Review of the film ‘His Own Hell’ by Nicolas Winding Refn
There will be many viewers who find the viewing of “His own hell” They find it extremely tedious or, perhaps, downright unbearable. For a handful it will be an exciting, almost mystical experience. And it will also happen that a few will leave the room, as one critic described quite graphically after one of the first showings, irritated and confused, but they will not be able to get it out of their minds and, after not too long, they will want to see it again.
Danish films and series Nicolas Winding Refn They usually generate this type of somewhat hallucinogenic effects. However, on this occasion he has let himself be carried away by his obsessions and fetishisms to the point of bordering on the incomprehensible. Let’s say that the already controversial (and, for the person writing these lines, magnificent) “Only God forgives” (13) or “The Neon Demon” (16) are, in comparison, kind and empathetic films, with a very accessible narrative. Regarding the series he has made during his decade away from the big screen, “His own hell” It is quite far from the wonderful deconstruction of Los Angeles-style noir that was “Too Old to Die Young” (perhaps its masterpiece), and it does share many points in common with that strange and demented fairy tale called “Copenhagen Cowboy.” If we make a parallel with the career of his admired David Lynch, we find ourselves before his “Inland Empire.”
Winding Refn It takes its cast, led by a certainly disturbing Sophie Thatcher who recalls a young Asia Argento, to a Tokyo located between Art Deco and cyberpunk, shrouded in perpetual fog and bathed in neon lights. She is going to star in a science fiction movie in the style of “Barbarella” and, as filming progresses, he has to deal with various family traumas and nightmares. This is what we can now consider a “typical protagonist” of Winding Refn, halfway between Elle Fanning of “The Neon Demon” and Nell Tiger Free “Too old…”. His path intersects with that of a kind of lone avenger, played by Charles Melton, and with that of an indestructible psychopath dressed in leather who stalks lonely girls… Although, to be honest, the plot doesn’t matter to anyone here.
What makes “His own hell” in a memorable movie, in case you manage to connect with the brain wave frequency of Winding Refnis its sumptuous visual and sound packaging. The filmmaker pays tribute to Brian De Palma’s thriller films, Japanese yakuza cinema and the gialli of Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci through a series of hyper-stylized, feverish, sexual and violent sequences… While, in the background, we hear the retro soundtrack by veteran Italian composer Pino Donaggio, which seems taken from a 1950s noir and which may or may not work, like the rest of the film, depending on the viewer’s perspective. In that sense, Winding Refn has never been more experimental and uninhibited. I have no doubt that there will be those who would have preferred something more content (and understandable). But, with a panorama as modest and lacking in daring as that of contemporary commercial cinema, we must be grateful for the presence of an artist who is so against the grain.
