If you ask the public, what is the movie of Nicolas Winding Refn who comes in head first, there is no doubt that DRIVE will be the title that will return the most. Prix de la Mise en scene at Cannes, as estimated by the press and the public, we can say that the 8th film of the Danish director is the most successful.
From a book, the scenario plays the card of minimalism, as always with Refn : a stunt man leads a double life as a driver for bad shots. One day, he met Irene, his neighbor, and his son. But her husband comes out of prison and he has debts. He then goes to help but the steering is not going to go as planned.
This minimalist narrative, it is one that has always supported the film from Refn. As a kind of armature, a bare minimum, in order to develop through this basic story, of the obsessions and thematic and visual. As a result, a hero is a monolithic, taiseux and cold, we are trying to de-personalize as much as possible by not giving him not even a first name. It will simply be “the driver”. Some directors like to be in the most, in one-upmanship. Or to stick to a topic, or simply because their style is made as such. Conversely, Nicolas Winding Refn is a man of the least. Who does the minimum to make us understand things. One might think that his films are made up of additions of effects formal, but, in reality, these effects are the only way to get a feeling, an emotion to see it altogether to enable understanding (in Valhalla Rinsing, for example) because there is only them when they are employees. Why the scene of the elevator is as marked and has become worship ? This little slowed down during the kiss is the essential element of the staging, without which the moment would never have the same impact. Because it expands the time in this small bubble romantic, then the emotion passes. The real fault of too much would have been to continue the slowed down during the explosion of violence that follows. There, it has its effect, place it with surgical precision in a fixed plane a short time for only him to be the vector emotional. And it works great.
To allow such a refusal to characterization of the main protagonist, it had to be an actor in the mortal coil impressive. The choice of Ryan Gosling is a good idea, Refn filming him as an icon. Drive, this is actually the encounter between a filmmaker and an actor, and Only God Forgives will extend this idea. It runs through the film like a ghost with the head of the first class, while interiority. The first scene of the film sets the tone and puts in perspective his character. While the robbers to the rear of the car in panic, he remains calm, leads, and manages. Here also, Nicolas Winding Refn has worked by subtraction, giving it a very small number of replicas. So that when it exploded its violence, it remains as Irene, on the tile, in a beautiful field-in contrast, punctuating the scene in the elevator. But far from being the climax of his dehumanization, it is precisely in this violence so dear to the cinema Refn the driver to find his or her place of humans in the narrative. Much earlier in the film, a music we announced all of this : “a real human being and a real hero”. In addition to violence, the family – another leitmotif of the film from Refn , brings life to the story. The driver has the opportunity to become a surrogate father, but he prefers to protect Irene and her son, and then leaving. This man, without identity, of no fixed address, is not made to arise. He wanders, the better he saves lives. A true hero, so.
“DRIVE is the perfect balance between the requirement of the obsessions of Refn and the accessibility to the general public. It all goes to the essential”
DRIVE is a real compendium of all the films of Refn , but fat-free. It all goes to the essential, combining it with ingenuity, a sense of staging prodigious (the intro, the strong accents Mannien, calm all the world-of-entry) and all the themes irrigating the filmography of Danish director. Nothing is invented in this film, but everything is magnified. So well that it is a simple plot of polar made in 80’s becomes something else. Melancholy and violence mingle as the camera has a Refn capturing the discourse hidden in the gestures and glances, rather than in the words. In the last few seconds, Irene approaches the door of the apartment of the driver. She is about to strike but doesn’t. This gesture fleeting hand hold is a heart-wrenching. We knew that Nicolas Winding Refn was skilled in the use of gesture and symbols, but his cinema was rarely the balance required to reconcile the requirement of its obsessions, and the accessibility to the general public. This is done with DRIVE.
Maxime Bedini
AGREE ? NOT AGREE ?
Nicolas Winding Refn is a filmmaker exciting. To try to capture the essence of his cinema, we are set to 4 (Maxime, Vivien, Georgeslechameau and Paul) to try to break down his filmography. Each writer to be watched all the films, in the order of the output, which allowed the suite to be able to work together to collect the most items. It is then with its own sensibility and its culture, as each one is launched in the drafting of critical, while being able to re-contextualize the films compared to the rest of the filmography, to the whole work.
Results in a folder full, trying to capture the essence of the work of the Danish director and allowing you, hopefully, to better understand the beauty of his cinema.
Good read !
BONUS : also Check out Our top 10 movies of NWR or our different opinions on the work of the filmmaker.
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