Valhalla Rising Interview with Nicolas Winding Refn

Museum of Cinema exclusive interview with Nicolas Winding Refn director of Valhalla Rising. Table of Contents: Valhalla Rising, Mads Mikkelsen as One-Eye, Samurai & Spaghetti Western Influences and What's Next?

IFC Films released this in the US in 2010. Refn's latest film is Drive.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• valhalla_rising
• nicolas_refn
• nicolas_winding_refn
• mads_mikkelsen
• one_eye
• sitges_film_festival
• 42_sitges
• 42_sitges_film_festival

[Japanorama]

I thought this movie was fantastic. Very good indeed. It's not boring, you just gotta dig deep to appreciate it.

[jasonchburtoni]

"we don't wait, we make movies...That's what we do."

-REFN

He's the man.

[UKNOWIT88]

This guys "you know,... got the stuff"

[Rhinoch8]

This movie was a gift, with a deeply harsh and wild taste, sublimed by these edges of the world. My deeply preferred movie, still searching for more like those.

[Rhinoch8]

@kapannier Dig deeper, as this "black monolith" takes roots in esoteric Hindu culture, and lies in the core of the tantric belief (also new age culture diverted it). It represents the "kundalini", that either has to be awaken or that is a devastating energy that blows through your body upwards, and that has to be channeled and mastered (refered as "riding the tiger"). It is a wild force, that true artists feel and throughout history tried to represent and understand without knowing it.

[kapannier]

@teak43 Whenever somebody says monolith to me I think of the black, obsidian slab found in 2001: A Space Odyssey and I think that Ifans makes an excellent comparison between that and One Eye. When you compare the two, their physical "solidity" is overwhelming. The monolith and One Eye are silent entities that force whomever is facing it to create their own meaning (much like the little boy in the film ends up trying to be the "mouthpiece" of the silent warrior) because none is given.

[ACruelPicture]

@MinceMeat13 Nothing.

[MinceMeat13]

@ACruelPicture wtf are you smoking?

[resistanceunion]

People say that there isn't too many dialogue in the movie .. but if you read pagan mythology and history of christians addopting pagan symbols .. You will watch this movie and it will talk in different ways .

[ACruelPicture]

This is what I think:

Nature was enraged at the christians for killing it's worshippers(the pagans or heathen, remeber the title card in the beginnig). That's why they could not find food in the New World. Nature ordered it's servant, the indians( a nature people), to kill them off. One-Eye gave his life to please Nature so the innocent(the Boy) could live. This noble act pleased nature and thus the indians left. One-Eye was then reborn into the boy.

[Ramathustra]

It is an outstanding piece of cinema that pushes you to think, to interpret the visuals, to fill the gaps, to become involved, and did it with great style. What more could you ask for?

[teak43]

What does he mean when he says monolith?