Tag: valhalla rising

MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN In Theatres & On Demand February 27th

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After BRONSON, VALHALLA RISING, DRIVE, and ONLY GOD FORGIVES,  Nicolas Winding Refn is one of the most exciting directors working today. Refn burst onto the film scene in the late 1990s with the delightfully nasty PUSHER trilogy, and has continued to produce some of the most thought-provoking and visually spectacular genre-benders of any modern auteur. From Tom Hardy’s career-defining titular Bronson to Mads Mikkelsen’s feral One Eye to Ryan Gosling’s icy cold Driver, Refn has time and again crafted nuanced portraits of deeply conflicted but undeniably charismatic antiheroes.

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In MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN, Refn’s own deep conflict is swinging in the breeze as we witness him wrestle with the particularly challenging production of ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Directed and shot by his wife Liv Corfixen over the duration of the production and subsequent Cannes debut, MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN captures the very private and intimate moments to which a traditional documentary crew simply wouldn’t have access. The result is a fascinating, detailed look at a creative genius at work and also a portrait of a director torn between the general public’s desire for a “DRIVE 2” and his own mission to explore more challenging narrative territory.

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MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN will play in select theaters and will be available On Demand February 27th

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Check out the trailer for MY LIFE DIRECTED BY NICOLAS WINDING REFN

SLIFF 2010 Review: VALHALLA RISING

Review by Dana Jung

‘Valhalla’ is a Norse mythological concept, defining a place where warriors slain in battle go after death. In most texts, it’s described as a great hall in the home of Odin, king of the Norse gods. A sort of warrior’s heaven, the dead go there to prepare for Ragnarok, the Norse equivalent to the Second Coming or Final Judgment in Christianity. These and many other complex themes are woven through the Danish film VALHALLA RISING. Though the film will no doubt be marketed as a sword-fest action flick akin to 300 or CENTURION, it is far removed from both of those movies. The story is simple, yet sets up a fascinating and thoughtful rumination on Christianity vs religious mythology, civilization vs nature, sacrifice vs coercion, and more.

Mads Mikkelsen (familiar as the Bond villain in CASINO ROYALE) is a mute anonymous warrior in an anonymous land. He is a fierce and brutal fighter being used in primitive gladiator-styled fights to the death. The time period is roughly 1000 AD, and Christianity is spreading. There is already conflict between the newer more zealous Christians and all other ‘pagan’ religions. The warrior falls in with a band of early Crusaders as they set off for the Holy Land. Needless to say, things don’t go as planned.

The film opens with a violent combat scene, followed by a nearly silent 10 minute sequence that establishes the story. Nearly all the fight action in the movie appears in these opening segments. Director & co-writer Nicolas Winding Refn isn’t interested in action scenes, but in showing some incredible vistas (mostly shot in Scotland) with an eerie, naturalistic style that is reminiscent of Herzog’s FITZCARRALDO or more recently, Malick’s NEW WORLD. Nature is not just a background, it is a player in the story, which Refn uses to question the ability of religion to bond people together. And is the Mikkelson character some sort of Christ metaphor? He mysteriously has only one eye (Christian symbolism) and seems to be the only person who bathes (baptism?) regularly. He is almost Zen-like in his demeanor when not disemboweling an enemy. The young boy (innocent?) who tags along and acts as the observer/translator is left unharmed and perhaps unaffected by both the primitives and the Christians at the film’s somewhat obscure conclusion. Perhaps the rise of Christianity is the true Ragnarok, as it slowly but steadily overtake – whether by force or sacrifice – all other beliefs, even those more symbiotic with Nature. The viewer is left to decide whether this is a good or bad development in human history, long after this beautifully shot but frustratingly obtuse film ends.

VALHALLA RISING will play during the 19th Annual Stella Artois St. Louis International Film Festival on Sunday, November 14th at 9:15 pm at the Hi-Pointe Theatre.

New Trailer for VALHALLA RISING

For the movie geeks out there looking for edgy films, director Nicolas Winding Refn is one filmmaker to keep an eye out for, which is why I’m excited to share this new trailer for VALHALLA RISING. Refn, who directed such great films as the PUSHER trilogy and 2008’s BRONSON, has a unique visual style and sense of intense storytelling.

Plot Synopsis:

Mute slave HARALD escapes his Scottish masters with the help of 10 year old ARE, torturing and killing them before joining a band of dispossessed Vikings. They go to sea, determined to return to Scandinavia to fight the spread of Christianity, but for HARALD the journey is also a personal one to discover his own origins. Caught in a terrible storm, the group drift for 40 days until, on the verge of death, they find themselves in a freshwater river. The land seems at once strange yet familiar.

When they come under attack by unseen assailants, the groups’ quest for their homeland takes on a bitter urgency as one-by-one they succumb to the onslaught, dying at the hands of the invisibles. Worse, they are no clearer about where they are or if this place even exists outside their imagination. Have they finally reached the new world, or Valhalla?

Meanwhile, HARALDS’s search for identity is compromised when ARE is captured. As the enemy reveal themselves, HARALD realizes he has finally found his identity but at too high a price. As ARE’s life is threatened, HARALD is faced with an impossible choice; save the boy or save his soul?

VALHALLA RISING officially hit US theaters in a limited capacity on June 4, 2010 but hopefully more small theaters will pick this one up throughout the country as word gets out.

NEW TRAILER:

And, in case you missed it… here’s the first trailer:

Awesome Trailer for ‘Valhalla Rising’

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I’ve been seeing all kinds of cool still and information about ‘Valhalla Rising’ coming down from Twitch, and, now, finally, we get a trailer.   No, this isn’t an adaptation of the Clive Cussler novel.   This is a badass Viking film from the director ‘Bronson.’   Though I haven’t seen that film, I’ve heard nothing but great things about it.

Check out the trailer for ‘Valhalla Rising’ right here:

‘Valhalla Rising’ comes out in June in France.   There is no word yet on a US release date.

Source: First Showing