NWR - The Nicolas Winding Refn Documentary - DVD

Content: With his Pusher films, Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn gained a reputation as a non-conformist, visionary and innovative director - a reputation that he has further underpinned impressively with later works such as Bronson, Valhalla Rising and Drive. Reason enough for Laurent Duroche to accompany the exceptional director with his camera during the preparations for his film Only God Forgives in Thailand and to follow the traces of his past with him in Denmark. In addition to Nicolas Winding Refn himself, his parents, wife, actors Mads Mikkelsen, Ryan Gosling and Zlatko Buric also have their say. Thus, NWR one creates an interesting, insightful and honest portrait of a not uncontroversial artist, which should be especially his admirers, but also generally interested in filmmaking viewers to mind.

For not only the preparations for the shoot offer some very interesting insights into the creation process of a film. Also the very open and detailed conversations about Refn's first steps in the film business, the first hurdles he had to overcome or about rough setbacks in commercial, but also artistic terms are more than revealing. When Refn talks self-critically about the arrogance and overconfidence with which he approached his first film shoot and what he learned about himself and about working as a director in the course of the next projects, it comes across as refreshingly honest. There are only a few statements by the other interviewees that seem a little too glorifying and arrogant.

This applies primarily to filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky, who initially calls Steven Spielberg and his ilk idiots, demonizes Hollywood as the downfall of all film culture and sees Nicolas Winding Refn as the only filmmaker who has given him back his faith in cinema. Admittedly, Refn is a very exciting and certainly good filmmaker in his non-conformist way (even if I personally couldn't do anything with Only God Forgives, unlike Drive). But to dismiss every filmmaker who works more in the direction of the mainstream as an idiot and to see Refn as some kind of cinematic messiah is going a bit too far. Such statements seem like an exaggerated adulation, which neither the film nor the director would have needed.

Apart from such small disturbing factors, NWR - The Nicolas Winding Refn Documentary is an absolutely worth seeing portrait, an exciting excursion behind the scenes and a small insight into an unusually working artist's spirit. And for that there is a clear: worth seeing!

Picture + Sound: The actual interviews are audiovisually on a good documentary level. The picture is clean, the color scheme is consistent, and the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix conveys the voices well out of the speakers. On the other hand, there are a few blurs and other flaws every now and then when older film clips are included, but these are due to the source material (such as a short film or an old trailer) and should not be seen as a weakness in the technical realization of this DVD. Overall, in fact, this one gets a more than satisfactory: good!

Extras: The only bonus features are a couple of trailers, including one for Refn's Fear X.

Conclusion:NWR is an informative and entertaining documentary that not only provides an interesting look at the process of making a film by the award-winning director, but also gives a comprehensive account of Nicolas Winding Refn's life and previous works. While one may not agree with everything said by those involved in this documentary, overall NWR has become a very well done, entertaining and informative portrait of one of the very special filmmakers of our time. Absolutely recommended!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp