Cinema is Dope » Interview

Is Independent Cinema Dead? – Nicolas Winding Refn, Director of Bronson & Valhalla Rising

blake — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 04:00:32 +0000

NOTE: Higher res version of this interview can be downloaded/viewed here in Quicktime format

Sitges Film Festival 2009:
::: Official Site
::: Sitges Official Facebook Fan Page
::: Variety on Sitges ‘09
::: ‘Visage’, by Tsai Ming-liang, opens the Noves Visions category
::: Malcolm McDowell to receive the Grand Honorary Award at the opening, which will moved up to October 1st
::: [REC]2 to open Sitges 09
::: Alien is the inspiration for Sitges 09
::: The latest and most eagerly awaited genre films at Official Fantàstic Section
::: Animation, international variants of horror and 3D film
::: Sitges 09 will be recalling certain flashes from the 80’s

BRONSON Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn – Part 3

blake — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:55:03 +0000

Interview Table of Contents:

I Always Wanted to Make a Kenneth Anger Movie

When You Make a Film Make Sure You Are All Over It

WARNING SPOILERS: The Ending

NOTE: Higher res version of this interview can be downloaded/viewed here in Quicktime format

For those in Austin you can see Bronson at the Arbor starting on November 6th. Help spread the word that this will be coming out and be sure to check it out as well!

I want to say a huge thanks to everyone that has followed along with this interview series of Nicolas Winding Refn on Bronson and helped get the word out about them. Sadly this marks the last entry and I hope you have enjoyed it and found it informative of the film or sparked you to want to check it out as well as his other films. Thanks to 42 Sitges Film Festival and to Nicolas Winding Refn for taking the time out to do this interview. From getting to introduce this film at Fantastic Fest this year to now wrapping up this series it has been a great journey with Bronson!

Bronson is currently in limited release from Magnet (info) and more information can be found at its official website (www.magnetreleasing.com/bronson).

Magnet Release Schedule

Current Playing

West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
San Diego, CA: Ken Cinema
New York, NY: Angelika Film Center (6)
Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse

Opening Soon

10/30/2009
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre 3
Denver, CO: Mayan Theatre
Chicago, IL: Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema
Cincinnati, OH: Esquire Theatre
Nashville, TN: Belcourt Theatre

11/5/2009
Winter Park, FL: Full Sail University

11/6/2009
Austin, TX: Arbor Cinemas at Great Hills

11/20/2009
Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema
Detroit, MI: Burton Theatre
Portland, OR: Fox Tower 10

12/12/2009
Rochester, NY: Dryden Theatre

12/19/2009
Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Cinematheque

1/8/2010
Keene, NH: Putnam Arts Lecture Hall

BRONSON Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn – Part 2

blake — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 09:55:57 +0000

Interview Table of Contents:

THE TOM HARDY STORY

ANY INTERACTION WITH MICHAEL PETERSON?

NOTE: Higher res version of this interview can be downloaded/viewed here in Quicktime format

In this part two of my interview with Nicolas Winding Refn at the 42 Sitges Film Festival on Bronson he discusses the magnificent tale of how Tom Hardy came to be in this film. It’s an amazing and unbelievable story and not the usual, “they came to a casting call and were great and we signed a deal right away.” The casting of Charles Bronson/Michael Peterson proved to be a remarkable journey that at its end found Tom Hardy at the right point and place in his career to fully deliver on every level from soft, indifferent, artistic, manic to outright mad that he needed to be played. In Tom Hardy, Nicolas Winding Refn gets the performance of a lifetime to compliment fully his vision. We are talking about a performance that almost didn’t happen until what many would consider to be the MOVIE GODS coming in to intervene.

In a year already crowded with great performances from Tahar Rahim in A Prophet to Willem Dafoe in Antichrist to Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds to Luis Tosar in Celda 211, Tom Hardy deserves a King Kong size Oscar for best actor. Award or no award, its true reward will be in being a film rediscovered endlessly and one that future filmmakers and actors will look up to for quite some time!

Bronson is currently in limited release from Magnet (info) and more information can be found at its official website (www.magnetreleasing.com/bronson).

