Nicolas Winding Refn as Heartman. Hollywood in Games – People of Death Stranding
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Nicolas Refn is a forty-year-old director from Denmark, for whom the most important inspiration for creating films was... The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
When I saw the Texas Massacre, I realized: I don't want to be a director. I don't want to be a screenwriter. I don't want to be a producer. No photographer, editor, soundman. I want to be all of them. This movie proved to me that it's possible because it's not an ordinary movie.
He sticks to the rule – out of ten movies he directed, he wrote or co-created scripts to nine, and was the executive producer of two. He made his cinematic debut in 1996 with aforementioned movie Pusher. It wasn't well received by Danish audiences, but it was also the first film production in which we could watch Madsa Mikkelsen – Death Stranding in this context looks like sort of a reunion.
Another of his movies, Bleeder from 1999, earned him many awards and nominations at various independent film festivals, including FIPRESCI prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival. In 2003, the director tried his hand with English-language films. With a decent result – Fear X, although not a commercial success, but, again, it produced several rewards.
The following years brought Refner more critically acclaimed films – sequels to Pusher, Bronson, starring Tom Hardy, and another project created with Mads Mikkelsen, the Valhalla Rising. The real breakthrough for Nicolas Refna came in 2011 with his movie Drive (the only film in which he didn't write the script), starring Ryan Gosling. This movie earned him the award for the best director in Cannes, and also got a few Oscars nominations, along with a myriad of other awards. This was the moment he got to Hollywood major league.
Having achieved international recognition, Refn decided to shock and risk. His recent work, 2013's Only God Forgives (also with Gosling) and 2016's Neon Demon, polarized critics – at festivals, they were as likely to get standing ovations as they were to be booed by the audience.
In Death Stranding, which will be Refn's first contact with video games, the director will give his take on the Heartman. This is a scientist dealing with the titular phenomenon of Death Stranding, whose heart stops every 21 minutes. Heartman then dies for three minutes and gets "to the other side", where he is looking for his family. After three minutes, the automatic defibrillator brings him back to life.
