, is one of the few directors who deserves the enfant terrible label. The Danish filmmaker, best-known for his neon-drenched tales of sex, violence and revenge — , , — is at the this year with two works that, he says, represents both his “classic past and the future”: A and , a seven-minute commercial for Italian motorcycle company MV Agusta. “Whoever said a movie can’t be seven minutes long?” is its irreverent, Refn-esque tagline.
In recent years, Refn has pivoted from cinema towards streaming, bringing his acid Day-Glo aesthetic and digressive narrative style — he typically shoots in sequence, not knowing how his stories will end — to series like for Amazon and . He also, surprisingly, for the BBC. Refn spoke to about revisiting his origins with the restoration, the possibility of working with Ryan Gosling again, and why, despite being linked to , and even , he’s never gone Hollywood.
Well, your memories don’t disappear. But I think one of the things that I reminded myself of just [doing the restoration] was how lucky I was to have been able to make a movie at that time, with very little to show for until then. It’s a bit like going into and getting a record contract when you can’t play the instruments, but you’re really good at selling yourself.
That was something I was very grateful for, for having been given that opportunity. And I made it with arrogance, which is what you’re supposed to do. I think it very much cemented my desire to always .