Polling the films of Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Pusher series, Valhalla Rising, etc.)

pusher 2 imo

no seen any of these but i kinda like his name

iirc he said he wanted the entire film to be a series of scenes which end w/tonny being humiliated, kind of leading to this explosion and this moment of realization in which he takes control of the situation. strangely uplifting film.

this is going to be a tough vote for me - Bronson is a basher, but Valhalla Rising is just eye-popping beautiful and slow, and that isnt even getting into the whole pusher thing. totally fascinated w/ and might have to track down that miss marple thing

all ive seen is bronson and it's kinda meh imo

I'm gonna vote for Pusher III. Milo's one night voyage in and out of Hell is spectacular. My only prob with it is Refn's reveling in unnecessary gore.

havent seen any yet, i hv enough problems.

i should prob watch the pusher stuff again before i vote - anyone want to rep for Fear X? i find the possibilites of turturro worrisome

been meaning to see the pusher films for a while now...valhalla rising looks right up my alley these days

Haven't seen Valhalla Rising, but second and third Pushers are amazing. Bronson is great, but perhaps pales slightly next to the similar and quite similar Chopper.

superior and quite similar, ahem

Fear X is the only one i've seen, so i guess i'll just rep for that. (maybe the Eno/Schwalm soundtrack?)
i always like the whole idea of obsessing over security cameras, creepy stuff.

the rest of the film is pretty much fake Lynch though.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

seems like a good place to post this

http://i.imgur.com/1mtZK.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

what happened to my P3 vote? whatevs.

Well this was a resounding success

I think I forgot to vote. Valhalla Rising was very... strange.

I missed this poll, otherwise would have voted for Valhalla Rising. Loved that movie.

havent seen any yet, i hv enough problems.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 December 2010 19:17 (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

haha

fascist romance and man-boy love in the films of NW refn

he's doing Barbarella on TV

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/gaumont-international-tv-to-do-barbarella-series-with-martha-de-laurentiis-nick-refn/

nice piece here by refn abt his involvement with the recent bluray release of an andy milligan obscurity:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/jun/14/obsession-andy-milligan-cult-movies

i hate TV but i love Refn, am torn

Bought Valhalla Rising on DVD for $10 this week. Re-watching now. This movie rules so fucking hard. Like I said in the review I linked, he combines the obsessive craziness of Aguirre, the Wrath of God with the beautiful nature shots of The New World, minus all Malick's hippie bullshit.

Yeah, it's really good. Not too dissimilar from Severed Ways either.

VH was on bbc 1 last week.
after first few minutes, thought i was going to get bored due to sheer lack of pace/dialogue, instead i got totally sucked into it.
bloody hell it was weird/good/gory.
i just wanted it to go on for another hour ...
one point that did make me go 'ummm ?!?' though.
they are stuck in the boat drifting in the mist for days/weeks due to no wind.
why did they not use the oars that made an appearance later on ?
great film though.

i saw that recently too. its such an oppressive, nightmarish film. you have to admire it for what it does though.

i hear Only God Forgives has about as much talking as valhalla

why did they not use the oars that made an appearance later on ?

they'd just get more thirsty and they had no water as is iirc

fair enough.

and yes, proper nightmarish.

the atmosphere is sooo intense at times (assisted by the excellent soundtrack .. )

i never noticed the oars, i'll have to watch for it. i like rewatching it for the soundtrack alone

its probably the best movie about building cairns that i can think of

re: only god forgives

The film received a very divisive response at its Cannes press screening; it was booed by many of the audience of journalists and critics while also receiving a standing ovation.[17][11]

the trailer has more dialogue than v.r.

cannes booing literally the least significant gauge of the quality of a film i can think of

what abt standing ovations

If it gets booed at cannes that means its a classic. thems the rules.

can anyone rep for Pusher? Or should I not waste my time?

It's been ages since I saw Pusher, but I remember it as being fine. Kinda typical 90'ies gritty intense gangster film. Only God Forgives is quite good. It has a really cool unreal vibe, where a lot of the people seem more like demons than people. But also, it's insane and hyperviolent and sorta misogynistic and I think Winding Refn might be sick.

