News

Kill your darlings” is a phrase attributed to William Faulkner, advising writers to resist overuse of their favorite expressions, tropes, characters, etc. This is true for any writing, wherein emotional proximity to the work might manifest into myopic creations in the grander scheme of things. However canonized this belief is, the hypothesis falls apart for Nicolas Winding Refn.

Armed with a style that has only grown more distinctive with every new film, Refn explores fundamental themes and deploys the camera to shift between fluidity and limbo. With sensibilities similar to a master architect, Refn uses frames to create moments that let the viewer internalize, and experience on a physio-psychological level, a creation that does not confine itself to a two-dimensional rectangle, but reminds you of what was felt while watching it. This is the moment the Nicolas Winding Refn effect kicks in, and this is when cinema affects one on a deeply personal level.

The Neon Demon is a gorgeous and thought-provoking 2016 horror film written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn of Drive fame. The film stars Elle Fanning as a 16-year-old model navigating the cutthroat world of high fashion modeling, and it takes on a surreal and supernatural approach to beauty. The Neon Demon received mixed reviews for its visual style and shocking violence, but some consider it a masterpiece of modern cinema.

Nicolas Winding Refn is a strange, smart man. The director of some of the most violent films of the last two decades, Refn sometimes gets pigeonholed as a director of spectacle, but to hear the man speak, it's instantly clear that his polarizing works come from a person who can't help but think deeply about everything he does. He even revels in the split opinions that his films often elicit, saying in one interview that he thinks art should be disagreed about,...

The Marrakech International Film Festival has unveiled the 10 cinema figures who will participate in its In Conversation With program at its 20th edition running from November 24 to December 2.

They comprise Australian actor Simon Baker, French director Bertrand Bonello, U.S. actor Willem Dafoe, Indian filmmaker and producer Anurag Kashyap; Japanese director Naomi Kawase; Danish-u.S. actor and director Viggo Mortensen; U.K. actor Tilda Swinton; and Russian director and screenwriter Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen and Moroccan director Faouzi Bensaïdi, who will receive the festival’s honorary Étoile d’or prize this year, will also participate in the program.

Baker’s was seen most recently in Toronto title Limbo and Tribeca 2022 selection Blaze, with early features including L.A. Confidential (1997), David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and J. C. Chandor’s Margin Call (2011), followed by hit series The Mentalist (2008–2015).

Bensaïdi’s first feature A Thousand Months world premiered...

Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn is infamous for being one of the most provocative filmmakers working today, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that several of his favorite films are some of the most disturbing movies ever made. Over the years, Refn has given wide-ranging interviews that don’t hide the influences that have driven his feature films, from “Pusher” to “Bronson,” “Drive” to “Only God Forgives,” “The Neon Demon” and more.

Born in 1970, Refn made his directorial debut at 26 years old with “Pusher,” a violent crime thriller that introduced the cinematic world to the talents of Mads Mikkelsen. Two sequels followed in 2004 and 2005, and 1999’s “Bleeder” was another Copenhagen-set crime drama starring Mikkelsen. His initial excursions into English-language filmmaking, including the John Turturro-led “Fear X,” the Tom Hardy vehicle “Bronson,” and another Mikkelsen film “Valhalla Rising,” were all moderately well received, although most failed to entirely take...

Mutoid Man have announced their first album in six years, Mutants, which drops July 28th. The lead single “Call of the Void” can be heard now.

Not only is it the first new music in six years from the post-hardcore outfit, but it also marks the Mutoid Man debut of High on Fire bassist Jeff Matz, rounding out a veritable supergroup alongside Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky (vocals/guitar) and drummer Ben Koller of Converge fame.

The trio meld together splendidly on “Call of the Void” — a five-minute romp of mathy licks, mosh-inducing breakdowns, and shout-along vocal hooks. We’re hearing a little bit of every member’s past work here, from the more angular post-hardcore leanings of Converge and Cave In, to the brutal up-tempo charge of High on Fire.

The band also get props for arguably the most entertaining performance music video so far this year — directed by...

In a few short years, two decades will be between Nicolas Winding Refn and his second feature film, “Bleeder.” While the director’s works before his breakout “Drive” — the “Pusher” trilogy, “Bronson,” and “Valhalla Rising” among them — are mostly easily seen, for whatever reason, “Bleeder” has fallen to the side over time.

