Only God Forgives Teaser Clip folks
Cannot wait for this one. Need an HD trailer a.s.a.p.
Only God Forgives by Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish guy with the big neck who directed Drive. Anyway, I'm very excited for this movie. This looks sinister as hell, darker than Drive. Stars cutie Ryan Gosling.
Here's a version of a synopsis (I saw a very detailed one a while back).
**********
SPOILERS********************
QuoteTen years ago Julian killed a cop and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty.
When Julian's brother murders a prostitute the police call on retired cop Chang – the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter's murderer, then 'restores order' by chopping off the man's right hand.
Julian's mother Jenna – the head of a powerful criminal organization – arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and 'raise hell'.
Increasingly obsessed with the Angel of Vengeance, Julian challenges him to a boxing match, hoping that by defeating him he might find spiritual release... but Chang triumphs. A furious Jenna plots revenge and the stage is set for a bloody journey through betrayal and vengeance towards a final confrontation and the possibility of redemption.
**********
END SPOILERS********************
Anyway, here's one of the coolest teasers in the world.
I read a bit of the screenplay, wasn't particularly special but Refn will make something cool out of it.
Merged with previous thread, and in the correct forum since it won't be released until May 23rd.
Quote from: Lottery on February 10, 2013, 02:58:18 AM
Here's a version of a synopsis (I saw a very detailed one a while back).
that synopsis needs a
spoiler warning, it gives away too much imo.
Done.
Quote from: MacGuffin on February 10, 2013, 08:47:35 AM
Merged with previous thread, and in the correct forum since it won't be released until May 23rd.
Righty then.
Holy shit. That's not a synopsis, that's an entire breakdown of the film!! DON'T READ IT!!! Oh well, I spoiled the hell outta Drive for myself too.
This looks so sick.
Random bystander filming of that shooting scene.
trailer of the year (so far). the song makes it.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg2.timeinc.net%2Few%2Fi%2F2013%2F04%2F17%2FOnly-God-Forgives_510x756.jpg&hash=4c19e902a6b9d60fa4cd9109943e5565c18da634)
I wanna fight.
why do i feel like this is the best movie of all time?
goddamn these trailers are good.
i hope the story is simple and direct like they set out.
no bullshit, no hidden 4th acts, just do the thing and fuck off.
have you not seen the pusher trilogy? odd refn definition
pretty excited, hope it's > drive. idk
Quote from: trashculturemutantjunkie on April 18, 2013, 01:04:43 PM
pretty excited, hope it's > drive.
Me too. Drive was weaksauce. I'm glad more people got exposed to him but Drive was like the 500 Days of Summer version of Bleeder. I was stoked for it, too. Anyway this thing looks good.
you mean to tell me every other movie he's made has been better than drive?
drive was good man.
but ok i'll steal his shit right this minute.
i never bothered before cos word around here is that Bronson was shit,.
in la, drive is popular with kinda nonmovie people, for having archetypal characters, popular electronic music, sexiness. 'cause of its gosling. no prob. k :) car movie fans like it like they like bullitt, seven-ups, french connection, etc. mmmkay. sure :)
Quote from: Pubrick on April 18, 2013, 02:18:04 PM
you mean to tell me every other movie he's made has been better than drive?
i never bothered before cos word around here is that Bronson was shit,.
Bronson is the only movie of his I don't care for.
Compared to most studio movies, yeah, Drive is good. Compared to the rest of Refn's work it's a cartoon.
Watch The Pusher Trilogy, then Fear X (which is underrated as fuck), then Bleeder and Valhalla Rising. Valhalla is the most experimental, could turn you off to the others, which it's a massive stylistic departure from, if you watch it first, so make it last on your list.
The Pusher Trilogy, quality-wise, is like The Godfather trilogy in reverse. The sequels imo are as good as the first two Godfathers. The first Pusher is one hell of a ride as well, but doesn't have the depth of character that the other two do.
pusher 1 was his first movie ever, at age 26. pusher 2 came 8 years later, for financial reasons. pusher 2 and 3 are def better, but i'm bringing this up 'cause i like pusher 1, think it's an impressive movie that's better than similar euro movies. idk
Agree completely, it's awesome. Even more awesome for his age.
But it's something when you watch the first one and have this super visceral, thrilling experience, then throw on the others expecting disappointment because sequels are almost never good and then you're blown away.
Pubrick I envy your ability to watch them all for the first time. I wish I could do that again. I was thinking about them for days and dayyyyssssssssssssssssssssss (years now)
I actually really liked Drive. A little thin but it was tense and exciting, brutal, stylish, modern etc It's a movie I enjoy watching.
Pusher trilogy was Refn's Boogie Nights. Drive is his Punch Drunk Love.
Just realized this was shot by Larry Smith (Eyes Wide Shut, Fear X). He was also the gaffer on The Shining and chief electrician on Barry Lyndon.
So there you go.
