Nicolas Winding Refn
Winding Refn in September 2011 at the Deauville American Film Festival
Born	(1970-09-29) 29 September 1970 (age 53) Copenhagen, Denmark
Occupation(s)	Film director, screenwriter, producer
Years active	1996–present
Notable work	Drive, The Pusher Trilogy, Bronson, Valhalla Rising
Spouse	Liv Corfixen
Children	2 (daughters)

Nicolas Winding Refn (born 29 September 1970) is a Danish film director, screenwriter and producer. He moved to the United States in 1981 and attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts but was expelled for throwing a table into a wall after an argument with a teacher.^[3] He is best known for directing the Pusher films (1996, 2004, 2005)^[4] and Drive (2011).

Early life

Winding Refn was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, and raised partly in New York, United States.^[5] His parents are Danish film director and editor, Anders Refn, and cinematographer, Vibeke Winding.^[6] His half-brother is Danish singer Kasper Winding.^[7]

Winding Refn has cited viewing The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) as inspiration for his filmmaking career:

I grew up in a cinema family. My parents were brought up on the French New Wave. That was God to them, but to me it was the antichrist, and how better to rebel against your parents than by watching something your mother is going to hate, which were American horror movies. When I saw Texas Chain Saw Massacre, I realized: I don't want to be a director, I don't want to be a writer, I don't want to be a producer, I don't want to be a photographer, I don't want to be an editor, I don't want to be a sound man. I want to be all of them at once. And that film proved that you can do it because that movie is not a normal movie.^[8]

Career

The Pusher trilogy

Winding Refn made his directorial debut with the Danish crime drama film Pusher (1996). The original film garnered a Best Supporting Actor Award at the 1997 Bodil Awards. Refn later made two sequels, Pusher II (2004) (aka Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands) and Pusher 3 (2005) (aka Pusher III: I'm The Angel of Death). For Pusher II, lead actors Mads Mikkelsen won a Best Actor at the 2005 Bodil Awards, Best Actor at the 2005 Robert Festival (where the film was also nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Film, among other nominations) and Best Actor at the 2005 Zulu Awards. The film was remade into a British version in 2012, Pusher (2012), directed by Luis Prieto and Executive Produced by Refn himself.

Bleeder

In 1999, Refn directed the crime-drama-thriller Bleeder (1999), which featured much of the same cast from the Pusher Trilogy, including actors such as Kim Bodnia and Mads Mikkelsen. Refn won the FIPRESCI prize for the film at the 2000 Sarajevo Film Festival, and the film also won Best Lighting at the Robert Festival, and was nominated for Best Film and Best Supporting Actress at the 2000 Bodil Awards, as well as for the Grand Prix Asturias for Best Feature at the 1999 Gijon International Film Festival.^[9]

Fear X

In 2003, Refn directed and wrote his first U.S.-based Hollywood film, Fear X (2003), which starred John Turturro. Although being a commercial failure that bankrupted the film company (Jang Go Star) at the time, the film won an International Fantasy Film Award for Best Screenplay at the 2004 Fantasporto Film Festival, and was nominated for best actor awards (for Turturro) at the Bodil Awards and the Fangoria Awards, and best film awards at festivals including Stiges Film Festival and the Sochi International Film Festival.

Bronson

In 2008, Refn returned to the European art house film circuit after his unsuccessful Hollywood venture Fear X (his first Hollywood success would be Drive), and directed and wrote Bronson (2008), which starred Tom Hardy as the title character, the infamous real-life U.K. prisoner Charles Bronson. The film won Best Film at the 2009 Sydney Film Festival, and was also nominated for the Grand Jury Prize (World Cinema - Dramatic) at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Hardy also won a Best Actor award at the 2009 British Independent Film Awards for his portrayal of Charles Bronson (and the film was also nominated for a Best Achievement in Production award as well). Hardy was also nominated for Best Actor from the Evening Standard British Film Awards and the London Critics Circle Film Awards.

Valhalla Rising

In 2009, Refn teamed up again with frequent collaborator Mads Mikkelsen to write and direct Valhalla Rising, a surrealistic period piece about the brutal Viking era. The film won an International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award and Special Mention at the 2010 Fantasporto Festival, and won the Titra Film Award for Refn at the 2010 Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival. The film also won a Best Make-Up award at the 2011 Robert Festival.

Drive

In 2011, Winding Refn directed the American neo-noir crime drama Drive (2011). It premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where he received the Best Director Award.^[10]

The film was nominated for an Academy Award in 2012 for "Best Sound Editing", for an Excellence in Production Design Award from the Art Directors Guild, won Best Director, Best Screenplay (for Hossein Amini) and Best Supporting Actor (for Albert Brooks) at the Austin Film Critics Awards, won Boston Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks) and Best Use of Music in a Film (by Cliff Martinez), the Critics Choice Award at the Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards for Best Action Movie, Best Director, Best Picture and Breakthrough Film Artist at the Central Ohio Film Critics Association, Best Original Score (Cliff Martinez) and Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks) at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks) at the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Foreign Film at the Fotogramas de Plata, Best Director from the Las Vegas Film Critics Society, a Top Films Award from the National Board of Review, Best Supporting Actor (Albert Brooks) at the National Society of Film Critics Awards, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards and the New York Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Director at the San Diego Film Critics Society Awards, and much more.^[11]

Only God Forgives

The Bangkok-set crime thriller, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristen Scott Thomas, premiered in competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.^[12]

Commercials and short films

He directed an extended Gucci commercial featuring Blake Lively,^[13] which premiered at the 2012 Venice Film Festival. The short film is entitled Gucci Premiere.