Continue reading Trailer For Nicolas Winding Refn’s Newly Restored ‘Bleeder’ Re-Introduces The Director’s Second Film at The Playlist.

Nicolas Winding Refn is a director whose work film fans love to watch. His frames are rich and compelling, his characters are fascinating, and his ability to orchestrate every element, aspect and detail of a production to create his unique vision is formidable, to say the least. For these reasons, his next film has been the focus of much anticipation – which will only increase now that distribution has finally been secured. Audiences will now get to see The Neon Demon in 2016, courtesy of Amazon Studios.

This development places The Neon Demon among a number of titles – including Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: The Green Legend, and Chi-Raq – at the forefront of the ongoing tussle between the ‘traditional’ theatrical release model, and the evolving modernised release model that is emerging through the growth of streaming platforms, such as Netflix and Amazon. While The Neon Demon is apparently scheduled for an initial release in cinemas,...

Before writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn made a name for himself in Hollywood with films like Drive and Only God Forgives, not to mention Bronson before that, Refn came out the woodwork with the Pusher trilogy, a series of film which focused intermediately on three completely different personalities intertwined in one druggie-centric universe. And as the Danish filmmaker works through post-production on his latest project, the female-centric horror film The Neon Demon, it looks as though another semi-sequel could be in the works. Talking with Collider, Refn got to talking about his upcoming slate, which will apparently include a Tokyo-centered spy film called The Avenging Silence, which the filmmaker is currently writing in the midst of editing his latest film for next year. This is apparently a project Refn's been cooking inside his mind for sometime, and it will follow a spiritual character his fans will almost certainly be familiar with.

He made his name in Pusher and Open Hearts and went on to be a Bond baddie. But he is still waiting to work with Lars von Trier – and still trying to keep things radical

Mads Mikkelsen, as handsome as you like, lowers himself into a seat, rolls a cigarette and stares handsomely out over the sea. Did I mention he was handsome? Not only is he wearing the kind of shiny suit that only the handsomest among us can get away with, he's also sporting a radioactive tan that sets off his handsomely glittering eyes. The tan, he says, is because he's just come back from shooting a western in South Africa, not, I'm relieved to discover, the latest manifestation of the World Conspiracy of Handsomeness.

Oh well. It's safe to say that the way Mikkelsen, 48, looks has not hurt him in his quest to become a well-known and successful actor.

Festival will take titles on tour to Edinbugh and Glasgow.

The Nordic Film Festival is returning to London for its second edition (Nov 25-Dec 4), focussing on films from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

The 15-title strong programme will include five UK premieres and two London premieres. The line-up comprises family and youth dramas, crime thrillers, documentaries, animation, experimental film and shorts.

The festival will open with the UK premiere of Marcus Fjellstrom’s short noir animation series, Odboy and Erordog Suite, with live soundtrack performed by Swedish quartet The Pearls Before Swine Experience.

Other UK premieres include Rune Denstad Langlo’s Chasing the Wind; documentary My Stuff with a Q&A with director Petri Luukkainen; and documentary Finnish Blood, Swedish Heart with a Q&A with director Mika Ronkainen.

Other highlights include Pirjo Honkasalo’s Concrete Night and closing film You and Me Forever by director Kaspar Munk. The latter screening will be attended by lead...