Bunch of clips on youtube directly from the movie. Regret watching them. But it looks stunning, so much goodness for the eyes.
always loved refn. looks amazing. top five trailers of all time maybe. could be his best! maybe!
I've got the most serious case of blue balls after watching this clip:
Editor and long-time Nicolas Winding Refn collaborator Mat Newman talks about directors in the editing room, the time he told Refn not to take on Drive and why he thinks editors should steer clear of the shoot.
Nicolas Winding Refn: playing God
Nicolas Winding Refn's Only God Forgives started as a fight movie and morphed into a twisted tale of a mother-son relationship. Wendy Mitchell talks to the Danish writer-director about his anticipated follow-up to Drive.
BY WENDY MITCHELL; Screen Daily
It was a place, not a story, that started Nicolas Winding Refn's journey on his new film Only God Forgives, which premieres in Competition at Cannes.
"It started with having spent time in Asia on family vacations. We always make a point of stopping over in Bangkok because both my wife and I really like the city, in all its craziness. It's an extremely cinematic place and I think if you really wanted to do a movie in Bangkok, that's what started it," he remembers.
When he had to pitch a synopsis to backers Gaumont and Wild Bunch, he says with a laugh, "I came up with a fight movie, because that was an easy sell." There is certainly some fighting in the film, but ultimately it has become a story of a fraught mother-son relationship.
Ryan Gosling — reuniting with Refn after their success on Drive — plays Julian, a drug smuggler and Bangkok boxing club owner. His controlling American mother (a very against-type Kristin Scott Thomas) urges Julian to avenge his brother's death. A corrupt police lieutenant, Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), plots against them.
"He is like a sleepwalker awaiting to awake," Refn says of the emotionally stunted Julian, who is completely under his mother's thumb.
The film has a dark, fairytale-like atmosphere of heightened reality. "It is about finding that balance where you have to walk between heaven and hell; if you tip over in any direction of being too real or too unreal, you would fail miserably," Refn says.
The writer-director originally started the script for Only God Forgives before he made Drive, which won Refn the best director prize at Cannes in 2011. He says the script "changed immensely" from that pre-Drive version. "That's what happens with everything I do. A lot of it has to do with shooting in chronological order, which very much changes your approach because the film is in constant evolution." He also let the experience of living in Bangkok influence the mystical elements of the film.
Only God Forgives shows Bangkok in a way never before seen on film. "I decided to shoot everything at night, it's very different from seeing it during the day. So it became like its own alien planet. That had a huge influence," Refn explains. He shot in little-seen locations such as a seedy bar in Chinatown, where many film-makers do not dare explore. Working with his $5m budget, Refn used mostly Thai crew alongside a few western heads of department such as cinematographer Larry Smith and production designer Beth Mickle.
The locals impressed them. "The Thai crew was equally as good [as those in Los Angeles]. There was an extreme want to make it work."
Luke Evans was attached originally but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts, so Refn jumped at the chance to work with Gosling again so soon after Drive. "We wanted to figure out very quickly how we could make another film together. I think God had a plan."
He knows there will be comparisons to Drive, especially with Gosling leading both projects. "Everything I do probably has a strong relationship to each other, and once you use the same actor it's a very easy equation until you've seen [both films]," he says.
Danish influence
Refn, who famously turned down a place at the National Film School of Denmark to make his directorial debut Pusher in 1996, notes that despite its Thai setting, Only God Forgives is a Danish-led production by his Copenhagen outfit Space Rocket Nation (with producer Lene Borglum). In addition to crucial backing from Gaumont and Wild Bunch, the Danish Film Institute's funding was "hugely influential in getting the film made". He says proudly of the Danish support system: "Denmark has produced more talent than anyone else in the last 10-15 years."
But Refn's ambitions stretch beyond Denmark. Future projects include a second film with Wild Bunch and Gaumont, I Walk With The Dead, a Los Angeles-set thriller he is writing now. He will also produce a remake of William Lustig's Maniac Cop. Graphic novelist Ed Brubaker will write the script but no director is yet attached.
He is also directing his first TV show, Barbarella, with Gaumont. That English-language project will shoot at the end of 2013 or early 2014. It marks his first project with a female lead character — he jokes: "We did toy with the idea of what Ryan would look like in a catsuit."
He and Gosling had planned to remake Logan's Run, but now Refn says that project is on hold while they look for a comedy to make. Perhaps the catsuit could be the perfect starting point...
http://thefilmstage.com/news/watch-three-new-clips-from-refn-goslings-only-god-forgives-ahead-of-cannes-premiere/
Three more clips to regret watching.
Not getting the most positive response at Cannes it seems.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/22/cannes-only-good-forgives-ryan-gosling-review (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/may/22/cannes-only-good-forgives-ryan-gosling-review) The Guardian loves it.
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/05/stink-in-the-morning-air/ (http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/05/stink-in-the-morning-air/) Jeff Wells does not.
Quote from: cinemanarkissed on May 22, 2013, 09:06:23 AM
http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/05/stink-in-the-morning-air/ (http://www.hollywood-elsewhere.com/2013/05/stink-in-the-morning-air/) Jeff Wells does not.
