Happy 50th Birthday, Nicolas Winding Refn! Born today in 1970, this Danish screenwriter, producer and film director is known for his crime dramas and fictionalized biographical films.
Born in Copenhagen, Refn was the son of Danish film editor and director Anders Refn and Danish cinematographer Vibeke Winding.
His half-brother is Danish composer Kasper Winding, who has become a singer in Denmark.
Refn has referred to himself as Jewish, though his genealogy indicates no recent Jewish heritage.
Refn moved to New York with his parents just before he turned eleven in 1981. While there, he lived out his teenage years. Over time, New York quickly became his city and soon began to shape Refn's future.
At seventeen, Nicolas moved back to his native Copenhagen to complete his high-school education.
After graduation, he swiftly flew back to New York, where he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. However, this education was cut short when Refn threw a desk at a classroom wall and was expelled from the Academy.
Consequently, he applied to the Danish Film School and was readily accepted. This education too was to be short-lived, though, as one month prior to the start of the semester, Refn dropped out.
A short film Nicolas had written, directed, and starred in was aired on an obscure cable television channel and lead to the offer of a lifetime.
Refn was spotted and offered 3.2 million kroners to turn the short into a feature. At only twenty-four, Nicolas had written and directed a film of which was extremely violent and uncompromising.
This was the 1996 Danish crime/drama thriller film 'Pusher'. It was the first installment of his Pusher trilogy. The other installments include 'Pusher II' (2004) and 'Pusher 3' (2005).
The series illustrate and explore the criminal underworld of Copenhagen. Each of the three entries features a different character, with both sequels centered on a supporting character from the previous film.
Refn appeared in the film as a young man named Brian. His character buys drugs from Frank (Kim Bodnia), a low-level dealer and Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen), Frank's cheerful but manic partner.
Refn once owned a film company called Jang Go Star, which went bankrupt. In 2008, Refn co-founded the Copenhagen-based production company Space Rocket Nation.
According to Refn's personal life, he is married to Danish actress and documentary filmmaker Liv Corfixen. They have two children together.
In his native Denmark, Refn is known as l'Enfant Sauvage (the Wild Child). Despite using dominant colors in his films as an asthenic, Refn is colorblind.
In 2011, Refn said, "I'm colorblind, I can't see mid-colors. That's why all my films are very contrasted, if it were anything else I couldn't see it."
That same year, Refn directed the film of which he is best known. This was the 2011 American neo-noir action/crime drama film 'Drive'.
The film was based on American crime writer, poet, critic, musicologist and musician John Sallis' eponymous 2005 mystery suspense hardboiled, noir crime fiction book of the same name.
An unnamed Driver (Ryan Gosling) is a mechanic, stunt double and skilled Hollywood stuntman. He also moonlights as a getaway driver for Jewish mobsters Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman).
Though Driver projects an icy exterior, lately he's been warming up to a pretty neighbor named Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son, Benicio (Kaden Leos).
When Irene's husband, Standard Gabriel (Oscar Isaac), gets out of jail, he enlists Driver's help in a one million-dollar heist.
However, the job goes horribly wrong, and Driver must risk his life to protect Irene and Benicio from the vengeful masterminds behind the robbery.
The film premiered at the 54th Cannes Film Festival in May 2011, where it received a standing ovation. Refn won the festival's Best Director Award.
'Drive' was praised for its direction, cinematography, performances (particularly Gosling and Brooks’), visuals, action sequences, and musical score.
However, some critics were appalled by its graphic violence and found that potentially detrimental to the film's box office success.
Several critics listed 'Drive' as one of the best films of 2011, including the 83rd National Board of Review Awards that same year.
The following year, 'Drive' received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound Editing. This occurred at the 84th Academy Awards in late February 2012.
Despite directing 'Drive', Refn personally doesn't have a driver's license. He has failed his driving test eight times.
Among his other credits, Refn is also known for directing 'Bleeder' (1999), 'Fear X' (2003), 'Bronson' (2008), 'Only God Forgives' (2013), and 'The Neon Demon' (2016).
In the late 2010s, Refn directed the 2019 American crime drama web television miniseries Too Old to Die Young. Although running for one season already, Amazon announced that there are no plans to produce a second season.
The trademarks in Refn's films include usually setting his film in Denmark, frequently using handheld cameras, showing the color red, shooting in chronological order without rehearsal, and effective use of rock, electronic, and pop music. and unsettling scenes of extreme violence.
Other trademarks are lingering shots of a character observing their reflection or examining their image in a mirror and scenes that play out with no music with an emphasis on the silence.
These also include a character's stoic appearances contrast their explosive tempers and frightening capacity for violence and often have long stretches with little or no dialogue.
A bold and intriguing talent, Refn called himself "a fetish filmmaker," stating that he chose his projects based on whether he would like to see them and felt strongly it was necessary for art to be extreme.
Poetic and baffling in turns, his work was frequently punctuated by jarring bursts of violence, often amidst gritty, intense looks at criminal sub-cultures.
Refn's lead characters were invariably pushed past their breaking point by circumstances, but sometimes also reacted with surprising degrees of sincere human emotion.
Refn was open about his influences, which ranged from the cinema of Martin Scorsese, Jean-Pierre Melville, Tobe Hooper and Kenneth Anger, to others more unexpected like the teenage comedies of John Hughes.
However, this was in keeping with the duality of a director who described his films as being "very feminine," even while they incorporated instances of cringe-inducing brutality.
Refn is hailed as one of the most visionary directors of his generation, delivering the sort of dazzling creativity and risk taking that reinvigorates genres and take viewers on difficult, astonishing journeys.
Also known as Jang or Nick, Refn has been acting from 1996–present.
#brontodirect
#RealHumanBeing
@NicolasWR
@nwindingrefn
@spacerocketnation
@RogerEbert
@Kanopy
@tubi
@theguardian
@indiewire
@ringer
No comments:
Post a Comment