Okay, kids, strap yourselves in because things are about to get a little bit crazy!The Twitch presented retrospective With Blood On His Hands: The Films Of Nicolas Winding Refn at the Tiff Bell Lightbox is now well and truly under way with both Pusher and Bleeder screening yesterday and the bulk of the remaining filmography screening either tonight or over the weekend. And, as always, we've got two pairs of tickets for every screening to give away and we've got to get our winners to the Tiff box office folk before business closes up at the end of the day. Which means over the course of today we have to give away two pairs of tickets for each of Fear X, Pusher II: With Blood...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Hey, Toronto! The Twitch presented retrospective With Blood On His Hands: The Films Of Nicolas Winding Refn kicks off tonight with a Refn curated screening of Andy Milligan's Fleshpot on 42nd Street before continuing on tomorrow with Refn's first two films - Pusher and Bleeder - on the big screen at the Tiff Bell Lightbox.If you haven't experienced Refn on the big screen you haven't experienced him at all and I have to encourage people particularly to take advantage of this rare opportunity to catch the seldom seen Bleeder - an absolute powerhouse of a film - on the big screen. And we're going to help you do exactly that.We've got two pairs of tickets for both screenings to give away to lucky Twitch readers...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Nicolas Winding Refn's haunting, mostly silent and meditative Viking movie “Valhalla Rising” came out all the way back in 2009. In our review way back when, we described it as akin to “Terrence Malick making a horror movie,” and that’s kinda not far off the mark (maybe Kubrick making a twisted nature movie too). “I always wanted to make a drug movie. Because you can present it in one way as this movie is about some Vikings going crazy and killing each other. But at least I can see now that it has many themes going through it and it's very open to interpretation,” Refn told us in a 2009 interview. “It’s about science-fiction but without science. It's about faith, and what's beyond faith is when you die.” One of the more terrific elements of the movie was the score by Peter Peter and Peter Kyed (they did Refn...

Here's a bit of news I'm happy to see out in the wild ...Twitch is proud to present With Blood On His Hands, a complete retrospective of the films of Nicolas Winding Refn screening at the Tiff Bell Lightbox in Toronto from October 23rd - November 5th. Refn will be on hand for the opening weekend to present screenings of Pusher and Bleeder as well as presenting a special screening of Andy Milligan's Fleshpot on 42nd Street. Also presented will be seldom seen documentary Gambler, which chronicles the creation of Pusher 2 and Pusher 3 as Refn struggles to recover from the financial failure of Fear X. Click here for tickets and screening times and read on for the full announcement! With Blood on His...

[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's follow-up to the darkly stylish Drive is the even more violent Only God Forgives. Is he revelling in sexual brutality?

"So," asks Nicolas Winding Refn, as we sit down for lunch in a swish new place in King's Cross, London, "what was the first reaction you had to my film? What was the first thought that went through your mind?"

Not only is this a reversal of the traditional interview roles, it's also a tricky question. The film under review is Only God Forgives, the follow-up to Refn's critically acclaimed and commercially successful Drive. Imagine a Quentin Tarantino homage to oriental slasher movies but directed by David Lynch at his most elliptical and unsettling, and you might get some idea of the strangeness of Only God Forgives. It features Ryan Gosling as a boxing promoter and drug dealer with impotence issues, Kristin Scott Thomas as his blond,...

Nicolas Winding Refn is in early talks to direct the Denzel Washington thriller, "The Equalizer," for Columbia Pictures and Escape Artists, a person familiar with the project has told TheWrap. The film is loosely based on the 1980s TV series that starred Edward Woodward as a former undercover operations officer who helps people in trouble. Refn's other directing credits include "Pusher," "Valhalla Rising," "Bleeder" and "Drive," which won him the best director award in Cannes in 2011. His upcoming films include "Only God Forgives," with "Drive" star Ryan Gosling. The film is being produced...

With the release of a second teaser trailer of Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" this morning, we got another look at one of the most anticipated films of the year. And with the picture already slated for an October 13th release, for some traveling film critics and fans, and those prepared to head to Italy, the Venice Film Festival could be where the film makes its world premiere, with artistic director Alberto Barbera suggesting a few weeks back that Anderson was heading to the Lido for the fest, which kicks off on August 29th.

With the announcement of the opening film due any day now -- it was on June 21st last year and today, the fest announced their lineup of rare and restored films that will unspool -- and "The Master" trailer reminding us that its one of the candidates, it seemed like a good opportunity to look...

Tiff 2011: Drive Movie Review. Ultra-stylish, ultra- violent Drive is one of fall's standout movies. Review of Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan. Going to Hollywood and working with celebrity actors has been a creative goal for Danish-born director Nicolas Winding Refn for some time. His efforts pay off beautifully with Drive, starring Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stunt car driver turned getaway man. The idea of Refn making a "Hollywood" movie is a source of concern for the small but devoted fan base of his ambitious and brutally beautiful films including Bronson, a high-energy biopic about Britain's most violent prisoner starring Tom Hardy; his Viking drama Valhalla Rising, starring fellow Dane Mads Mikkelsen, the star of the first two gangster films in his Pusher trilogy; as well as his lesser-known films Bleeder and Fear X, starring John Turturro as a husband searching for his wife's killer...

