All articles tagged with #nicolas winding refn
Hideo Kojima and Nicolas Winding Refn teamed up with Prada to produce an AI-assisted teaser promoting Prada mode in New York; revealed at Cannes, the six-minute concept follows the duo through space and a crash on a hostile planet, with a shorter online teaser; described as an artistic experiment exploring new creative possibilities through AI technology and met with mixed online reactions.
At Cannes, Sophie Thatcher details sleepless nights promoting Her Private Hell, the intense, mentor-like bond with Nicolas Winding Refn, and how the film’s stylized, studio-driven world pushed her to improvise and seek more European directing projects, like Wim Wenders.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s Cannes out-of-competition feature Her Private Hell unfolds as a lush, David Lynch–on–acid fever dream: opulent sets, eye-make-uped actresses posed like fashion models, a haunting score by Pino Donaggio, and a Leather Man nightmare. But the film has little to no coherent story, instead stacking Lynchian atmosphere, lurid imagery, and recycled Refn motifs into a disjointed experience that feels more like art-trash than cinema. The review praises craftsmanship and mood but condemns the lack of narrative clarity, suggesting Refn’s best work remains Drive and the Pusher trilogy rather than this self-indulgent experiment. The director’s Cannes remarks about a near-death experience add mystique but do not redeem the movie.
Nicolas Winding Refn cried at Cannes as he recounted a heart surgery in which he was dead for more than 20 minutes, describing it as a second chance and vowing to expand horizons for kids. The director’s latest film, Her Private Hell, received a 12-minute standing ovation at its world premiere and will open July 24 via Neon.
Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn broke down at Cannes while discussing his near-death experience: he was told he had died for about 25 minutes due to a leaking heart, underwent emergency surgery two weeks later, and joked that a surgeon like Tom Cruise could “fix me with his hands” and revive me with electricity. He said the life-altering event gave him a renewed purpose and a chance to start over as his new film Her Private Hell premiered at Cannes to a seven-minute ovation, marking his return to feature directing after a decade.
Nicolas Winding Refn returns to cinema with Her Private Hell at Cannes (out of competition), a surreal, visually lush experience that emphasizes mood and Pino Donaggio’s emotive score over traditional storytelling. Set in a dreamlike, neon-lit megacity, the film follows Elle (Sophie Thatcher) as a high-stakes film shoot spirals into mysticism, murder, and the Leather Man, with Private K (Charles Melton) appearing like a spectral avenger. Echoing Bergman’s Persona and 2001-era imagery, the movie is a bold, polarizing blend of style and ambiguity that marks Refn’s first feature since Neon Demon and his near-fatal heart condition, signaling a daring, if divisive, new direction for his work.
Nicolas Winding Refn unveiled Her Private Hell at Cannes to a seven-minute standing ovation despite it premiering out of competition; led by Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton, the provocative thriller follows a tortured star and a vengeance-seeking Army private as Refn used the moment to reflect on cinema’s power after a near-death experience, with Neon planning a July 24 U.S. release.
At Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn's psychedelic sci‑fi drama Her Private Hell earned a 12‑minute standing ovation at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, the second-longest of the night; the film, out of competition, stars Sophie Thatcher, Havana Rose Liu and Charles Melton. Refn, who recently survived heart surgery, used his speech to champion cinema as a unifying force and paid a nod to composer Pino Donaggio, as Neon sets a July 24 U.S. release date.
Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn criticized streamers at the Venice Film Festival, calling them "overfunded and rotten with money and cocaine." Refn, who previously claimed that "cinema is dead," now believes that cinema needs to be fought for because streamers have "saturated everything" and "devalued content to just a swipe." He also tied streamers to the dangers of artificial intelligence, stating that AI is not an artist but a product. Refn is currently working on a new movie after his previous series for Netflix and Amazon did not receive further seasons.