It should come as no surprise that we around here are big fans of Nicolas Winding Refn. The Danish director has put together the eclectic and divisive body of work of an artist unafraid to push the envelope and venture into new territory, which inevitably means missing the mark now and again. But that’s exactly what makes Refn so fascinating: even his misfires are interesting. Everything he does is bold, brazen, and extremely stylistic, and his failures seem almost like failures simply because they didn’t quite live up to their promise (see “Only God Forgives“). All of which is to say that we couldn’t be more excited for Refn’s next effort, the fashion industry set horror film “The Neon Demon,” which is set to premier at the Cannes Film Festival next week.
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So, while we eagerly await what looks to be another visually audacious outing from the auteur, a new supercut has arrived to take a closer look his incredible use of color. Alex Kalogeropoulos‘ “Refn: Colors of Emotion” cuts together the immersive colors that pervade Refn’s films, focusing primarily red, blue, and yellow. As Kalogeropoulos explains, red is a representation of any sort of intension emotion, “saturated to convey that through-line of tension from all ranges of characters’ feelings.” Blue is languid and almost peaceful. And yellow is the moment of “culmination,” which in Refn’s films is so often the sudden outbreak of brutal violence.
It’s a captivating way to look at a body of work; from the get go Refn has had a clear visual aesthetic for his films — a sort of hyperreal world — but to see how he has continued to push further into this territory to richer and more rewarding returns is impressive.
Check out the NSFW video above while you wait for “The Neon Demon” — which hits theaters on June 24th — and weigh in with your thoughts in the comments below.