Too Old To Die Young, the new laboratory of Nicolas Winding Refn

Picture of the movie Too Old To Die Young - North Of Hollywood, West Of Hell © Amazon Studios

After nine feature films, the Danish filmmaker delivers his vision of America in Too Old To Die Young, a dark series of ten episodes conceived during an impulse to experiment. Before a masterclass, Nicolas Winding Refn presents two episodes Out Of Competition: North of Hollywood and West of Hell

Twenty-three years after Pusher (1996), Nicolas Winding Refn continues evolving as a director with the creative energy of a young beginner, all while confidently adapting to the changes that are shaking up the film industry. After The Neon Demon (2016), the meticulous Danish filmmaker threw himself into directing Too Old To Die Young with the idea of reassessing his artistic approach.

A change of format coupled with an undiminished desire to break with conventions: the writer of Drive (2011) explains that he was seduced by the idea that streaming allowed the user to decide when to watch the show. From this perspective, all the episodes in the series were designed and constructed as if they were films in their own right, ranging between 75 and 90 minutes each.

Ten months of shooting were necessary to complete all the episodes in this thirteen-hour series, which plunges the viewer into the underbelly of a nighttime Los Angeles dominated by crime, sex, violence and corruption. Through this story of Mexican gangs and corrupt cops, portrayed notably by Miles Teller (Whiplash, 2015), the filmmaker portrays his own vision of America.

True to his reputation as an aesthete, Nicolas Winding Refn paid special attention to the imagery, never hesitating to push his experimenting while shooting or in post-production. His sole objective: to transport the viewer into a sensory universe.

The five hours of music that makes up the soundtrack of Too Old to Die Young is the work of Cliff Martinez, who since Drive has composed the original soundtracks of all the directors subsequent films.