Ha, true vitriol. I wish he didn't use bold text though, the review was pretty entertaining.
Vulture (http://www.vulture.com/2013/05/ryan-gosling-only-god-forgives-cannes-refn.html) did not care for it either.
I liked it. It's a stylized nightmare, kitsch, sometimes funny, Kubrick meets Lynch. The story is very simple, it's just that and Refn being radical with his filmaking. But I don't want to see it again.
well, we'll always have the trailers.
Screenplay (http://issuu.com/sohk.tv/docs/only-god-forgives-screenplay)
Also saw it this morning, I didn't care for it that much. (Not a huge fan of Drive either, but I really love the Pusher Trilogy, especially the last two) I want to see OGF again though, as the power went out a quarter of the way into the screening, just as Kristin Scott Thomas' character was being introduced (She's hilarious in it) And the movie is very much like a spell, or a dream film. Throughout I couldn't stop thinking about how it reminded me of Eyes Wide Shut and The Shining. Even though it's super violent there is a lot more going on, to what ends though, I'm not yet sure. Again the same kind thing with the new Claire Denis...
Mark Adams, Screen Daily:
"A mesmerisingly moody and stylishly violent crime drama."
Ryland Aldrich, Twitch:
"Get ready, the most badass art film ever is coming your way."
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian:
"An emotionally breathtaking, aesthetically brilliant and immensely violent thriller."
Dave Calhoun, Time Out London:
"Style over substance doesn't really tell the half of it: you can bathe a corpse in groovy light and dress it in an expensive suit, but in the end that rotting smell just won't go away."
Peter Debruge, Variety:
"As hyper-aggressive revenge fantasies go, it's curious to see one so devoid of feeling."
Jessica Kiang, The Playlist:
"Delivers what we might have thought we wanted but with diminishing returns: Refn's trademark visual style is indulged to a dizzying degree (to an almost self-parodic extreme in the early stages) but is unmoored to any kind of satisfying or coherent narrative throughline."
Geoffrey Macnab, The Independent:
"Visually, this is stunning fare."
David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter:
"A menacingly atmospheric mood piece that will not disappoint devotees of the Nicolas Winding Refn church of fetishistic hyper-violence."
Sasha Stone, Awards Daily:
"This film, 'Only God Forgives,' is a single layer deep. There is nothing more to it."
Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere:
"Movies really don't get much worse than Nicholas Winding Refn's 'Only God Forgives.' It's a shit macho fantasy."
Damon Wise, Empire:
"Larry Smith's cinematography is superb, and his crisp, sometimes hallucinatory visuals are complimented by Cliff Martinez's thrumming score."
ok so not everyone in the world hates it. good. that was the impression i got as of yesterday. i'm still going to see it regardless.
'Only God Forgives' director defends violent film (http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/movies/2013/05/22/only-god-forgives/2351795/) (little spoiler in there)
Andrew O'hehir's take (http://www.salon.com/2013/05/23/cannes_ryan_goslings_new_movie_draws_the_boo_birds/) (haven't read don't know about spoilers really)
Am I Blue? Cannes Report, May 22 (http://www.rogerebert.com/cannes/am-i-blue-cannes-report-may-22)
Refn and Kristin Scott Thomas (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu-o-N9aJ4U)
Also, I don't get why everyone is freaking out about the film getting boos, It seems like everything gets booed at Cannes.
Some more reactions to the flick:
"The sudden outburst of rage, the slowed down movement of characters and the longing stares do feel at home for the director, by now, but is that enough to keep you interested?" - Raffi Asdourian, Twitch Film
"Refn's latest is likely to be massively divisive and such controversy will undoubtedly be welcomed, but unfortunately it all feels too mannered, too purposefully provocative – like being shouted at by someone who has nothing themselves to contribute." - John Bleasdale, Cine-Vue
"Winding Refn's latest film, which screened in Cannes to enthusiastic boos on Wednesday morning, is a sickening pornography of violence, and I mean that as a sincere compliment." - Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
"Refn certainly retains his eye for composition and his innate sense for creating a hypnotic environment. But without a second, let alone third, dimension to this story, there's little left to thematically consider and deconstruct." - Jordan Cronk, Slant
"Only God Forgives continually sports head-on collisions of arthouse and trash, pitting extended dream sequences against katana- uzi-weilding cops. The resulting sparks are hard to interpret; it requires a second viewing to determine if Refn is all style and no substance or if there is a worthwhile reading in Refn's sadistic set pieces." - Alex Griffith, Next Projection
"If anything, Only God Forgives proves that Refn is out to create something akin to a kind of red-light-district cinema. Compositions are excessively balanced and held for long amounts of time. These images are meant to be watched and desired, lusted after simply because they evoke a form of evocative skin-deep arousal." - Glenn Heath Jr., Press Play
"There's no way to overstate the gorgeous look of this film, but the mannered dialogue and deliberateness of pace becomes less of an homage to Asian revenge films than a parody." - Jordan Hoffman, Film.com