It's the only two Refn-films I've seen. I have Valhalla Rising, should probably watch that soon.

Enter “The Incal,” which recently surfaced as a project Refn was working on. The famous graphic novel from Alejandro Jodorowsky (to whom Refn has dedicated “Only God Forgives”) is an epic, universe-spanning science fiction story very much derived from the unused concepts Jodorowsky and company planned for the infamous unmade version of “Dune.” Though Refn has flirted with a number of big budget studio genre pictures, it appears that “The Incal” is the one that has taken precedence. Describing it as “the ultimate graphic novel,” Refn explains, “It all came down to ‘Logan’s Run.’ When I pulled out of ‘Logan’s Run,’ it was the decision that if I was gonna make one of these mega-blockbusters, I would control the material.”

Refn explains how the hyper-expressive Jodorowsky is the one that gave Refn the courage to avoid the big blockbuster sinkhole. “I called Jodorowsky in Paris and he says to me, ‘What is this shit in Hollywood, why?’” Refn says, launching into an impassioned Jodo impersonation. “And I thought I was being yelled at! ‘You must not let your vision be destroyed!’ And I was like, I know, I know, I was wrong. ‘You have to stay true, or else I’ll not like you anymore!’ He’s like ninety, but he has the mind of a comet. So I said, I would like to do ‘The Incal,’ and he was like, ‘That… you will HAVE!’” Originally it seemed like Refn’s hopes for “The Incal” were merely a pipe dream, though he hints, “Actually it may happen faster than I anticipated.”

Refn is also active as a producer, lending his guidance to a project he was originally going to direct, “The Dying Of The Light.” Written by Paul Schrader, who is now going to direct the film himself, the project apparently came apart for Refn when Harrison Ford wanted to change the script, but Refn is back in the mix saying, “I’m a huge fan of Paul Schrader. I have made myself completely available to whatever Paul needs.” Refn is also still producing a remake of “Maniac Cop” with the original film’s director Bill Lustig, suggesting that the delay on this project had to do with a rights issue. Refn says, “Right now, we’re just going through writers and getting the script ready, and we hope to go make it in the future. [Lustig]’s a very underrated director. His films are very influential still, and it’s a great privilege to be able to work with him. We’re taking it one step and a time, but very soon we will find a director and they will make it his or her movie.”

With this schedule comes the possibility of some films falling by the wayside, some for practical reasons, others creative. It seemed like the latter when Refn left action-thriller “The Equalizer,” cryptically referring to a subpar product. But Refn still holds a torch for the film’s star. “I would love to make anything with Denzel Washington,” he raves. “To me he can read the phone book and make it interesting, he has an incredible gift. But things happen for different reasons. And sometimes you realize that God has plans, and you may not know what the outcome’s gonna be.” When pressed for details, Refn could only offer, “It was not the right combination at the right time. The tradeoff was… not good enough.”

can anyone rep for Pusher? Or should I not waste my time?

I went deep on Refn after LOVING Valhalla Rising. "typical gritty 90s gangster film" is a good descriptor. It's quite well done for being on a limited budget etc. As always Mikkelsen is worth your time. Pusher 2, With Blood on My Hands, is incredible & heartbreaking IMO. It's probably Mikkelsen's best role that I've seen. Pusher 3 is worth your time although it contains some extremely nauseating moments. I won't watch that one again. None of them really need to be seen in any sequence, nor do they need the other for context. If you only want to try one, watch Pusher 2.

they are stuck in the boat drifting in the mist for days/weeks due to no wind.

it is a very theatrical part of the movie in comparison to the bleak Highland landscapes, the boat is mostly static and you don't get any sense of the elements. The background is very stagey and you don't get any sense that this boat is crossing the Atlantic. I love the way it adds to ethereal doom of the 2nd half of the story.

pusher II is, in the end, genuinely uplifting and transcendent in its own roundabout manner.

Fear X is probably still my favourite Refn. Yeah, it's 'Lynchian' but it's successfully unsettling and nightmarish.

A DVD if it is also, weirdly, on prominent display in the films section of my local Poundland.

