went down the stairs, ran down the streets, crashed into cars and climbed other apartments, and they could afford it because no one knew about them.

“Since no one knew how to make films,” Mikkelson continues, ““ everyone felt a little strange, definitely had an idea and we understood that we were doing something special. Of course, the concept of darkness was invented by Lars von Trier and Thomas Winterberg (possibly the Dogma manifesto95), these are people working in the thriller genre and then Nicholas came and did something in the style of documentary realism, while this was still a feature film.”

Contrary to everything, the dealer became a successful film, critics noted the naturalism of Copenhagen’s criminal life shown (it is funny that refinas himself were in no way connected with this life and never used drugs in his life) was also helped by a common realistic style from a manual chamber, which is inherent in films made by the same dogma’s manifesto.

The first film of Nicholas Winding Refna is markedly different from everything that he did in the late period of his work, however, similar features were already traced in the form of an ambiguous main character, for example, the fraction of ultranasia and still not a strongly twisted contrast associated with the fact that Refine does not allow him to distinguish half.

Debt pit

The technique by which refinas starts a new film is a register of all the main scenes on stickers. When the scenes are written, Refne begins to put them on the wall, collecting this puzzle in a whole picture, then he sits and “watches” his film, so that everything is in order and nothing contradicts each other. According to Refne, the dialogs are secondary, this is what comes to the film later. I think this approach can be explained by the fact that he learned Dyslexia and he learned to read only at 13, so he perceives the cinema better by the fact that people, directly, do on the screen. Completing the film as a game of chess with a spectator: Nicholas walks the first and demonstrates the beginning of the film, then the viewer walks, saying that he was already bored, then refinas enters again and makes a move towards the viewer to entertain him and the films of Refine consisted of this confrontation.

I can add from myself that the dealer, like the entire trilogy, are very interesting films, the characters in them, of course, are mostly negative, from which it is difficult to empathize with it, but, indeed, this spirit “rock and roll”, which is impregnated with an anthology, only fuels interest in what is happening, which is not at all, I don’t want to break away from viewing at all. If you need some kind of brief excursion to the Pusher universe, then this world is nothing complicated. Cruel and mired in vices Copenhagen of the 90s, which shows only a week from the life of the protagonist of the first film of Frank, performed by Kim Bodnia. About his transactions, the difficulties in this difficult and dangerous business of drug trafficking and the consequences that this business carries in itself. It will be much more interesting to talk about the second part of the trilogy, but about it later. After all, after the unequivocal success of Pusher, Refn set about a new film, with which everything turned out to be quite difficult. The reception of the next picture was quite restrained, and most of the cast, which was migrated straight from the cannon, inevitably condemned the bleeding (Bleeder) to comparison with a more successful predecessor (and the fact that Podliz tells us about something else, although the same actors were then ignored). Another sad factor was the main role performer, all the same Kim Bodnia. “At the time of filming, Kim was in a difficult position in life and destroyed himself from the inside, therefore it was almost impossible to work with him” – this is how the refinas himself happened on the site. Be that as it may, Kim Bodnia in the projects of Nicholas Winding Refne, unlike the same Mads Mikkelson, no longer appeared.

Then there was the first attempt to Refine to go beyond their homeland and make a film in English and many people still consider this attempt to just a complete failure in Denmark, and we are talking about Fear X (fear “X”). In this film, RefN begins to trace much more than in his first works. The strangeness and detachment of what is happening, a gloomy tone, a minimum of dialogs and an atmosphere that drives into a meditative trans. But meditation and reflection turned out to be somehow too excess, which is why the plot began to suffer, which still gave some signs of interest, but by the middle he completely drowned in visual jelly. And after the final in the head, something in the style-“Ah, okay”. In principle, the first half is quite curious and holds the viewer in some kind of tone, and the scenery of the snowy Canada only deepen into the still intelligible narrative. But then the film begins to fall apart, and the viewer no longer notice how just looks at one point on the screen, hypnotized by sound accompaniment.

According to Refne, he was so passionate about the https://nonukcasinosites.co.uk/google-pay/ fact that this film was obliged to make him a great creator, that in general he forgot to make a film, and not a sluggish cutting of beautiful shots (which is funny, because in the future, this will become an integral part of the handwriting of the director for which he will either love or not). Let us return to the fact that the film turned out to be just a catastrophic failure, plunging Refne into a debt pit. It was a crushing blow and there was little reflections of total lack of money, so he also has a child in this period. Then Refn is backward and after two “so -so” attempts, to become a great creator, Nicholas returns to where he began. From Pusher.