"Sure, people in this film bleed and bleed—Refn drops a bomb on the cast—but it's not because it's a movie that we know the violence isn't real. It's not real because we aren't given anything other than lifeless characters in an immobile stage play—a juvenile reading of Greek tragedy—for the damage to be dealt effectively." - Jake Howel, Movie City News
"There's a scene in Refn's Bronson where a character smears his own shit all over himself and all over the walls of his cell. I kept thinking of that as Only God Forgives did the same thing to the movie screen and the audience at the Grand Theatre Lumiere here at Cannes." - Craig Kennedy, Living in Cinema :shock:
"Even amid my appreciation for its woozy, sculpted grossness, however, I can't help wishing "Only God Forgives" was doing a little more, and I mean purely on the level of nuts-and-bolts storytelling, not grander emotional or thematic resonance." - Guy Lodge, Hit Fix
"What's truly lacking here is any sense of Thailand. There is no cultural context, no feel for the city, its history or society, and the film feels like the work of someone who's only understanding of Bangkok was a viewing of Ong Bak and a Lonely Planet guidebook." - David Neary, Next Projection
"The movie has tunnel vision, and while it occasionally breaks — there's a cheeky, recurring gag of the cop singing karaoke — that sense of humor and personality never rounds out Only God Forgives." - Matt Patches, Hollywood.com
"All this swimming in a cesspool of violence and debauchery could at least hold some visceral pleasures but Only God Forgives is actually a pretty drudging affair and even at just ninety minutes it really drags." - Criag Skinner, Hey U Guys
"He clearly thinks he's saying something profound with this laboriously overproduced dross, and I'm content to let him go on thinking." - Keith Uhlich, Time Out New York
"Whether gliding ominously down long, lavishly decorated corridors or fixed between door frames looking into perfectly symmetrical rooms, Refn's voyeuristic lens gives the film a hypnotic, haunting feel." - Adam Woodward, Little White Lies
Quote from: Kellen on May 23, 2013, 12:33:16 AM
"Larry Smith's cinematography..."
Didn't realize he shot this. Bronson and Fear X too apparently. Interesting?
'Only God Forgives' is up there with 'There Will Be Blood' and 'Enter the Void' for 'most ball-bustingly awesome and instantly iconic title for a 21st century film'. I'm up and down with Refn's stuff, but you have to admire someone who chooses such a brilliant title. Epic and opaque, you know you're gonna get something BIG but aside from that, it tells you nothing. Ace.
Interview: Nicolas Winding Refn Compares 'Only God Forgives' To A Rembrandt, Responds To Critics & More
INTERVIEWS BY JESSICA KIANG; The Playlist
There was undoubtedly no film that caused quite the same disproportionate signal-to-noise ratio last week as "Only God Forgives," Nicolas Winding Refn's return to Cannes after winning Best Director in 2011 for "Drive." While to us the extremely polarized reaction felt more to do with the perils of unrealistic expectations ("Drive" was a left-field surprise to many in a way that "Only God Forgives" could simply never have been, given Refn's different profile this time out), there was a difference of opinion among attending Playlisters about the film, though not one separated by such a wide gulf as elsewhere.
With the hubbub of delight/outrage still ringing in our ears, we got to take a few minutes to talk with Refn, the hero/villain of the hour, depending on which side you cleave to, this past weekend, and found the filmmaker on typically outspoken, occasionally loquacious, occasionally abrupt form as he talked about his reaction to the critical response and even dropped a few tantalizing morsels about what's coming up next.
"The irony is that the people that are trying to fight it and criticize it, are criticizing it for the exact same thing they criticized 'Drive' for!" How do you feel the heightened expectations since "Drive," especially here in Cannes, have affected the response to "Only God Forgives"?
I don't think it has affected it. For me, the greatest pleasure is when you make something and everyone argues about it. Because you know it's the only time that people are actually affected by what they see. So I've apparently made a film that people either love it or they hate it. So obviously I've reached into your deepest soul [in a move alarmingly reminiscent of a pivotal moment in the film, Refn here leans forward abruptly and points at your intrepid writer's gut area] and planted something, or else you wouldn't love it or hate it. And that's going to stay with you for a very very long time... so that is all you can wish for.
The irony is that the people that are trying to fight it and criticize it, are criticizing it for the exact same thing they criticized "Drive" for! For some reason they just forgot that. So...history repeats itself and everybody forgets!
Is it the violence in the movie that has seemed to attract the most criticism?
It's hard to say...sometimes people argue about the strangest things. They tend to spend a lot of time on [the violence] and then I think God, you spend so much time on an issue that the film actually has very little of, compared to even television, I must be really really good at what I do! So again, thank you very much.
A colleague has a read on the film in that it's about an attempt to end the cycle of violence that is the legacy of this one particular family. Does that sound right to you?
It's definitely very accurate -- but it's also about that. It's very important it's also about that.
