'A Real Human Being and a Real Hero: Stylistic excess, dead time and intensified continuity in...

NCJCF 12 (1+2) pp 43ndash57 Intellect Limited 2014

New Cinemas Journal of Contemporary Film Volume 12 Numbers 1 amp 2

copy 2014 Intellect Ltd Article English language doi 101386ncin121-243_1

43

Keywords

Nicolas Winding RefnpasticheEuropean auteurismnew sinceritystylistic excessgenre

AnnA BAcKmAn rogersUniversity of Gothenburg

miKloacutes KissUniversity of Groningen

A Real Human Being and a

Real Hero stylistic excess

dead time and intensified

continuity in nicolas

winding refnrsquos Drive

ABstrAct

This article sets forth that Nicolas Winding Refnrsquos Drive (2011) exhibits a lsquocomplex transformationrsquo of an American film genre by foregrounding features associated with art cinema and more specifically European and auteur film-making We argue that the filmrsquos appeal derives precisely from an intelligent and cine-literate deployment of the tensions in this dichotomy of EuropeanAmerican film-making As such Drive is a film that foregrounds or reveals its own construction in a number of ways but its appeal lies in the fact that it does not prevent intense emotional engagement on the part of the viewer It is neither a cold exercise in mere style nor a simple copy of an earlier formula but rather a film that manages to marry a number of narrative and stylistic features in such a way that the film itself arguably is not easy to categorize

NC_121amp2_Rogers_43-57indd 43 21115 35525 PM

Anna Backman Rogers | Mikloacutes Kiss

44

In his article from 1979 entitled lsquoThe art cinema as a mode of film practicersquo David Bordwell asserts that lsquoif Hollywood is adopting traits of the art cinema that process must be seen as not simple copying but complex transformation In particular American film genres intervene to warp art-cinema conventions in new directionsrsquo (1979 61ndash62) Our contention in this article is that Nicolas Winding Refnrsquos Drive (2011) which was critically lauded upon its release and proved to be popular with both art-house and mainstream cinema audiences exhibits this kind of lsquocomplex transformationrsquo of an American film genre by foregrounding features associated with art cinema and more specifically European and auteur film-making As such we suggest that Winding Refnrsquos film by way of auteur theory is an inherently European take on a quintessen-tially American kind of cinema (the Heist and Hitman genres) We will argue that the filmrsquos appeal derives precisely from an intelligent and cine-literate deployment of the tensions within this dichotomy of EuropeanAmerican film-making (between form and content speed and slowness narrative clar-ity and ambiguity) Moreover we suggest that the notion of the film direc-tor as auteur is an essential component in the contextualization of Drive as a European interpretation of an American genre A range of theoretical material will inform our reading of the film Bordwellrsquos aforementioned article (1979) as well as his work on intensified continuity (2006) Gilles Deleuzersquos delineation of the crisis of the action-image (2005) Richard Dyerrsquos analysis of pastiche as form (2006) and Kristin Thompsonrsquos work on stylistic excess (1977) This post-ironic style counters the postmodern tendency towards cynicism with playful and irreverent traits in terms of both form and content yet retains the subver-sive gesture of juxtaposition without regard (or respect for) hierarchies of taste or value Moreover it engages knowingly with forms of cultural shorthand such as the clicheacuted image and popular culture

We will argue then that Drive is a film of distinct dichotomies built on a blueprint set out by Classical Hollywood cinema its hero genre and a heter-osexual storyline that is infused heavily with art-house qualities the inclu-sion of dead time the use of a slower average shot length and a tendency towards stylistic excess that cannot always be contained by the narrative We suggest that Drive is a film that foregrounds or reveals its own construction in a number of ways but its appeal lies in the fact that it does not prevent intense emotional engagement on the part of the viewer It is neither a cold exercise in mere style nor a simple copy of an earlier formula but rather a film that manages to marry a number of narrative and stylistic features in such a way that the film itself arguably is not easy to categorize Indeed what a film like Drive makes clear is that auteur or art-house and commercial cinema in the United States have always been deeply imbricated If Bordwell argued in part that 1970s American cinema ushered in a new phase in which the art-house aesthetic was increasingly adopted by the mainstream Drive is exemplary of an apotheosis of this tendency One could argue that there has never been a clear-cut distinction between art and commercial cinema within the American film industry but this boundary is evermore obfuscated with the co-option of indie distributors and production companies by conglomerate forces If Bordwell has more recently argued (2006) that ndash in spite of the fact that we are in the age of post-classical Hollywood ndash many of the central tenets of clas-sical film-making remain germane to our analysis of contemporary American films Drive would seem to pose a counter-example to this argument As a seamless fusion of genre cinema that deliberately employs formal traits of art-house cinema the film posits itself as a liminal experience on the


