The Neon Demon - directed Nicolas Winding Refn
Nicolas Winding Refn for me is a confounding director.
On the one hand he gives the mighty gifts of "Bronson" and "Drive" - a movie that so utterly seduced me with its soundtrack, glorious cinematography and minimalist cool that I knew as soon as I left the cinema that I wouldn't see a better movie that year.... and I didn't (review)
And then his follow up movie arrived and I was baffled.
"Only God Forgives" re-teamed Winding Refn and "Drive" star Ryan Gosling but other than that and its slick, stunning cinematography and sense of style it was a very different film.
I was so unsure if I even liked it or not and why/why not that I tried several times to write a review and failed.
It still sits in the draft folder on this blog.
But after watching it again on blu-ray it started to make sense - so much so that it felt like a completely different movie.
Maybe it was expectation weighing heavily on the first time but "Only God Forgives" needed to be seen more than once.
I tried to bear this in mind as I watched Winding Refn's latest film "The Neon Demon".
The screening had an additional attraction in that Winding Refn would field questions via Skype at the end of the film.
"The Neon Demon" is often described as a horror film and it is easy to spot the influence of the genre on it.
There is a little of Tangerine Dream's "Near Dark" soundtrack to some of Cliff Martinez's score and the colour palette and indeed basic plot bears a remarkable resemblance to Dario Argento's classic "Suspiria".
Whereas Suspiria's Suzy arrives in Rome to attend a ballet school The Neon Demon's heroine Jesse has moved to Los Angeles to become a model.
Jesse is 16, naive and strikingly lovely.
It is hard to imagine who other than Elle Fanning could portray these qualities so perfectly but Winding Refn revealed during the post-screening q&a that she was a very late addition - so late in fact that he feared production would be halted due to a lack of a lead actress.
Jesse has an affect on all who meet her.
With men it is usually instant dumbfounded attraction.
For women often immediate jealously.
The world of "The Neon Demo" is obsessed by beauty.
A fashion designer (an uncredited Alessandro Nivola) asks Jesse's besotted friend Dean (Glusman) if he thinks he would be remotely interested in her were she not beautiful.
'Beauty is everything' he tells Dean.
The idea runs central to the entire movie.
Every single character apart from maybe Dean is self obsessed.
They either want to sleep with Jesse or be Jesse but their reasons vary.
Fanning really is the heart and soul of this movie.
Her performance relies on her remarkable beauty - how could it not? - but her ability to imbue innocence and naivety with a confidence that bubbles almost out of sight within her comes into play in an extraordinary scene late in the film where she walks the runway.
She is surrounded by red mirrors that close around her on all sides so that she can kiss her own reflections.
The next time we see her the angelic flowing dresses that we are used to seeing her in have been replaced by a midriff bearing top with a plunging neckline, tight black leather trousers and high heels.
Rather than being lead by Dean to his car as is usual she instead now takes his hand and almost drags him along as an accessory - one that she rudely, abruptly ditches as soon as he proves himself out of place in the world she now resides in.
As she ascends higher and higher in the world of modelling those around her are cast aside.
Sarah (Abbey Lee) is the reigning queen but she immediately discovers how fleeting the position is.
A makeup man responds to a model's claim that if you're 21 you are over with- 'Try 19!'.
Winding Refn pointed out that he is not pointing the finger at anyone in the "The Neon Demon".
He said that he likes looking at beauty as much as anyone so how could he?
I did see plenty of examples where he does at least expose some of the shallowness of the industry and how cruel it can be those not only on the outside but those within.
There is no doubt however that he is saying a whole lot about our obsession with beauty,
Beauty doesn't last of course but there is also the idea that beauty is its own destroyer.
We see the potential for this in Jesse - the world that she has entered changes her and by association those around her.
When her makeup artist friend Ruby (Jena Malone) makes sexual overtures and is spurned she seeks satisfaction in a manner sure to be discussed for some time.
I don't want to spoil it but the scene makes it clear that beauty exists for many in isolation - it is a thing in and of itself - separate from personality, thought or apparently conscience.