I love the scene where they discover the native American corpses on raised platform graves in VH. It is stunning and propably amongst the most iconographic shit I have seen since watching Segio Leone greats in my childhood.

The Pusher trilogy is notable for being one of the only trilogies I can think of where all three are good.

"typical gritty 90s gangster film" is a good descriptor. It's quite well done for being on a limited budget etc. As always Mikkelsen is worth your time.

agree w/ most of this. its grit is nicely understated tho. like i love that he goes 2 ask him mom for $ in a v matter of fact, tho not like sociopathically emotionless or anything, type of way

watched pusher 3 today -- good also. milo is sortof a small scale vers of tony soprano imo

Fear X is probably still my favourite Refn. Yeah, it's 'Lynchian' but it's successfully unsettling and nightmarish.

― hewing to the status quo with great zealotry (DavidM), Monday, June 24, 2013 7:07 PM (3 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yea this is otm. mixing lynchian tendancies w/ a palpable emptiness is a good look, i really liked it

"Harry’s impossible quest raises questions, but it all adds to the brave elliptical nature of this film. So did Refn ever get to the bottom of those questions in his own mind? "I can’t answer that," he says bluntly. "It depends on how I feel that day. And of course that pisses off a lot of people because they’re not used to a film without an ending. But what the f**k is an ending, you know?"

nice piece here by refn abt his involvement with the recent bluray release of an andy milligan obscurity:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/jun/14/obsession-andy-milligan-cult-movies

― Ward Fowler, Monday, June 25, 2012

To lead off a Refn series playing here, they asked him to pick one film by someone else and he chose Milligan's Fleshpot on 42nd Street. He had to cancel an in-person to introduce it, so he sent a video intro instead: "The enemy of art is good taste."

The film wasn't quite the ordeal I expected a few minutes into it. Things brightened up once Cherry Lane showed up--her bickering with the Simmons Sisters was great, very Waters/Warhol, and Harry Reems must have just missed his Ryan O'Neal moment--he's very sensitive. Overall, I'm not sure if it was more or less of a mess than the World Series game I skipped. (I've never seen of one Refn's own films. The series programmer urged us to see Bleeder tomorrow night, but I'll be opting for baseball this time.)

Just finished watching Valhalla Rising for the first time. Loved it. Fantastic droning, clanging soundtrack and beautiful cinematography - I've never seen Scotland look like that on film before. The opening sequence makes the Highlands look like a terrifying blasted hellscape.

I assume there's a connection between One-Eye and Odin / Norse mythology but I think I'll need to watch it again before I get a clearer idea of what that might be.

i liked pusher 3, need to see the other ones

didn't like drive much, glad I gave him a second chance w/ valhalla rising cuz yeah amazing

i love how like 5 things happen in VR but it takes 90 mins

Got a real 2001/Stalker vibe from VR in the pacing and the heavily-symbolic journey into the unknown plot. Also in the final scene something about the close-up of One-Eye which cuts to the startling wide reveal shot of the body-painted people standing on the rocks reminded me of the POV cut from Young Dave Bowman to Old Dave Bowman at the end of 2001.

been periodically ~thinking abt~ fear x since seeing it, stumbled upon this -http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/pages/essays/fear_x/

Nicolas Wind-It-In Refn more like

Refn and John Hyams are teaming up to bring a tv adaptation of.... Maniac Cop?

https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/nicolas-winding-refn-brings-maniac-cop-series-to-hbo.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob_afyQgEXQ
This looks great so I'm glad it's only 6 episodes

I guess that Maniac Cop thing isn’t happening? Bummed if so, sounded like a great pairing.

Too Old to Die Young is an unsung masterpiece, stoked for any new series from him.

Do want to watch Too Old To Die Young someday but it's extremely long

Too Long to Watch Soon

Which is fair, I think I watched 1.5 episodes when it came out and still haven’t made it back

TOTDY has a "I dare you to watch this" tone to it that mostly dissipates once you get past episodes 2&3. It's not perfect, but it's not the indulgent mess that some folks insist it is.

A Thread to discuss Too Old to Die Young, an Amazon series from Nicolas Winding Refn has some good comments.