Magnet Release Schedule

Current Playing

West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
San Diego, CA: Ken Cinema
New York, NY: Angelika Film Center (6)
Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse

Opening Soon

10/30/2009
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre 3
Denver, CO: Mayan Theatre
Chicago, IL: Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema
Cincinnati, OH: Esquire Theatre
Nashville, TN: Belcourt Theatre

11/5/2009
Winter Park, FL: Full Sail University

11/6/2009
Austin, TX: Arbor Cinemas at Great Hills

11/20/2009
Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema
Detroit, MI: Burton Theatre
Portland, OR: Fox Tower 10

12/12/2009
Rochester, NY: Dryden Theatre

12/19/2009
Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Cinematheque

1/8/2010
Keene, NH: Putnam Arts Lecture Hall

BRONSON Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn – Part 1

blake — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 +0000

Interview Table of Contents:

Making BRONSON

BRONSON THEATRE

Pet Shop Boys It’s A Sin

NOTE: Higher res version of this interview can be downloaded/viewed here in Quicktime format

Credit the brilliant programming team at the Sitges Film Festival for playing both of the latest films from Nicolas Winding Refn this year in Bronson and Valhalla Rising (CID Interview). For film festival audiences that saw both, Nicolas Winding Refn if he wasn’t already, now firmly on their map for filmmakers they loved and couldn’t wait to see what they turned out next.

In Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn turns a limited budget into a blessing and to his advantage in crafting pound for pound the best movie you will see this year! The combination of filmmaker and lead actor Tom Hardy as the title character couldn’t be a perfect pairing and in fact this is one of those Citizen Kane-like film productions where every single person involved gels (regardless of any friction) and all combine to create the perfect synergy that feeds into the singular vision of Nicolas Winding Refn. It marks a perfect end to what Refn considers his phase one as a filmmaker. 3D isn’t the only reason to come back to the movie theatre to experience something unique, as long as we have Nicolas Winding Refn making films, there will be that reason to get your ass off your couch and into the movie theater as his films remind us of just how majestic and magical the big screen can be in the dark of a theater full of strangers. This is indie cinema in all its glory, AMEN!

I should preface and offer some added context to the Pet Shop Boys It’s A Sin question in this part one of the interview. At Fantastic Fest if “chaos reigns” was the official slogan then It’s A Sin was the official song. The moment it played in the film and the very moment the song starts to merge in, everyone in the audience seemed to recognize it at the same moment and literally starting cheering and applauding. The audience was collectively in so much as saying, “oh hell yes this is the perfect song at the perfect moment… you nailed it!” Very few times have I been in the cinema when an audience celebrated a song perfectly fused into the film such as this… a magic moment among many during its run time.

Bronson is currently in limited release from Magnet (info) and more information can be found at its official website (www.magnetreleasing.com/bronson).

Magnet Release Schedule

Current Playing

West Hollywood, CA: Sunset 5
San Diego, CA: Ken Cinema
New York, NY: Angelika Film Center (6)
Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse

Opening Soon

10/30/2009
San Francisco, CA: Lumiere Theatre 3
Denver, CO: Mayan Theatre
Chicago, IL: Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema
Cincinnati, OH: Esquire Theatre
Nashville, TN: Belcourt Theatre

11/5/2009
Winter Park, FL: Full Sail University

11/6/2009
Austin, TX: Arbor Cinemas at Great Hills

11/20/2009
Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema
Detroit, MI: Burton Theatre
Portland, OR: Fox Tower 10

12/12/2009
Rochester, NY: Dryden Theatre

12/19/2009
Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Cinematheque

1/8/2010
Keene, NH: Putnam Arts Lecture Hall

The Valhalla Rising Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn at 42 Sitges Film Festival

blake — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:56:00 +0000

“That’s what we do, we make movies, we don’t wait.”

~ Nicolas Winding Refn

Interview Table of Contents:

Valhalla Rising

Mads Mikkelsen as One-Eye

Samurai & Spaghetti Western Influences

What’s Next?

