Nicolas Winding Refn and the violence of art : a critical study of the films

245 Pages·2014·2.092 MB·English

by  Refn, Nicolas Winding, Vicari, Justin

NICOLASWINDINGREFN
ANDTHE
VIOLENCEOFART
ALSOBYJUSTINVICARI
ANDFROMMCFARLAND
The Gus Van Sant Touch: A Thematic Study—
Drugstore Cowboy, Milkand Beyond(2012)
Mad Muses and the Early Surrealists(2012)
Male Bisexuality in Current Cinema:
Images of Growth, Rebellion and Survival(2011)
N W R
ICOLAS INDING EFN
AND THE
V A
IOLENCE OF RT
A Critical Study of the Films
J V
USTIN ICARI
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Vicari, Justin, 1968–
Nicolas Winding Refn and the violence of art : a critical study of
the films / Justin Vicari.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
♾
ISBN 978-0-7864-7182-9 (softcover : acid free paper)
ISBN 978-1-4766-1498-4 (ebook)
1. Refn, Nicolas Winding, 1970–—Criticism and interpretation.
I. Title.
PN1998.3.R426V53 2014
741.4302'33092—dc23
[B] 2014009353
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2014 Justin Vicari. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
On the cover: Ryan Gosling, left, and Vithaya Pansringarm in Nicolas
Refn’s challenging Only God Forgives, 2013 (RADiUS-TWC/Photofest)
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
In memory of
HARRIS SAVIDES
(1957–2012)
and
ROBIN WOOD
(1931–2009)
“from his eye subversive beauty”
This page intentionally left blank
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1. Seven Disorganizing Principles 11
2. The Pusher Trilogy 51
3. Bleeder 68
4. Fear X 89
5. Nemesis 120
6. Bronson 128
7. Valhalla Rising 151
8. Drive 178
9. Only God Forgives 192
Conclusion 208
Chapter Notes 215
Bibliography 227
Index 231
vii
This page intentionally left blank
Preface
In the postmodern moment, mass media increasingly operates
through strategies it shares with experimental art. Dana Polan
argues that it tends to work with “montage that produces collisions
of messages that continually destabilize and negate each other.”
Confronted with this kind of practice, we can only posit a spectator
who goes to cinema precisely for a loss of reality, to continually
reactivate that loss in simulation effects.—Sharon Willis1
I loved the idea that Walt Disney had this dream of a place
and then made it a reality. It’s the same way I felt when I saw Blue
Velvet. It’s so clearly one person’s singular dream. The fact that
someone believed in their idea so much to make it a reality … I
want to be that kind of person.—Ryan Gosling2
Does mass culture delude us and remove us from reality, or does it help
us to actualize realities that have formerly existed only as dreams? It is likely
that mass culture does neither of these things on an exclusive basis and there-
fore cannot be subjected to blanket judgment. Yet it cannot seem to stop induc-
ing blanket judgments. In the above quotes, what scholar Sharon Willis
denigrates and artist Ryan Gosling celebrates as “simulation effects” amounts
to the main fork in the road of aesthetic sensibility in our time. The project
of denigration depends upon an archetype of capitalist mediation that has not
been updated since the digital revolution of the new millennium. It is not my
aim to formally and comprehensively update it here in this book about the
films of Nicolas Winding Refn,* but rather I would suggest, by way of intro-
*Pronounced Vin (rhymes with shin) ding Revfun.
1