“Ask Not What Art Is, But What It Is Not”: Nicolas Winding Refn And Cliff Martinez On ONLY GOD FORGIVES

It’s a little past 11 at night and I’m sitting in the bar adjacent to the Slaughter Lane Alamo Drafthouse in South Austin, Texas. Amidst the din of diners and drinkers I’m reading and rereading then rewriting my own scibblly notes I took from the just-attended-screening of Only God Forgives. The film’s director Nicolas Winding Refn, and its composer Cliff Martinez, are sitting in a dark corner of the joint, wrapping up an interview. I’ll then be up to bat. It’s still hard to fathom that six hours ago the three of us were amongst a small group firing guns at an indoor range (To read of that adventure click here). My first experience with a gun just mere hours behind me causes the violence in the film (especially the gun play) to feel ten times as powerful in its precision than it normally would. Slowly but surely I begin to understand the almost zen-like qualities one must be instilled with to truly and effectively enact violence on others. As I sit and wait, now doodling Ninja Turtles, this thought makes me a little uneasy. But I do not shut down to it. I stay aware of it. I stay awake to it.  – Ben Umstead

Read the full interview at TWITCH FILM