| Nicolas Winding Refn's PUSHER
TRILOGY
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Writer and director Nicolas Winding Refn turned down a
place at the prestigious National Danish Film School in order to make his 1996 feature
film debut, PUSHER. This violent, edgy, yet moving cult classic established Refn as
an uncompromising filmmaker of great talent and depth. Following his next two films,
BLEEDER (1999) and FEAR X (2003) (with John Turturro), Refn returned to the Copenhagen
underworld in 2004 with PUSHER II: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS, while 2005 saw the
release of PUSHER III: I’M THE ANGEL OF DEATH. All three PUSHER films display
Refn effortlessly blending moody atmospherics and frenetic action, portraying his
characters with a depth and confidence belying his years. Though each film can be
appreciated independently of the other two, Refn subtly interweaves these three tales so
that a minor character in one film moves to the fore to become the central character of
the next. The resulting trilogy stands as a masterful reinvention of international crime
cinema, as poignantly human as it is brutally and viscerally realized. The PUSHER trilogy
reveals the humanity in even the most violent criminals and how every pusher—no
matter what his status—is only one bad deal away from total ruin. Refn’s style
is honed with savage, polished dynamics similar to Scorsese or Tarantino but often steeped
with nightmarish visual asides akin to David Lynch. We’ll also be screening director
Phie Ambo’s GAMBLER, a penetrating, painfully funny and insightful documentary
about Refn’s harrowing quest to get PUSHER II and III financed and before the
cameras. Please join us for this special weekend.
Friday, November 3 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
PUSHER, 1996, Magnolia Pictures, 105 min.
Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn. The story of Frank (Kim Bodnia), a small-time
drug dealer who is about to experience the worst week of his life. After a complicated
heroin deal goes wrong and he loses both the money and the merchandise, Frank finds
himself massively in debt to the Balkan drug baron, Milo (Zlatko Buric). The
squeeze is on and as the week passes the pressure mounts, with Frank trying to repay the
money in the face of Milo’s increasing frustration and his own latent
self-destructiveness. Come Friday, Saturday might never happen. As Frank launches one last
desperate push to raise the missing funds, it appears less and less likely he will manage
to emerge from this hellish week unscathed. With Mads Mikkelsen.
GAMBLER, 2006, Magnolia Pictures, 78
min. Dir. Phie Ambo. Nicolas Winding Refn’s first PUSHER film was a breakout
hit in Denmark in 1996, and he followed it up with the relatively successful BLEEDER.
However, his third enigmatic suspense film FEAR X penned by Hubert Selby Jr. - his highest
budgeted effort to date starring John Turturro with exteriors shot in America - went bust
at the box office. To avoid personal bankruptcy and fight his way out of a creative slump,
Refn decided to do two back-to-back sequels of his first hit, PUSHER. This is the
harrowing saga of Refn, with the help of his partners, trying to find funds, write
scripts, shoot film and juggle his family life – all without losing his focus on the
final goal: two financially successful movies that will also retain the integrity of his
original vision. It is a testament to director Phie Ambo and Refn, himself, that
this real-life chronicle emerges as just as suspenseful and achingly truthful as
Refn’s own violent, fictional outings. One of the best documentaries ever about
trying to get low budget films made. NOT ON DVD.
Saturday, November 4 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
PUSHER II: WITH BLOOD ON MY HANDS,
2004, Magnolia Pictures, 96 min. Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn. Tonny (Mads
Mikkelsen¸ who plays Bond villain, Le Chiffre in the upcoming CASINO ROYALE) is a
crook from the Copenhagen underworld whose previous run-in with a baseball bat has left
his mind addled and unreliable. Having just been released from prison, Tonny tries to
bring order to his life and gain the respect of his father, the Duke, a notorious gangster
who appears to have nothing but contempt for his son. Tonny soon learns that nothing in
this new life comes easy. Trying to repay a debt held over from prison, he makes misstep
after misstep, running further afoul of the Duke. On top of it all, Tonny must contribute
to the upbringing of a baby boy which may or may not be his own. Battling the scorn of all
around him as well as his own drug-fueled delirium, Tonny must forge a path toward some
form of redemption, or perish. With Leif Sylvester Petersen, Anne Sørensen,
Zlatko Buric. NOT ON DVD.
PUSHER III: I’M THE ANGEL OF DEATH,
2005, Magnolia Pictures, 102 min. Dir. Nicolas Winding Refn. PUSHER III takes place
over the course of a single day, with the now middle-aged Milo (Zlatko Buric)
struggling to prepare his daughter’s 25th birthday party. As Milo fights
his own personal demons in the form of a smack addiction he’s trying to kick, his
business day proves equally challenging once a shipment of ecstasy arrives in place of the
heroin he was expecting. Milo is forced to contend with a new order of young hoods in
order to move this designer drug he knows little about. Now feeling the squeeze he himself
had put on so many before him, Milo must find a way to maintain his place of dominance
atop the Copenhagen underworld. To do so he will have to survive one of the most harrowing
episodes of his long, illustrious career. NOT ON DVD. |