There is the temptation to consider the way that the movie is shot as another embodiment of this idea with its contrasting, vivid colours set to Cliff Martinez's typically glorious score but Winding Refn poured cold water on this instead declaring that his own colour blindness make it a necessity - 'If I can't see it', he told us 'I can't feel it'.
I asked him about the process by which he scores his films and it is no surprise to learn that Martinez is a close collaborator and friend who is involved quite early.
It was invaluable having the writer-director 'there' to discuss his film.
Sure - details like Keanu Reeves casting and the difficulty in finding a suitable lead provided several funny anecdotes and ample evidence of the deliciously dark humour that Winding Refn possesses but hearing him speak so clearly and honestly about faults the he (like everyone) possesses and how they inspired the film did much to provide context to what we had seen.
Yes- this film is violent and there is that one scene which frankly I am amazed slipped by the chief film censor but it all feels necessary.
Sometimes it seems the only way to accurately explain our fixation with the physically appealing is to set it against a backdrop of ugliness - both outward and inward.
In many ways this makes a filmed version of Bret Easton Ellis's novel "Glamorama" redundant.
They both explore similar ideas but Winding Refn's take is subtler - its ideas less in your face.
"The Neon Demon" is an amazing piece of filmmaking from a rarity in the industry - a director who is uncompromising in his vision and whose lesser works make the viewer feel like they have failed in the watching rather than the director in the creating.
This one however is a high point for Winding Refn.
RATING: 85 / 100
CONCLUSION: I'm loathe to score this as it is likely to shift with multiple viewings but clearly this is a terrific piece of work with that says much about our obsession with physical beauty. It is a literal presentation of empty beauty and beauty eating itself and as much as some of the startling scenes on display are likely to stay with you it is these central themes that will surely stick the hardest.
Starring: Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Karl Glusman, Bella Heathcote, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Alessandro Nivola, Desmond Harrington, Charles Baker, Jamie Clayton, Stacey Danger, Rebecca Dayan, Taylor Marie Hill, Vanessa Martinez, Jason Shneidman, Rachel Dik
Screenplay: Nicolas Winding Refn, Mary Laws & Polly Stenham
Music Score by: Cliff Martinez
Cinematography: Natasha Braier
Cinematography: Natasha Braier
Edited by: Matthew Newman
Running Time: 118 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R18 - Violence, Drug Use, Sexual Content and Necrophilia!
Running Time: 118 minutes
Language: English
Rated: R18 - Violence, Drug Use, Sexual Content and Necrophilia!
On the one hand he gives the mighty gifts of "Bronson" and "Drive" - a movie that so utterly seduced me with its soundtrack, glorious cinematography and minimalist cool that I knew as soon as I left the cinema that I wouldn't see a better movie that year.... and I didn't (review)
And then his follow up movie arrived and I was baffled.
"Only God Forgives" re-teamed Winding Refn and "Drive" star Ryan Gosling but other than that and its slick, stunning cinematography and sense of style it was a very different film.
I was so unsure if I even liked it or not and why/why not that I tried several times to write a review and failed.
It still sits in the draft folder on this blog.
But after watching it again on blu-ray it started to make sense - so much so that it felt like a completely different movie.
Maybe it was expectation weighing heavily on the first time but "Only God Forgives" needed to be seen more than once.
I tried to bear this in mind as I watched Winding Refn's latest film "The Neon Demon".
The screening had an additional attraction in that Winding Refn would field questions via Skype at the end of the film.
"The Neon Demon" is often described as a horror film and it is easy to spot the influence of the genre on it.
There is a little of Tangerine Dream's "Near Dark" soundtrack to some of Cliff Martinez's score and the colour palette and indeed basic plot bears a remarkable resemblance to Dario Argento's classic "Suspiria".
Whereas Suspiria's Suzy arrives in Rome to attend a ballet school The Neon Demon's heroine Jesse has moved to Los Angeles to become a model.