NOTE: Higher res version of this interview can be downloaded/viewed here in Quicktime format

With Valhalla Rising which marks the first film of what he calls his second filmmaking phase, Nicolas Winding Refn is making cinema at the edge of the world. Taking us where people dare to travel to and that have never been shown on the silver screen. Who today are our non-conformist visionary true auteurs making cinema that will hold up for the next hundred years? Who are our Antonioni’s or our Kenneth Anger’s? Who wants to tell a story and make a great damn film first and not worry about contemporary conventions and mechanisms? With both Valhalla Rising and Bronson I feel that Refn has emerged as that type of voice in cinema in joining the ranks of similar filmmakers of our day like Paul Thomas Anderson and few select others. I can easily see both Valhalla Rising and Bronson being the types of films that are studied, analyzed and rewatched again and again for years and years, much the same way people now look back at a film like L’Eclisse, Ikiru, Once Upon a Time in America or The Treasure of the Sierra Madre.

Valhalla Rising will be released in 2010 from IFC Films (press release) and I highly recommend putting it on your must see list. This isn’t a film to walk into expecting a giant Conan inspired Viking tale or one that feels like it’s in a hurry. This is a film to unwind and immerse yourself with as each frame unspools. It’s the film equivalent of an aged rich bottle of wine that is best enjoyed in doses where you breath it in as you drink it without trying to down it all at once. This is cinema at its height to get drunk with, bathe in and rejoice that we have new filmmaking masters in our day willing to take us to new places and paving new roads for cinema to follow. And more than anything this is a film best experienced on a big giant movie screen, so be sure to get out to a movie theater to support it!

Mads Mikkelsen as One-Eye doesn’t have a single line of dialogue and turns in one of his best and most challenging performances I’ve seen from him yet. You know there just isn’t very many actors at all that could put in a performance like this which relies on pure physicality, heart and soul and void of having lines to pull the audience in with. Mikkelsen has no crutches to fall back on here, he simply is the mythic man with no name hero and never misses a beat. As big of a movie star and always playing such great memorable characters from the preacher in Adam’s Apples to James Bond villains he manages to completely make you forget who he has been before or that he is Mads Mikkelsen, the only thing you experience is One-Eye throughout the entire run time of Valhalla Rising. Reinventing yourself is never easy and here both Mads Mikkelsen and Nicolas Winding Refn prove that for them nothing is impossible… so onward and upward they go, kicking down walls and we are just lucky enough to see both of them grow as the continue to climb and take us to new heights.

I say this as a cinephile and I can only take so much of contemporary filmmaking having all the same framing, cutting, visual and sound designs, cookie cutter performances and a seeming aim to entertain in a popcorn film type of way that lasts for a year or two and then feels incredibly flat or dated. While its great at times to be able to get lost in a mindless film, it for me personally is far more rewarding in getting lost in a film that feels immortal. So this is why my praise for Nicolas Winding Refn is so high and in carrying this torch. While we need these mindless GI Joe movies for pure fun, we equally need our Valhalla Rising and without either on both spectrum’s, cinema becomes nothing more than half baked product pushed by accountants. The at times over superficial commercial side of Hollywood should never trump the entire landscape of cinema as within what is being made we need the films that make magic, tell great stories and push it to new places and heights and at the end of the day regardless of time or place give us precious hours to be completely lost in them that moves us, makes us better and forever changes our path in life.

I can’t wait to see Nicolas Winding Refn’s next projects as he embarks on his second filmmaking phase which are shaping up as: a Paul Schrader script he wants to do, a western in Bangkok, a heist film in LA with Mads Mikkelsen or Jekyll & Hyde at Universal. I also can’t wait to check out Refn’s favorite Spaghetti Western which proved to be a selection that most would have never guessed.

Cinema is Dope Coverage of Sitges Film Festival 2009:
::: The Valhalla Rising Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn at 42 Sitges Film Festival
::: The SPLICE Interview with Vincenzo Natali at 42 Sitges Film Festival
::: Is Independent Cinema Dead? – Vincenzo Natali, Director of Splice
::: Viggo Mortensen @ 42 Sitges Film Festival
::: CLIVE BARKER: Exclusive Interview Part Two at 42 Sitges Film Festival
::: CLIVE BARKER: Exclusive Interview Part One at 42 Sitges Film Festival
::: ENTER THE VOID: Exclusive Interview with Gaspar Noe at 42 Sitges Film Festival
::: Orphan at 42 Sitges Film Festival: Isabelle Fuhrman & Jaume Collet-Serra
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Part Six
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Part Five
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Official Fantastic In Competition Selection
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Noves Visions Lineup
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Part Four
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Part Three
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Part Two
::: Previewing Sitges Film Festival 2009 – Part One