Future projects

In September 2011, Winding Refn stated his next film after Only God Forgives will be I Walk With the Dead, with Drive cohort Carey Mulligan slated to play the lead.^[14] According to Winding Refn, it will be a horror-movie sex thriller that may be set in Tokyo or Los Angeles.^[15]

Winding Refn has been attached to helm a remake of Logan's Run with Ryan Gosling and Rose Byrne slated for the lead roles.

In June 2010, Winding Refn stated his interest in directing a Wonder Woman movie with Christina Hendricks to play the titular character. The success of his Logan's Run remake will determine whether he will be able to helm a Wonder Woman adaptation.^[16]

In June 2012, Winding Refn was in talks to direct an adaptation of Button Man.^[17]

Refn may produce (or direct, which is less likely) a prequel to the 80s cult film Maniac Cop.^[18]

Unrealized projects

In 2009, Winding Refn was attached to direct a modern retelling of Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with Keanu Reeves playing the titular roles. The working title of the film was Jekyll. According to an interview with SciFi Wire, he wanted the film to take place "in modern America and use as much credible science as possible."^[19] However in February 2010, Winding Refn dropped out of the project in order to work on Drive.^[20]

In 2010, Winding Refn was attached to direct Paul Schrader's script The Dying of the Light with Harrison Ford as the lead.^[21] However, in February 2010, Winding Refn exited the project. In September 2011 during promotion for Drive, he claimed that Ford did not want his character to die, causing the film production to fall apart.^[22]

Channing Tatum, who was to co-star with Ford in The Dying of the Light, originally wanted Winding Refn to direct Magic Mike (2012), which Steven Soderbergh came to direct.^[23]

In 2012, Refn was attached to direct a remake of the 80s crime show The Equalizer with Denzel Washington in the lead role, but the deal did not materialize with Sony for unknown reasons.^[24]

Directing style

Winding Refn has spoken about characterization in his films:

I've always liked characters that because of the circumstances, have to transform themselves, and in the end, it's inevitable that what they end up becoming is what they were meant to be. Take, for example, Pusher II, which is a movie about a son [played by Mads Mikkelsen] who all his life wants his father's love, but realizes he needs to kill him to free the sins of the father from him. What plants the seed for him is realizing he has his own child, and the responsibility of that suddenly forces him to take action. And it's a happy ending, even though it's a dark ending, but for the character, it is what he was meant to become. It's almost like he achieved his true meaning. And Drive is similar in the sense that The Driver was meant to become a superhero, and he's denied all these things—relationships, companionship. And why would he be denied that? It was because he was meant for something greater.^[25]

Winding Refn prefers to shoot his films in chronological order: "I read that [director John Cassavetes] had done it on some of his films, so I thought, 'That's a pretty cool approach.' And after I did it on my first movie, I felt, 'How can you do a movie any other way?' It's like a painting—you paint the movie as you go along, and I like the uncertainty of not knowing exactly how it's going to turn out."^[8] Winding Refn spoke more about shooting in chronological order in September 2011, in reference to Drive:

It's always difficult with production. All my films previous to Drive had been shot in what I call 100-percent almost-chronological order. Where Drive is like 80 percent. The reason why it didn't go 100 was that I just simply couldn't afford the last remaining pieces. I could afford what I call "the emotional chronological order". So nobody would die or leave the movie in the middle of their shooting schedule. It would always be the end. So there was a build-up as much as possible.^[25]

On his approach to working with actors, Winding Refn has said:

I think the first thing I ask any actor is what they would like to do, which sometimes can frighten people or can be looked upon as, 'Oh, you don't know what you want.' But I try to draw the actor in—to force them in, in some cases, because a lot of actors don't want to discuss things or go in deep; they just want to come and do the work, play their part and walk away. But for me, it doesn't work like that. You've got to get absorbed and dirty, and a way to do that is to ask the actor what they would like to do. It also forces them to be more truthful.^[8]

Winding Refn's color blindness has influenced his style: "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."^[26]

Jodorowsky's Influence:

I had been seeing Jodorowsky the last couple years in Paris and we’d become quite close. Before we’d have dinner, we’d always have a tarot reading and talk about what it means. Ifeel that as a filmmaker, he’s the last of the great giants of an era that’s coming to a close. A year ago, he baptized me as his spiritual son and I wanted to reward that gesture.^[27]

Personal life

Winding Refn is married to actress Liv Corfixen,^[28] with whom he has two daughters.^[29]

After making the movie Fear X, Refn was heavily in debt. The story of Refn's recovery is recorded in the documentary Gambler, directed by Phie Ambo.

Refn's nickname on set is Jang, and his former film production company was known as Jang Go Star.^[30]

Filmography

References

External links

• Nicolas Winding Refn at IMDb
• Transclusion error: {{En}} is only for use in File namespace. Use {{lang-en}} or {{in lang|en}} instead./Template:Fr Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn on Filmsactu.com

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