And so what else would you consider it to be also?
Well, what do you think?
I suppose I concentrated more on the God and the Devil aspect...
That's also true! No no, because the film is designed like that, like going to a museum and watching a painting, a Rembrandt, you're going to see a thousand different elements within a single frame. Filmmaking is not about what we see it's a very misconceived notion, it's about what we don't see.
Well, that's an interesting idea because there's a lot we don't see and lot we don't hear and lot that's not explained in "Only God Forgives."
Exactly. It's the same thing. Storytelling is not about what we explain it's about what we don't explain. Sound is not about what we hear but about what we don't hear. Because that's the only way for you to interact with it, or else you become passive.
But how do you gauge the balance there, and give the audience just enough to work with?
I can only go off my own needs and wants. All my films represent my own needs and wants.
Which of your films does "Only God Forgives" feel most akin to?
"Valhalla Rising," "Drive" and "Only God Forgives" are very similar in their structure and in their character...
You dedicate the film to Jodorowsky, who is all over this festival [his own film "Dance of Reality" showed here, as well as a documentary "Jodorowsky's Dune"]. Do you know his reaction?
Yes, he came to the red carpet [premiere] with me and he was very moved.
Moved by the dedication or the film?
I believe both -- he was speechless.
"The film is designed like that, like going to a museum and watching a painting, a Rembrandt, you're going to see a thousand different elements within a single frame." The soundtrack to the film is such a huge and distinctive part, tell us about working with Cliff Martinez.
Well, here we had a lot more time to work together and I really enjoy his approach and his music and I'd like to see him very much a part of my future projects. [This time] I brought him in at script stage, also because I needed help with the [Thai karaoke songs that punctuate the narrative] and he knew a lot about that.
And as for upcoming projects, we're very excited about "I Walk With The Dead" with Carey Mulligan?
Yes, that's in the drawing boards, it's looking very good.
And we've heard it variously described as a sexy thriller, a horror movie, an all-female film...
All of the above!
So a sexy thriller horror movie with an all female cast?
Exactly.
And Carey Mulligan is still attached?
[Refn nods mysteriously, but when we point out that he's nodding, he obligingly says into our voice recorder] I'm nodding, I'm nodding.
Any idea when it might shoot?
I have to finish the script first.
We had heard there was already some funding in place...
[Deliberately coy] There are... movements of events.
There's also been talk of you and Gosling doing a comedy together, with Albert Brooks being sought to script?
It's also on the drawing board. We've tried to persuade [Brooks], we can't get him to do it, we've gotta find somebody else. Until he finally agrees to do it.
And your "Barbarella" TV show?
Now I'm writing, hopefully it will shoot early next year?
And how about casting the lead?
I'm attracted to the thought of an unknown.
Have you decided on the aesthetic you'll use?
Hmm [laughs] a lot of sex and violence. Fetishized sex and violence.
There's also "Button Man" - is that still happening?
I'm supposed to read a script...
"Drive" writer James Sallis has written a sequel "Driven" for which the movie is said to be in the pipeline. Have you been approached about that at all?
No. It's never gonna happen. The movie's not gonna get made, because they don't have the key elements.
The key elements being you and Gosling?
Yes.
And Gosling wouldn't think of doing it without you?
I haven't even thought about that, I mean...
But if it were to go ahead, what would your advice be to the filmmakers?
Don't do it! Don't do it. Well, what would they do?
Our precious few minutes up, just before Refn leaves he does mention one other project in response to a question about whether he'd like to further explore Asian culture, by which he was evidently fascinated in "Only God Forgives." "I'm doing a movie in Tokyo," he said, but then went on to state that this was not "I Walk With The Dead," which was for a time rumored to be shooting there. He denied he could let slip any further details, before teasing with "Tok-y-o. I'd love to do a yakuza movie..." Make of that what you will.
standing ovation at cannes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-bCDlH8ISw)
IGN review: "Car Crash" - After Drive comes the slow motion, mangled wreck that is Only God Forgives. (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/29/only-god-forgives-review)
20 minute interview with Nicolas Winding Refn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O4_m4BrTPB0)
New poster
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FXi2MYE8.jpg&hash=553353cda1135e36c928edfd4fe5d16debb14ad1)
LAFF Q & A: 'Only God Forgives' Director Winding Refn on Drugs, Gosling's Hands and Scott Thomas' "Bitch Switch"
via Indiewire
Cannes may not have been the ideal place to debut "Only God Forgives" which was met with hesitant applause there last May. But Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn's batshit, balls-to-the-walls Bangkok-set followup to 2011's "Drive" deserves closer consideration. Clearly, this far less accessible film won't be everyone's thing when RADiUS/TWC opens the film stateside July 19.
Before the film started, Winding Refn told us that while "Drive" was like "doing cocaine all night," "Only God Forgives" is more of "an old school acid trip." But this film -- nocturnal, deathly quiet and far more sinister -- is also a more sleepy psychotropic experience. It's David Lynch goes to Thailand to direct a spaghetti western on quaaludes.
