High art meets low trash in new art book.
Visionary cinema-slinger Nicolas Winding Refn is perhaps the most important contemporary filmmaker alive; a singular artist who, starting with his radical Danish films like the edgy PUSHER series and the unforgettable VALHALLA RISING and moving through modern works like the hypnotic DRIVE and the SUSPIRIA-steeped dream thriller ONLY GOD FORGIVES, has cultivated a filmic language all his own.
But his strange, sensual brand of moviemaking has its roots in the arcane, specifically in Refns addiction to horror, cult and exploitation pictures and their lurid history. Its that fetish for the beautiful, ugly and ramshackle that led to the creation of one of his most interesting new offerings
As Refn chains himself to the edit bay, overseeing the post-production construction of his latest magnum opus THE NEON DEMON (starring Keanu Reeves and Elle Fanning), FAB press are about to release the massive, 324 page coffee table tome Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing. The book is a collaboration between Refn and noted British horror film journo and historian Alan Jones and man alive is it a lulu; a dense, weighty work, housed in a canvas slipcase that you’ll want to sleep beside.
Seems some time ago, as his success was steamrolling, Refn purchased a vast collection of original international exploitation film theatrical posters and one sheets; a cavalcade of paper-printed kink from the 50s to the 70s shilling greaseball gems like THE TWISTED SEX, TORTURE ME KISS ME, ZERO IN AND SCREAM and hundreds more pictures that even the most hardened SOMETHING WEIRD disciple might not have even heard of. On night over dinner, Refn told Jones of this collection and, at Jones urging, the two began sifting through the stash.
The resulting book isnt a film reference book, though it most certainly contains educational riffs from Jones stuck to the inner pages of the presentation. Rather, “The Act of Seeing” is a sophisticated art book that treats its grubby subjects as the often brilliantly etched works of commercial and creative vision that they are. And really, thats the essence of Refns soul: refusing to accept any sort of notion as to what conventional art is. He takes the refuse of popular culture and fetishizes it, filtering it through his own culture, his intellect and his life experiences.
Simply put, even at $100 USD, Nicolas Refn: The Art of Seeing is an essential piece of Refns psychic puzzle (and with its classy Jay Shaw cover, man is it pretty). If youre a fan of the director, you be advised to pick it up. And if youre a fan of the director AND a fan of vintage sideshow cinema, its an absolutely essential purchase.
SHOCK spoke briefly top Refn to ask him a few questions about the book.
SHOCK: From that fateful dinner with Alan, to release, how long as the process from idea to published book?
NWR: From beginning to end, it took me four years to make.
SHOCK: Do you have an agenda to eventually see every movie in here?
NWR: No, I don’t have an agenda to see them all because I don’t have the time to! Some of them still exist, some actually don’t.
SHOCK: Now that you are firmly ensconced in Hollywood, do you often find it hard to find others that share your visceral interest in the arcane?
NWR: The opposite. In fact, the young generation of filmmaker today seems to appreciate extreme cinema more and more, so my answer is no.
SHOCK: So, you have all of these posters collected into a handsome book now…any plans to sell the collection?
NWR: I really don’t know what I’m going to do with it yet I have to ask my wife…
If your own spouse says its okay, you can order your own copy of Nicolas Winding Refn: The Act of Seeing by going HERE.
