“You are not easy to live with.”
Written and Directed by: Liv Corifixen
Cast: Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling, Liv Corifixen, Alejandro Jodorowsky
The H-Bomb: Insecurity and self-doubt can torment any artist, especially if they are following up a great success. Because their newest work is being awaited with a degree of anticipation, the fear of failure is amplified. For Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, this couldn’t be more true. In 2011, he released Drive, the most commercial and critically praised film of his nearly two decade long career. On the heels of that success, Refn immediately set about putting together his next project, Only God Forgives, a violent, existential pseudo-thriller set in Bangkok.
Normally, whenever Refn goes to make a film abroad, his wife, Liv Corifixen, stays home and looks after their two young children. This time, however, she opts to take the kids out of school and accompany Refn, or “Jang,” as she calls him, to Thailand. Out of want for something to do, Liv picks up a camera and follows him around, with the intended purpose of chronicling the making of his latest opus. What she wound up with by the end of their six month stay in Bangkok, is quite possibly the most useless documentary ever assembled.
Even calling My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn a documentary is giving it more legitimacy than it really deserves. It’s more like a home movie, that someone decided to slap credits on the front and back of, and then stream on Netflix. It’s not that there isn’t anything of interest for Refn’s fans, it’s just that if you’re looking for any insight into his creative process, or what inspires or drives him as a filmmaker, you’re better off checking out the special features on the Only God Forgives DVD.
There is a level of intimacy here that could have only been reached by a filmmaker’s spouse, but anyone expecting anything in the same league as Eleanor Coppola’s Hearts of Darkness is going to be left wanting. Mainly what we take away from Corifixen’s documentary is that Refn is one neurotic motherfucker. For the majority of the movie, he’s lying in bed, wondering if Only God Forgives will be as commercial as Drive, or if people will get it or not, or if it’ll be too artsy-fartsy, or what will happen to his career if it’s not a success. A better title for this documentary would have been Worry-Wart: The Panicked Musings of a Neurotic Mind.
Refn is all-too-aware that he’s making a film that is far different, and far more esoteric than Drive, and his single greatest fear is that critics and audiences will shun it for those reasons. As turns out, sadly, he had something to worry about, as Only God Forgives is a very good film that was roundly dismissed as indulgent and pretentious upon release. Seeing Refn bellyache nonstop about it for nearly an hour, though, got very old very fast. I can absolutely relate to how he feels, as I question myself constantly, I just wish this documentary had something else to show me.
I was amused by the bit where he’s offered 40 grand in cash to appear at a special screening of Drive, and then talks the organizers up to 100 grand. The scenes where we see Ryan Gosling playing with Refn’s daughters put a smile on my face, and we do sense that the friendship between Refn and Gosling is genuine, and that creatively they’re on the same wavelength… for the most part. There are times where Refn attempts to explain a scene to his lead actor, and Gosling just looks utterly bewildered. Those got a chuckle out of me. I also enjoyed the scene where legendary avant-garde filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky (El Topo, The Holy Mountain) performs a Tarot reading for Corifixen.
Those moments, however, are too few and far between, as My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn is, overall, a tremendous letdown. Refn is an immensely talented filmmaker, and I feel as though I’ve learned next to nothing about how he works, what inspires him, etc., etc. Having a scene or two of him struggling with self-doubt would be one thing, having him constantly fret over being forever known as the “Drive Guy” is something else. Even at an ever so slight running time of 58 minutes, it still felt redundant as hell, and ultimately, kind of boring. Corifixen had an all access pass to this man, while he was making one of the most intriguing films of his career, and this is what we got? What a wasted opportunity. On the other hand, it did make me want to watch Only God Forgives again… I suppose that’s something.