Tiff 2011: Drive Movie Review. Ultra-stylish, ultra- violent Drive is one of fall's standout movies. Review of Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan. Going to Hollywood and working with celebrity actors has been a creative goal for Danish-born director Nicolas Winding Refn for some time. His efforts pay off beautifully with Drive, starring Ryan Gosling as a Hollywood stunt car driver turned getaway man. The idea of Refn making a "Hollywood" movie is a source of concern for the small but devoted fan base of his ambitious and brutally beautiful films including Bronson, a high-energy biopic about Britain's most violent prisoner starring Tom Hardy; his Viking drama Valhalla Rising, starring fellow Dane Mads Mikkelsen, the star of the first two gangster films in his Pusher trilogy; as well as his lesser-known films Bleeder and Fear X, starring John Turturro as a husband searching for his wife's killer...

Nicolas Winding Refn seems like an unlikely artist to be the guy who is making a career for himself as the pre-eminent bard of movie machismo, but that appears to be the case.  His "Pusher" trilogy is a marvel of soap opera plotting and bad guy behavior, and he made Kim Bodina feel like the world's greatest unknown movie star, a Danish Tony Soprano.  His film "Bleeder" is about the rejection of comfort and love, with violence shown to be this seductive, necessary piece of some people's chemical make-up.  His big breakthrough moment seemed to be "Bronson," which I reviewed in...

His obsessive enthusiasm has steered gangster sagas, Norse bloodbaths and even Miss Marple. Now Nicolas Winding Refn is back behind the wheel for his new film Drive

There are three remarkable things about Marple: Nemesis, a 2008 ITV outing for Agatha Christie's elderly detective. For a start, it's the only time she's handed a mission, rather than just stumbling across a body and spontaneously sleuthing. It took more liberties with the original novel than usual – plots were dropped, motives skewed, two characters conflated to make a serial-killing lesbian nun. And, finally, it was directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, then best known for the Pusher trilogy: a Danish gangster saga, all grimy machismo and intestines down the sink.

"I was broke as hell," he explains, chewing popcorn in a back room at the O2 centre in London. "I'd gone bankrupt and owed my bank £1m. I paid that back by making...

Three filmmakers in this year’s Cannes programme started their careers in Mannheim-Heidelberg whose 60th edition will take place 10 - 20 November 2011. In this year’s Cannes International Film Festival will present three films from former Mannheim-Heidelberg discoveries. Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn was at the beginning of his career in directing when he showed his feature film Bleeder in Mannheim-Heidelberg in 1999. This year, he will present his new feature Drive in Cannes’ International Competition. The Un Certain Regard section is showcasing South Korean director Hong Sangsoo whose Mannheim debut in 1996 was The Day the Pig Fell Into…...

The characters in Nicolas Winding Refn's films remind one of the famous tale of the scorpion and frog. They're trapped by compulsive behavior, often against their better natures. A small-time drug dealer in "Pusher" (1996), the director's breakthrough debut, seems to go further and further into debt the more he tries to pay back a brutal gangster. In "Pusher 3" (2005), that same brutal gangster, trying to find some normalcy in his middle age, is sucked into a whirlpool of harrowing violence. In "Bronson" (2008), real-life British prison inmate Charlie Bronson is constantly on the search for a fight, even though it only results in him becoming even more confined; he fights, therefore he is.

The characters in "Valhalla Rising," the director's new hallucinatory Viking epic, are no different. These warriors cannot shed themselves of the violence, madness and paranoia that define their world. The Danish director responsible for this brutal and...

Do I need to take a moment here to restate my love for Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn? With his Pusher films Refn is responsible for, in my mind, the greatest trilogy of crime films ever made. His Bleeder is criminally underseen, as is Fear X and Bronson has been winning much love around the globe. Refn is, quite simply, one of the most talented and distinctive voices in the film world today. And so we have been waiting in great anticipation for his viking epic Valhalla Rising - with Mads Mikkelsen in the lead - from the day we first heard of it. What would Refn do when you took him out of the urban centers that had driven his work up until now?

Well, I had the chance to see the sales reel for Valhalla in Berlin and the answer was simple: he made another brilliant piece of...