A Real Human Being and a Real Hero

45

1 On IMDb to date there are 648 external reviews of the film

2 Refn talks about Takeshi Kitanorsquos Sonatine (1993)

margins of both commercial film-making and auteur cinema In fact this we suggest is the very crux of its appeal To date a great deal of mainstream criti-cal attention has been given to the film1 but this article aims to initiate schol-arship on the filmrsquos specificity and to explain its popularity with a wide array of film viewers

winding refn As Auteur A europeAn AmericAn genre film

Since the publication of Franccedilois Truffautrsquos polemic A Certain Tendency in French Cinema in 1954 auteur theory under its original Americanized and post-structuralist guises has become a form of cultural shorthand for mark-ing out films that convey nebulous lsquoartisticrsquo qualities Additionally the figure of the lsquoauteurrsquo is used increasingly within contemporary film-making as a commodity As is the case with a director such as Quentin Tarantino a Nicolas Winding Refn film bears a particular stamp by which the audience expects to have certain expectations satisfied (for instance extreme bursts of violence stylized camera work a laconic main character) Bordwell notes that a defining feature of lsquoartrsquo cinema is the centrality and importance of the filmrsquos director as figure through which the film is often read

the art cinema foregrounds the author as a structure in the filmrsquos system Not that the author is represented as a biographical individual [hellip] but rather the author becomes a formal component the overriding intel-ligence organizing the film for our comprehension Over this hovers a notion that the art-film director has a creative freedom denied to herhis Hollywood counterpart

(Bordwell 1979 59 original emphasis)

Refn exerts his force as an artist frequently in interview by expressing his specific motivations for using a highly particular mise-en-scegravene that by exten-sion differentiates him from more lsquocommercialrsquo feature film-making in an interview with Simon Abrams Refn explains his thought process on the choreography of a crucial scene in an elevator in which the two main charac-ters share an intimate kiss

He [Matt Newman the filmrsquos editor] said lsquoWell remember therersquos that [Takeshi Kitano] movie2 with the shoot-out in the elevator What about finding a space for that Then in a way he can kiss her before smashing the guyrsquos head inrsquo And I shot that slow motion while the light in the elevator dims Is the kiss that they had real or just a fantasy in his head It was also for him to separate himself from her So itrsquos ultimate love in a way The American producers just didnrsquot understand the light-cue thing lsquoWhy would the lights dimrsquo lsquoWell itrsquos poetic and the camera moves in rsquo But anyway The line producer came down and saw what we were doing He thought there was something wrong with the electricity I had to explain what poetry meant in Europe

(Abrams 2013)

Here it is clear that Refn not only expresses his control over the filmrsquos aesthetic (and in the process of doing so fails to name Newton Thomas Sigel as the filmrsquos cinematographer) but also foregrounds his role as the filmrsquos co-writer (even though The Driver speaks very few words Refn attributes an



46

emotional motivation to his actions in this moment) Moreover Refn explicitly posits himself as a European film-maker who confounds the conventions of American film-making

As Bordwell acknowledges one of the hallmarks of the work of an auteur (not unlike genre) is a set of defining features that set the horizon of an audi-encersquos expectations with regard to a particular film As such this kind of film can be viewed as part of an expanding corpus within which each subsequent instalment builds upon and frequently refers to a given directorrsquos previous work Bordwell writes lsquo(s)everal conventions operate here The competent viewer watches the film expecting not order in the narrative but stylistic signa-tures in the narration technical touches [hellip] and obsessive motifs [hellip] The film also offers itself as a chapter in an oeuvrersquo (1979 59) Refnrsquos presence is made manifest in the film through his playful engagement with genre through a knowing subversion of form Overtly crafted with a pared down script and hyperbolic outbursts of violence Drive is very apparently a lsquoNicolas Winding Refnrsquo production from the outset (his name appears on the credits well in advance of those of the main cast and crew) Indeed the filmrsquos opening scene is exemplary of Refnrsquos style it plays with dichotomies of silence and intense diegetic sound speed and slowness shadow and light all of which dovetail to oneiric effect While the parameters of this sequence are readily understood because of convention and genre (a heist) the highly stylized nature of the way in which the action is conveyed marks the film out as a highly uncon-ventional take on a conventional genre The tension in the scene is built up through subtle manipulation of sound rather than by reliance on known film language effects (eg while the scene contains non-diegetic music its insist-ent rhythm that is mixed low within the filmrsquos soundtrack also blends with the diegetic noise of the car the radio and the helicopter)