The suite sunset

Refne removes the sequel of the dealer 8 years after the original. There are several reasons at once, firstly, as we recall, the first part became very successful and over the years only rooted in this status, therefore, refinas, which now very much needs money, has a real chance to get this money, withdrawing a sequel to the continuation. Secondly, the production of the first dealer was very cheap, thanks to the specific filming and inexperience in this case, the director. That is, the sequel can be shot slightly more expensive. And thirdly, returning to what he started, Refne can re-make the dealer as he could not at 24. If, starting to shoot the first part, the director did this with some ignorance and arrogance, then having met with the failures that plunged him into debt, Refn was humiliated and modest while filming the second part of the trilogy.

Pusher 2 came out in 2004 and was an order of magnitude deeper, cooler and more beautiful than the original. Refn was able, despite his decadent mood, make a good movie, which was not least reflected his internal torment. The main character this time was Tonny in the same performance of Mads Mikkelson. In the first part of the tona, he was a friend of Frank, there we were shown to us as a hero-tricster-this archetype tends to go against the rules, to behave outside the established norms of behavior, to change the essence of what is happening, but a accurately, “Trikster is a mind without a sense of responsibility”. In this sense, we see that Nicholas Winding Refns, like a tonny, was cool, impudent and reckless in the first part, but already in the second, tonses appear before us as a complete loser and a clown, no one recognizes him, he either insults him, or treat him as incomplete, everything is falling out of his hands, he does not get into troubles and everywhere he is wrapped in troublesdisappoint. Here, Refn also draws a parallel with its moral state, a humiliated renegade. Thus, the director in the sequel deconstructed and deepened the image of a tricster, which is always captured, he is not worried about anything, he has no specific goal or aspirations, he simply enjoys the very process of existence. Which relates to tons from the first part and is completely destroyed in the second. In this connection, I have questions to the new movement of the so-called tonilifers who are poured with kids, spin spinning and convinced others in their huts, as the tonnies of the 96th sample did. Either I had a classic case for a person of 2022 – confusing in layers of post -storage, on the waves of postmodern.

No matter how I would like, I can’t tell you more about how the dealer 2 turned out, because the trilogy is worthy of separate material, but here I do not want to spoil anything, despite the fact that the film was released 18 years ago, he does not have such a cult status that he was able to watch everything. Yes, and we gathered here, because of the Creator, and not because of the creations. However, as I said earlier, I highly recommend familiarizing myself with the entire trilogy, especially with the second part. Two years later, the final part of Pusher came out about cute (performed by Zlatko Burich), I tactfully missed this moment, but cute appeared in all films of the trilogy of the trilogy. This is a large Serbian drug dealer through which the heroes of the trilogy took out the goods, then carried out transactions. In the first part, the relationship between Frank and cute are the key to the plot, since it was the main character who waited sweetly. In the second part, the role of Burich is rather an episodic character, reminding us that all the characters are somehow connected in this small city. But the Third Pusher, already puts elderly cute at the head of history and invites us to see the life of the drug dealer, which is called “in retirement”. The tie is that Milo already has an adult daughter, who gets married and all organizational moments, including the kitchen, are on his father, and since the cute fan of playing, the whole banquet also on it. In parallel to the wedding, the old man is trying to close the next transaction for the sale of drugs, instead of the usual heroin he was brought a newfangled ecstasy, in which the old one does not understand because he makes a number of fatal mistakes. On this refinas plays, on how an elderly drug dealer, almost a relic of the past, is trying to at least somehow stay afloat. I can’t say that this film is better than past, as I can’t say that it is worse. This is just the end, the end of the documentary about the criminal life of Copenhagen. Refne created a single world in which the viewer believes and ended this era, also in his style – without putting an end to the end, but rather the Troetoy, once again letting go of the hero, Nicholas gives us the audience to determine their further fate in this cruel and gloomy world of the drug business.