Rather than the neon-soaked LA streets of "Drive," this time Winding Refn's milieu is the criminal underbelly of Bangkok, dressed in red and black. Ryan Gosling gives a somnambulant performance -- for better and for worse -- as Julian, a drug-dealer with an Oedipal streak and plenty of anger issues along with the mommy ones. When his brother is killed during a botched prostitute transaction, their blonde, feisty, perpetually cigarette-wielding mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas, in a performance that will no doubt pick up a few awards come fall) shows up in Thailand to exact revenge. Or, rather, to sick her lost puppy of a son Julian on whoever did this.
Julian endures some literal beatings in Winding Refn's slick, languorous tableaux but moreover he must suffer the barrage of emotional punches levied upon him by Crystal as she beats him into submission. Winding Refn's sparse screenplay, in which Gosling says only a few words, lays the incestuous undertones front and center in a film that emphasizes sensation rather than sense. What follows is a tightly edited exercise in extreme violence and ennui, with a revenge plan that goes as out of control as one in any Coen Brothers' film. It's one of the best films of the year.
In a Q & A moderated by LAFF artistic director and former Newsweek film critic David Ansen, the articulate provocateur opened up about "Only God Forgives," first and foremost reiterating his comment from Cannes that he is a "pornographer."
"I make films about what arouses me at different times. I loved the idea of doing a mother and son story set in a fairytale construction, with a narrative that is all about seeing and feeling and in a way you have to fill in the blanks," Winding Refn said. "Art is most satisfying when it's a two-way process. It has to penetrate you and you have to throw it back to a give-and-take, or else it becomes one-way."
Ansen iterated some of the influences and comparisons that ran through the film. Clearly, Alain Resnais' "Last Year at Marienbad" is acutely felt in "Only God Forgives," not only due to composer Cliff Martinez's pulsing organ motif -- in a score that is equal parts electro minimalism and synthy, Badalamentian melodrama -- but because the characters move as if they are "asleep," as Winding Refn said. He used the mythology of the sleepwalker, "condemned to a sense of Dante's Inferno," to construct Julian.
"Because the film has so little verbal explanation, which is one of the tools we're used to now in cinema and television to guide us, when you remove that element it's a very interesting landscape because you're forced to tell the story through sound, music and images," Winding Refn revealed. Considering that the director is colorblind, it's a wonder that he is able to conjure such colorful cinema.
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FG9Cu1Pg.jpg&hash=df0a93d4a526f76383111b87a90cc1d13e519191)
Of all the characters onscreen, Kristin Scott Thomas has the most dialogue, and it's usually nasty. "I'm afraid of seeing her again. She has no problem turning on the bitch switch," Winding Refn admitted. "I was casting unknown actresses out of the UK, but then Kristin Scott Thomas read the script. We talked a lot about Lady Macbeth and those classical approaches to her character."
She wanted to do a transformation for Crystal, so a few days after meeting Winding Refn she sent him a picture of her in a long blonde wig. "It was Donatella Versace here we come," Winding Refn said. KST, as she is known colloquially onset, does a lot of mouthing-off in the film. At dinner, she calls Julian's date a "cumdumpster," a word that Refn picked up from Gosling when he asked for a list of the most demeaning sexist epithets to woman in America.
Another leitmotif is an image of Julian's hands, with literal and metaphorical blood on them, opening and closing. Several characters in the film have their arms and hands severed off by sword. Winding Refn's idea for "Only God Forgives" began with this kernel of an idea: a fist opening and closing. When the fist is closed, "it's an extension of the erection, and when you open up it becomes very feminine. I wanted to make a movie where the hand has to be amputated, and Ryan has great hands," Winding Refn said.
According to Winding Refn, the crew had seven nights to shoot in Bangkok: "This is very tough because of the heat. A lot of locations were sex clubs. Once you turn off the air conditioning, the smell of human 'pleasure' is quite intoxicating. I like being a stranger in a strange land. I live a mundane life in Copenhagen."
The film is dedicated to "Holy Mountain" director Alejandro Jodorowsky. I don't recall such an unusual and oddly befitting homage since Lars von Trier gifted "Antichrist" to Andrei Tarkovsky in 2009 (in each case, the audience snickered at the dedication). "I find that 'El Topo' really created modern pop cinema," Winding Refn said. "His inspiration has become invisible. He's almost 90 and I wanted to say goodbye. Because he's going to die."
(https://xixax.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FP60QjVS.jpg&hash=1c62f7e875fc787bf706040bca4274ac9633d65b)
These posters are fucking great.
the better the trailers get, the more i dread how shit the movie is gonna be.
it's like climbing more and more floors in a burning building knowing that eventually you're going to have to jump.
my only hope is it will be so boring i'll be asleep before i hit the ground.
The Auteur of Ultraviolence (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9490223/the-career-nicolas-winding-refn-director-drive-only-god-forgives)
Ugh. What a disappointment. Stick with the trailers, guys.
