Demon director embraces chaos
One of the world’s most polarising film-makers tells why, despite the boos, he can’t resist returning to Cannes.
Danish movie director Nicolas Winding Refn is a man of extreme contrasts. A self-confessed lover of chaos, he’s also a rare film-maker who insists on shooting in chronological order. And while he might be softlyspoken, films like Pusher, Drive, Only God Forgives and his latest work, The Neon Demon, virtually scream for attention.
A lurid tale of the dog-eat-dog world of modelling, Demon juxtaposes the rise of ingenue model Jesse (Elle Fanning) with her descent into morally dubious behaviour. Filled with visual and visceral imagery that is not for the faint-hearted or easily offended, the movie has polarised audiences and critics alike. ‘‘It eventually lands on a sequence so jaw-dropping that all you can do is howl or cheer,’’ wrote The Daily Telegraph‘s Robbie Collin.
Which is exactly how the audience greeted the film at its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May. While many stood to applaud it, the auditorium also echoed to the sound of booing. Not that that bothered the 46-year-old Refn.
‘‘I love the combination of glitter and vulgarity [at Cannes],’’ he says down the phoneline from Bangkok, his latest stop as part of Demon‘s global rollout, earlier this week. ‘‘I enjoy going there and having that experience. I enjoy all the chaos of Cannes and I think that it very much tries to celebrate creativity, first and foremost.’’
He says he’s been fascinated by the different reactions to the film around the world, especially in places like Japan. ‘‘It’s interesting. The whole Asian understanding of the spiritual world means they accept it on a more metaphysical level. [In my movies] I like to ask a question, rather than providing the answer. That seems to be a way that’s much more similar to an Asian mentality – accepting that certain things are entangled.’’
I ask if working in Thailand on his last film Only God Forgives helped inform Demon’s take on ‘‘that mentality’’. ‘‘I presume it came like a natural evolution,’’ he muses, before reflecting that ‘‘although, there’s a similar entanglement in Drive and Only God as well.’’
This idea of evolution also informs his desire to shoot his films’ sequences in the order they will appear on screen. ‘‘To me it’s like painting, you know where you want to end up, but it’s the process where you feel most alive. I like to force myself into a kind of spontaneous approach – like an infant with a crayon. I also like the constant fear of everything falling apart. Innerfear breeds creativity, but that’s what also inspires you.’’
So where did the inspiration for a film set in the world of modelling come from? ‘‘It wasn’t that there was an ‘A’ idea, more the culmination of ideas I had. I guess I wanted to make a film about beauty. I wasn’t born beautiful, but my wife [Liv Corfixen] was. I thought, ‘I wonder what it would be like?’. I also find it interesting that the obsession with beauty continues to rise as career longevity [within the industry] begins to drop, so I wondered what happens when it begins to feed on itself to sustain its lifeflow.’’
For his muse, Refn chose Maleficent star Elle Fanning, but only after a long, ‘‘exasperating’’ casting process. ‘‘As [Cheers’] Sam Malone says, ‘she had that thing’. She’s unique and complete – her own identity. Everything subconsciously led to her, but I didn’t really know that. I kept calling her back as I was getting very frustrated that there wasn’t anyone that fitted the role as well as she ended up doing.’’
Up next, is a movie that he’s billed as a cross between Dr No and William Burroughs’ Nova Express – The Avenging Silence.
Refn admits he hasn’t gotten much further than those elements. ‘‘I don’t know exactly what I’ll be doing yet. You see, I like chaos on many things.’’
The Neon Demon
(R18) is now screening. Review, E26.