Art is an act of violence

Having got out of the debt pit, Nicholas Winding Refne begins to shoot a rather peculiar Bayopic about Charles Bronson, played by Tom Hardy. This film is peculiar to the fact that Refn did not seek to give out the history of Bronson for documentary truth and tell us about the formation of the most dangerous prisoner Britain. The director focused on showing Bringson aka of an incomplete artist. Nicholas caught on this, having looked at the autobiographical note in this.

According to the director’s mother, he puts a piece of himself in the main character in each film, which we could see above. But in principle, speaking of his films, RefN notes that he does not know why he chooses one or another topic. So, for example, he had never tried drugs in his life, but he took off a whole trilogy about them, he was also never interested in Bronson (he did not even know, his real name, until he started filming), he was also not at all interesting to prisons, because he was never there. About his future film “Valgalla”, he will say that he knows nothing about the Vikings, because they are simply not interested in him. But then a logical question arises why he talks about it and shoots? On the one hand, we can understand why Refn chose a film adaptation of the history of Charles Bronson, because, according to the director, the film is more autobiographical than it might seem at first glance. Bronson was from a prosperous, wealthy family and he himself did not stand out at all, however, he wanted to become famous, but had no skills and talents (in fact, therefore found his calling in prison, becoming a dangerous prisoner). And here, oddly enough, Refne felt similarity with Bronson, since Nicholas also dreamed of becoming famous and not just famous, but “very, very-very famous”.

And yet, this does not give an understanding of what such a scatter is obtained in the scenery selected for the film. Drugs, crime, prisons, Scandinavia of the Vikings era, the world of fashion (the latter, by the way, is quite suitable for refine, since it is close and interesting to the fashion of being) at first glance all this does not have any clear unifying thought. I still risk assuming that in all this refinas draws the dark, ominous energy, the dark side of human nature, this unites its films, the chosen setting has the created ultranasilia and morally suppressing reflection. The director himself speaks in favor of this, who speaks of his dark side, which he can release, playing sports, but then, she returns and therefore he constantly makes films. Developing this topic, Refn believes that “art is an act of violence. In a sense, war and art are similar, they have one DNA, they pursue the same goal, but where the war destroys, art inspires ”. And this statement goes well on all the work of Nicholas Winding Refne. For him, in reality, violence and art are closely intertwined, this can be seen from his love for cruel films, and by the fact that in the end he himself began to shoot. Violence itself plays an important role in Nicholas films, but it disposes of such a powerful tool very skillfully. According to the director, the power of violence in his accumulation and what precedes him. The accumulation of fear and anger makes the moment of climax even brighter.

In addition, one episode from the life of Nicholas also perfectly expresses his approach to the creation of his works. Once, leaving his daughter at school, Refne went to the parking lot, he shot the Neon Demon and was still looking for locations for the film. In the parking lot, he found a young man bleeding, another person bowed over him and tried to stop blood. Until no one has arrived, Refne also tried to help the poor fellow with something, but, unfortunately, the man died. Nicholas felt only happiness on this score, from the fact that a wonderful idea for the stage occurred to him.

Returning to the Bronson left behind, I would like to note that this film withstands the balance, between the new and the old refinas, not embarrassed to stretch the scenes, showing the “revived canvases”, but at the same time remaining a drive in the spirit of the Pusher trilogy. I would also like to highlight the performance of Tom Hardy in the role of Bronson, arranging theatrical performances in his own head, which perfectly conveys the side of the incomplete creator in the body of the most dangerous prisoner.

Outsider at the helm

The next film Refne was Walgalla: the Valla Rising Saga, this is a rather interesting film from the point of view of production, the film in which all the involved actually became instruments in the hands of the director. No one understood what they were doing, there was some kind of idea, a concept, but, in fact, even Refne himself did not fully understand what it would result in. Every evening, the film crew gathered and discussed what would do tomorrow, that is, there was some plan that everyone adhered, but, in essence, did not refine the story, but the story led Refne and the whole group. Thus, about 300 hours of filming material were shot and when Matther Matt Newman gathered all this in a single story, then Nicholas saw the film, he was amazed and touched, and tears flowed down his cheeks. Newman and Refns understood, this is it, this is what it would turn out.

Walgall, looks like a quite classic film of today’s refinas, with a meditative atmosphere, languid cameras and a laconic main character (this time absolutely silent). Nicholas the main characters always come out with outsiders in their own films. Ryan Gosling spoke well about this after he took part in two films of the director, in all his beloved and suddenly received a second wave of popularity in 21-22, “Drive” and much less noticeable “only God will forgive”. Gosling says that “despite the fact that refinas shoots about different ones, in all his films there is a central character. The hero who was born to lose. All his heroes [Refna], they felt overturned, and they accepted this.»Such a bright distinguishing feature is characteristic of the heroes of neo-naral works.

