Nicolas Winding Refn Says Current State Of Theatrical Filmmaking Is “Very, Very Destructive”

Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn isn’t one to hold back in an interview. And when it comes to the current state of feature filmmaking, the director has no shortage of things to say. Refn is currently promoting his new website, byNWR.com, and took some time to speak to IndieWire about his upcoming Amazon series and why he might take a little break from feature films.

For those that aren’t following his current projects, Refn just launched a new movie streaming website that features classic films hand-picked by the filmmaker. These aren’t your typical classics that all cinephiles are familiar with, either. ByNWR features some of the older movies that have flown under the radar throughout the decades.

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And on top of the new website, Refn is currently in production on his upcoming TV series for Amazon, “Too Old to Die Young.” The series, which stars Miles Teller, is one of the most anticipated projects of Refn’s career, as it marks his first foray into serialized storytelling. And guess what? He’s having so much fun, it might be a while before he goes back to traditional feature films.

“For me [choosing to do an episodic series] was more about [doing] something where there’s longevity, the length of it – I’m no longer bound by the norms of what the state of theatrical film is,” said Refn. ”I wasn’t interested in television, I was interested in what I can do with a canvas that is endless. It’s like traveling to outer space. There’s no meeting point. There’s no official end. It just continues creatively.”

Endless, in this context, has little to do with the number of episodes or subsequent seasons. What Refn is referring to is the feeling of freedom that modern TV storytelling offers that the current state of feature films sadly lacks.

“I mean you go to work every day and go, ‘What would I like to do today?’ And you have great people around to help you [with] what that is,” said Refn. “It’s a bit like doing an enormous painting. It’s a mural on the Empire State Building and you decide to paint the entire [thing], but along the way you decided to change a little bit. Suddenly, you need to change all the colors as you go along and images themselves, mutate.”

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So, how did Refn’s work on the TV side of things affect his views on feature films. Sadly, for those hoping to get a new Refn film soon, it doesn’t sound like the filmmaker has any interest in going back to the old-style of filmmaking and distribution.

“It’s an absurd limitation that kind of dawned on me – I think that it’s more the narrative limitations that I got annoyed with, or the lack of opportunities, because the way the system of films is so detrimental of what it’s supposed to be, the length of it, how people are supposed to react to it, and what is success and what is not success,” said Refn. “That I find very, very destructive, which is also one of the reasons I wanted to try streaming because it was a form of distribution. It’s the new canvas.”

If there’s one take away from the latest interview with Refn, it’s that the director is going through a metamorphosis. It’ll be interesting to see how his work on his streaming website and with his Amazon series changes how he makes films moving forward. We could be looking at the dawn of Refn Version 2.0.