Quote from: Kellen on July 19, 2013, 06:58:38 PM
The Auteur of Ultraviolence (http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9490223/the-career-nicolas-winding-refn-director-drive-only-god-forgives)
Making the press rounds, Refn has repeatedly pointed to two developments. [...] The other was the discovery of Refn's younger daughter's connection to the spirit world. After moving to Bangkok for preproduction, Refn and his wife would be woken up five or six times a night by their daughter, whom they found pointing to a corner in her room and screaming "No!"
"It was creepy, and it was driving us insane," Refn says. "But we knew there was something trying to access her." One night, frustrated and out of options, he called the Thai production manager. He told her, "We believe there's a ghost in the house. She said, 'OK, got it. I'll be right over.' And you think she's gonna call Ray Parker Jr. or something."
What she did show up with was a shaman, who inspected the apartment and declared that, indeed, there was a spirit present. It had latched onto the Refn family when they'd arrived at the airport, and while it wasn't dangerous, it was of course quite annoying as it was attempting to communicate with their young daughter. The next day, Liv went to consult with some monks on the matter. At the temple, one of them asked her if she wanted a Coca-Cola or a Pepsi to drink. "I thought the acceptance of the spiritual world and reality coexisting here, without any doubt, was fascinating," Refn says. "And I basically threw out 30 pages of the script." He didn't want to explain the mystery anymore. He'd let it speak for itself.That explains a lot.
Larry Smith's cinematography was beautiful and the horror-ish score from Cliff Martinez was cool. I thought that Kristin Scott Thomas was good in some scenes, and just came off as being hammy in others. The fight scene between Gosling and Vithaya Pansringarm was fun. Other than that there isn't a whole lot going on in here. Maybe I'll have to watch it again but I feel kinda meh about this -- I kinda felt the same way about Vahalla Rising the first time I watched it and that grew on me over time not really sure about this one though.
Jesus Horatio Christ... Can a film be any slower? I felt like I was watching well lit, artsy shots of people looking at the horizon for an hour and a half, mixed with some shots of old asian dude walking slow as all fuck (I get it, that is how badass mothafuckas walk, but seriously, he overdid it so hard. It started just being super boring after the 3rd time, like "oh okay, another long uncut shot of this dude walking like he's underwater. Fucking great"). I guess I like the super graphic a-tad-more-realistic-than-Kill Bill type of violence but even that didn't do much for me or for the movie.
And what the fuck is Ryan Gosling doing here? He's basically playing the same character again, and this dude didn't even talk for the first 30 minutes of the movie. He's just staring at people like a fucking weirdo. Not very impressed with his acting in this one either, but then again, his character didn't do shit the whole movie. The movie was all about the old asian dude that likes to cut people's hands and keeps a samurai sword tucked in the back of his shirt like a wannabe-ninja.
I guess I also liked the dry, uncomfortable humor. Definitely laughed hard a few times, like when the mom tells the hooker that the brother had a bigger cock than Julian, that shit was so unexpected, so damn funny. I can obviously see some traces of incest in the relationship between julian and his mom, but the movie doesn't care to dive into that, so I don't either.
The music was definitely good, I just wish he had done some of those beautiful musical sequences like the ones he did in Drive. He has a couple here, but they're not as awesome or as emotional.
Basically, to sum up, both Bronson and Drive were better than this slow, boring, pretentious piece of shit. Nicolas is trying to be Kubrick and he's failing. I give this a 6/10 and that's just me being fond of the beautiful cinematography. Even though this movie is shitty, I'm still a fan of Refn and DRIVE is still my favorite film of 2011. I just hope the next film he does is completely different than this, is definitely time for him to switch his style up.
Quote from: Freddie on July 21, 2013, 12:43:48 AM
I can obviously see some traces of incest in the relationship between julian and his mom, but the movie doesn't care to dive into that, so I don't either.
+1
The first 50 minutes of this were utterly vapid. The last 50 might be the cat's pajamas, but I doubt I'll ever bother getting to know first hand.
Yeah, "Drive" was my favorite movie of 2011 and this was probably the worst film I've seen all year. Refn totally shit the bed. It's a shame he blew all of his "Drive" cache already/so quickly when there were so many interesting things he could have done with it.
Hour long interview with Refn (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TKEmF0dbC8)
Did anyone like this? I feel like I'm missing something. Saw it twice. Thought it was a bore. His interviews piss me off even more, because he takes the bad reviews as a compliment. No...it was just a meaningless movie that didn't even function on an entertainment level. The acting was shite, I couldn't stop laughing at Gosling. The faces he was making were so fucking hilarious. The cinematography/music was great...but to what service? The movie was unmoving. I love Refn more than most, but that was pretty shitty.
Quote from: Cloudy on July 24, 2013, 03:08:45 AM
Did anyone like this?
no. it has been universally panned since premiering at Cannes.
i don't think anyone has ever thought this would be any good outside of the trailers. it's a shame, but no longer a surprise.
i don't know why anyone is actually watching it.