Nicholas obviously saw something native in this, therefore he continued to make films exclusively about such fate, being faithful to his principles about the secondaryness of dialogs and the transfer of all important relationships through the language of the visual. Refn, in general, is a kind of classic, because cinema is initially visual art and a clear thing that in the “arrival of the train to the La-Syota Station” of the 1896 brothers, the form prevails over the content. So refinn in his films, relies on the aesthetic component of what is happening, presenting us to the audience the same act of violence where violence and art acts in synergy complementing each other.

An important role in Nicholas Winding Refne is played by music, to transmit emotions, emphasizing the desired tone of the stage and simply give the style. Refne writes the script to the music, shoots to music, in a sense we can say that music is the main source of his inspiration. As the same Ryan Gosling said, during the filming of the drive, directly at the time of playing the scene, during which the dialogs sounded, Refn even then was in the headphones, listened to music, looked at the played scene and cried.

In 2011, the Drive was released, I will not devote much time to this film, a lot has been said about it and most likely a lot will be said. At the moment, the criminal drama with Gosling is Magnum Opus Refna. I sincerely love this film for how it looks, how it sounds and in what language speaks to the viewer. Bright, burning contrast of love and violence, breathes spirit. Actors expressing feelings with one facial expressions are felt more alive than in some films characters with tons of text and motivation. Some scenes after watching for a long time settle in memory, thanks. In general, Drive is Nicholas’s unconditional victory and the fact that over the years the film received a second life very pleased, although this happened thanks to memes.

Late refn

Over the years, Refn began to worry more about what he was filming, if the first fur, was removed in complete self -confidence, then after two tough failures, Refin clearly diminished his maximalism. All the throwing of the director’s soul was perfectly reflected by his wife, removing the documentary short film “My Life, shot by Nicholas Vindinum Rephne,” which tells about the process of filming “Only God will forgive” (only God Forgives). The drive became commercially successful, which again threw the shackles of fear on Refne. If the shooting of the first cannon took place in the atmosphere of Rock-n Roll, then “only God will forgive” is directly filled with mental throwings of Refine not to sit in a puddle after a drive. Unfortunately, comparisons with a successful predecessor could be avoided. The next film, after a neo-naurist story about a taciturn driver, again had on board Ryan Gosling on the main role with the type of just as typical for Refne, therefore the director was afraid that the same scenario would happen that he comprehended the bleeding at one time. Nicholas realized that “only God will forgive” would be a non-profit film and yet he wanted to make a good movie. This desire led him to apathy, sometimes a complete misunderstanding of what he does and the pressure, which, so, was great.

The drive hung over the director, and in addition to this, he persuaded his family to move to Bangkok for six months, where he starred “only God will forgive”, which is why Nicholas clearly felt responsible for the quality of his work.
Despite the neglect of the dialogue part, Refn is very serious about the very process of creating the film. For example, the action scene with the execution of Thai eatery, where the furniture scattered into chips, where the glass cracked, and the holes from the bullets had to be reached in the walls to bring every trifle in the frame to the ideal.

As a result, only God forgive me, he didn’t receive too much forest reviews, the first sharp reviews at first suppressed Refne, but in the end, the opinions about the film were so divided that he brought more money than planned. And Refn came to such a conclusion – “If a hour and a half film caused so many emotions, it is obvious that he climbed into your head. And here it does not matter whether it is good or bad. Because art is not based on the principle of “good/bad”. You are not therefore love him or do it. Another thing is important here: does it touch you? And why does it touch you? For me it is much more interesting. While your films bring money, you can make new films, and I still did it “.

If you try to give some personal assessment of the film, then as I said at the beginning, I got something from it, that is, in the words of Refine the film “touched me”. First of all, I would like to say about the visual, in which this time, indeed, the contrast is really displayed because of which the film gives out truly cool frames and gives them enjoying plenty, I want to separately note how Gosling himself looks in the frame, being, as if, an integral, excellent decoration than a clear scenario function. Of course, the semantic load here takes place, but at some point in filming, even Refn himself could not catch what he was trying to say. And you really perceive the film, somewhere at the level of emotions and feelings, instinctively understanding what is happening, expirins, in fact entertaining.