Jesse is 16, naive and strikingly lovely.
It is hard to imagine who other than Elle Fanning could portray these qualities so perfectly but Winding Refn revealed during the post-screening q&a that she was a very late addition - so late in fact that he feared production would be halted due to a lack of a lead actress.
Jesse has an affect on all who meet her.
With men it is usually instant dumbfounded attraction.
For women often immediate jealously.
The world of "The Neon Demo" is obsessed by beauty.
A fashion designer (an uncredited Alessandro Nivola) asks Jesse's besotted friend Dean (Glusman) if he thinks he would be remotely interested in her were she not beautiful.
'Beauty is everything' he tells Dean.
The idea runs central to the entire movie.
Every single character apart from maybe Dean is self obsessed.
They either want to sleep with Jesse or be Jesse but their reasons vary.
 |
| Elle Fanning - transformation from innocence |
Her performance relies on her remarkable beauty - how could it not? - but her ability to imbue innocence and naivety with a confidence that bubbles almost out of sight within her comes into play in an extraordinary scene late in the film where she walks the runway.
She is surrounded by red mirrors that close around her on all sides so that she can kiss her own reflections.
The next time we see her the angelic flowing dresses that we are used to seeing her in have been replaced by a midriff bearing top with a plunging neckline, tight black leather trousers and high heels.
Rather than being lead by Dean to his car as is usual she instead now takes his hand and almost drags him along as an accessory - one that she rudely, abruptly ditches as soon as he proves himself out of place in the world she now resides in.
As she ascends higher and higher in the world of modelling those around her are cast aside.
Sarah (Abbey Lee) is the reigning queen but she immediately discovers how fleeting the position is.
A makeup man responds to a model's claim that if you're 21 you are over with- 'Try 19!'.
 |
| Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Keanu Reeves and Alessandro Nivola |
He said that he likes looking at beauty as much as anyone so how could he?
I did see plenty of examples where he does at least expose some of the shallowness of the industry and how cruel it can be those not only on the outside but those within.
There is no doubt however that he is saying a whole lot about our obsession with beauty,
Beauty doesn't last of course but there is also the idea that beauty is its own destroyer.
We see the potential for this in Jesse - the world that she has entered changes her and by association those around her.
When her makeup artist friend Ruby (Jena Malone) makes sexual overtures and is spurned she seeks satisfaction in a manner sure to be discussed for some time.
I don't want to spoil it but the scene makes it clear that beauty exists for many in isolation - it is a thing in and of itself - separate from personality, thought or apparently conscience.
There is the temptation to consider the way that the movie is shot as another embodiment of this idea with its contrasting, vivid colours set to Cliff Martinez's typically glorious score but Winding Refn poured cold water on this instead declaring that his own colour blindness make it a necessity - 'If I can't see it', he told us 'I can't feel it'.
I asked him about the process by which he scores his films and it is no surprise to learn that Martinez is a close collaborator and friend who is involved quite early.
 |
| Elle Fanning as Jesse with Desmond Harrington and far right- director Nicolas Winding Refn |
Sure - details like Keanu Reeves casting and the difficulty in finding a suitable lead provided several funny anecdotes and ample evidence of the deliciously dark humour that Winding Refn possesses but hearing him speak so clearly and honestly about faults the he (like everyone) possesses and how they inspired the film did much to provide context to what we had seen.
Yes- this film is violent and there is that one scene which frankly I am amazed slipped by the chief film censor but it all feels necessary.
Sometimes it seems the only way to accurately explain our fixation with the physically appealing is to set it against a backdrop of ugliness - both outward and inward.
In many ways this makes a filmed version of Bret Easton Ellis's novel "Glamorama" redundant.
They both explore similar ideas but Winding Refn's take is subtler - its ideas less in your face.
"The Neon Demon" is an amazing piece of filmmaking from a rarity in the industry - a director who is uncompromising in his vision and whose lesser works make the viewer feel like they have failed in the watching rather than the director in the creating.
This one however is a high point for Winding Refn.
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