36% on Rotten Tomatoes
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/only_god_forgives_2013/
i liked it, i suppose, but didn't love it. and i can understand why people hate it so much.
Quote from: abuck1220 on July 24, 2013, 04:09:14 PM
i liked it, i suppose, but didn't love it. and i can understand why people hate it so much.
What do you like about it? (legitimate question, I just wanna know because you might say something that could make me wanna watch it again.)
i thought it totally 'functioned on an entertainment level'. it was gorgeous, suspenseful, featured ridiculous scenes, characters and fight choreography, and a compelling sense of timing/movement in general. it adds up to a really neat little world. ultimately it wasn't really 'about' anything and felt unintentionally funny or gratuitous at times, but i had a fun time watching it. just don't expect drive 2 and you're good.
I liked it pretty good. Probably other people have said that it feels like a dream/nightmare, but it does, and that's not an easy thing to do. It's not only due to the atmosphere, which I found really easy to sink into, due to the visuals, score, and pacing of the film, but also the way it follows dream logic. Or, perhaps, more like a delirious, jet-laggy, I've been up for 72 hours and can't fall asleep kind of logic.
Things happen but without a huge amount of weight. There's the suggestion that something terrible might happen, and then it happens, as if the thought of it happening was what caused it to happen, which is my experience of dreams. (If I see someone in a dream and think, "I hope he doesn't have a gun... oh god, he has a gun, doesn't he?" and then he pulls out his gun, and then I think, "I hope he doesn't shoot my mom," and then my mom shows up and he shoots her.) But then the next thing happens and there's the nasty feeling of the awful thing happening without the realistic consequences. I suppose what I'm talking about is dread, and that's what this movie's got.
This is also why Ryan Gosling not playing a character so much as a list of insecurities bundled in the shape of a man worked for me. And the occasional non-linear edits that briefly throw you off as to where in time/space/the story you are.
I also thought it was pretty funny. I guess one of the things that people have against this movie is that it's dumb (and it IS dumb), which is a problem for a lot of people, but I've never had anything against a movie being dumb because there's nothing about dumbness that contradicts my ideas about how cinema functions as an experience for me.
matt. that was an amazing review, you actually changed the way i feel about the movie.
You know what the problem is, films these days are downright labelled as pretentious etc. if it tries to change the form of storytelling. Imagine when Last Year At Marienbad came out, half the people gave it shit, half of them embraced it. 50 years on and now many embrace it. It's the expectation factor that plays a massive role during the release of a film, when it doesn't meet expectations we give it the thumbs down, but what is expectation anyway? If the story takes a turn that doesn't particularly fit your preconditioned mentality of what the film will be about, that is not the filmmaker's fault, it's ours. Sure I'm not saying people don't have the right to dislike it, it just seems everyone is writing it off asap. Like when the young boy in the film that has some kind of disability witnesses the murder, what is that saying about the film? I think to understand this film we have to understand Refn more, wasn't Refn dyslexic and colour blind? Didn't he watch a gargantuan amount of violent films as a child? Is Julian a cautionary tale for that child, aka any child? Born into a world witnessing violence. Didn't Refn try to kill his step-mother by pointing a gun at her but it wouldn't work? Is Refn saying that if he didn't have cinema as a medium to explore his tattered soul he'd probably be out there killing just like Julian? Is this Refn's most personal film? I don't know, these are half-ass conceived thoughts from one viewing. What I do know is that there is a plethora of elements that are being overlooked from this film by going in and expecting Drive 2. Anyway, justice will be served years down the line to these modern complex films that attempt at pushing the medium, just like Last Year At Marienbad. I for one will be revisiting this film to see what it's made of
I liked it a lot more than Drive, but couldn't take Gosling seriously at all. He had this goofy grin on his face throughout the entire movie, I don't remember him being that distracting in Drive. But I liked the languid pacing of it, it never felt interminable at any point to me. The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is one of my favourite movies, it had a similar kind of pace to that. I feel I can really relax within slow films, like I'm really inhabiting their worlds. This felt like a world worth inhabiting to me.
Some of the violence did make me feel ill, though. I can't see myself wanting to watch it again for another 5 years at least. But certainly one of the best cinema experiences i've had in a long while.
I thoroughly enjoyed this film. Had one or two gripes but it felt, looked and sounded like an awesome nightmare.
EDIT:
This doesn't really need to be said but I hope that Refn doesn't get scared away from making movies like this.
I hope his 'sex-thriller' with Mulligan is somewhat similar.
Also- there was something weird about the movie in regards to the violence. Some parts were incredibly intense, like very violent but at the same time it wasn't as grotesque as it could have been. You can't exactly say it was a tasteful useful use of violence but there was a decent amount of restraint at parts.
http://vimeo.com/75900695
VFX breakdown. Very cool.
so this was like a not fun version of The Raid 2?
Whaddya mean, it's totally fun if karmic retribution through brutal violence is your thing.