The next picture of the director is a rather sensational “neon demon” (The Neon Demon). To create a film about difficulties in the world of fashion, the director produced several factors at once. Firstly, the refin was undermined to remove some horror, secondly, after six months the Refine Refine in Bangkok, the wife of Nicholas, agreed only on Los Angeles and thirdly, due to the overly concentrated masculinity of Gosling in the drive, the director wanted to tell the world that every man has a 16-year-old manGirl, and they say, here you have, as it would be said.

And so, in 2016, the world saw a 16-year-old girl inside Nicholas Winding Refne and after a neon demon, the director finally rooted in the rank of polarized director, who, in fact, causes polar emotions in the same films. In Cannes, the 17-minute appliances of the Neonian Demon were interrupted by angry shouts about the absurdity of the film. The director did not differ before that “ordinary” paintings, but after his name became hearing, he seemed to be more and more for himself to shoot for himself. He pacified his ego and pride, which left him with great debts.

Neon Demon with El Phaning in the main role, the role of “16-year-old girl inside Refne”, tells the story of young Jesse shy and thoughtful, as, in fact, the director himself. The heroine dreams of becoming a model, dreams of something more, wants to become someone more than who is now. Therefore, she moves to a big city-Los Angeles. But from Jesse’s skills, only natural beauty, which makes a bitchy and unnecessarily self -confident person out of a quiet girl, easily ignited from a fire, which she herself licked. So refin has almost natural talent from parents, but without any special skills. At the same time, Refne dreamed and probably still dreams of fame and these dreams first led him to “Fear X”, failure, almost costing his career. Then he wanted to create a work of art outside his native Denmark, but just like Jesse in his film, he imagined too much about himself.

Once again, Refn shot a film to himself and his experiences. If you touch the neon demon more objectively, then, in fact, this is the apogee of everything that Nicholas shot before, the final form of his handwriting and style that he worked for years. An immense amount of visual porn that oozes from the film, ephemeral images, dialogs, characters, everything is like a dream, or rather a nightmare that occurs in the world of fashion.

Our days

The last at the moment, the director’s project is “too old to die young” (too to to die young) is the series completely shot and written by Nicholas Winding Refine, where he played out in full, a lover of hard graphomania and violence shot 10 episodes for an hour and a half of the hours of timing, and this, for a second, almost 10 drives with districtGosling. Honestly, I don’t even know what to say about this series, I watched the first episode at the exit and I even liked it, but then I gave up, such a viscous and languid action, completely moving the plot, I won me. The first series has incorporated all the pros and cons of the directorial style of Refine, but already the second, it seemed to me aesthetically neutral, well, and plot – empty. However, the series had its own fans, and in the same KinoPoisk, he has a higher assessment than all the director’s films, only the drive left with a meager margin. Regarding the tie – Refn returned to criminal dramas again, to see the duty of the service feels more confident in them.

In fact, having traveled such a way through the life and career of Nicholas Winding Refne, it is difficult not to imbue his philosophy, he makes a truly interesting movie that is unable to leave someone indifferent, in a compartment with his rather interesting person, films themselves gain more colors and meanings. Some natural lethargy, clumsiness and detachment of refrays, contrasts interestingly with the dark side of the director and his provocative frivolous statements and Pankovsky temptation to shock. With all this, he is sincere in his words and his work and is ready to critically look at himself, the way Nicholas perceives his work and how he is focused on the site, as if he himself becomes the hero of the stage, makes you believe that you have not another “product”, but a real audiovisual work. He is given to the whole process, ready to even take his family for 6 months to another country for the film, or to leave for 10. And the family in the person of the wife of Liv Korfixen (who is the first and only girl of Nicholas and with which he is married since 2007) and two daughters of Lola and Lizzeloy support and encourage Nicholas during his creative crisis.

Already this year, in collaboration with non -Fracks, Refn will release Copenhagen Cowboy – a new series consisting of 6 episodes. This will be a story about a young girl who travels through the criminal world of Copenhagen. This will be the first work of the director in 15 years, which he shot in his homeland in Denmark. In the meantime, we are waiting for the return to the origins, I’ll go, I will give the second chance “Too other you Young”.