Bordwell also notes that an author of an lsquoartrsquo film will frequently make his or her presence felt through various lacunae

How does the author come forward in the film [hellip] In the art-cinema text the authorial code manifests itself as recurrent violations of the classical norm Deviations from the classical canon ndash an unusual angle a stressed bit of cutting a prohibited camera movement an unrealistic shift in lighting or setting ndash in short any breakdown of the motivation of cinematic space and time by cause-effect logic ndash can be read as lsquoautho-rial commentaryrsquo The credits of the film [hellip] can announce the power of the author to control what we see

(1979 59ndash60)

As a subversive lsquogenrersquo film that exhibits key characteristics of its directorrsquos oeuvre Drive fits in readily with the original conception of the lsquoauteurrsquo Truffaut and the young critics at Cahiers du cineacutema were fascinated with directors such as Hawks Ray and Hitchcock precisely because they worked from within a set of restrictions Despite of or perhaps because of the limitations placed on them by the system of rules consistent with classical film-making these direc-tors made their mark upon the films they made in ingenious and subversive ways that formed the very definition of lsquoauteurrsquo film-making for the young Turks As such we suggest that Refn allies himself with this notion of the auteur through the very form and stripped down content of his films (Drive has a very loose and nebulous plot with negligible dialogue) This is to say that he engages with the classical form as an lsquoauteurrsquo via a process of lsquocomplex



47

transformationrsquo Refn draws explicitly on the tension between classical and art paradigms then Bordwell notes that there is

[a] complex historical relation of the art cinema to the classical narra-tive cinema The art film requires the classical background set because deviations from the norm must be registered as such to be placed as [hellip] authorial expression Thus the art film acknowledges the classical cinema in many ways [hellip] [and] [c]onversely the art cinema has had an impact on the classical cinema

(1979 61)

As we shall see Drive is a film that acknowledges its cinematic heritage through intertextuality and pastiche that is Refn draws on a classical style of film-making but in a knowing and cine-literate manner Indeed this contributes in no small part to the filmrsquos appeal This crossover between the Hollywood action genre and art house is alluded ironically though to by one of the filmrsquos key characters Bernie Rose (played by Albert Brooks) who states lsquoI used to produce movies in the 80s kind of like action films sexy stuff One critic called them ldquoEuropeanrdquo I thought they were shitrsquo Clearly this is a joke on the part of the director and writer in Drive Refn plays on his lsquoEuropeanrsquo heritage and stature while alluding to and revealing his fascina-tion with American genre films by extension he also negates the assumption that lsquoslowerrsquo films might be dull (something we might anticipate from a more mainstream audience) while appealing to a more lsquocultivatedrsquo or knowledge-able film audience who are flattered to be let in on this lsquoknowing referencersquo

the form of the tripBAllAd deAd time And intensified continuity

Drive is an excessive film that juxtaposes its dichotomies to extreme effect which is to say that it draws on filmrsquos expressive possibilities so that style func-tions as substance One of the primary ways Refn stitches an lsquoartrsquo aesthetic into the framework of the heist genre is through an idiosyncratic presentation of time As generic convention would dictate Drive contains many scenes that are hyper-kinetic Unlike films such as the recent Fast amp Furious franchise though these moments are punctuated with dream-like moments that to name a few salient features foreground excessive slow-motion low- or high-contrast light-ing and a synthesizer soundtrack that creates a mood rather than facilitating a lsquoreadingrsquo of the film (the chords never resolve which rather suggests ambiguity than clarity) The main character a mysterious figure (more of a narrative arche-type than a character) correlates with the filmrsquos more artistic qualities While it would be erroneous to delineate Drive as an example of a Deleuzian time-image cinema it could be argued that it has a tendency to slide overtly between the movement and time-image regimes David Martin-Jones (2006) identifies a number of films such as Terminator 3 (Mostow 2003) Peppermint Candy (Lee 1999) and The Butterfly Effect (Bress and Gruber 2004) that ndash although readily classifiable as movement-image cinema ndash employ certain traits of a time-image cinema as a way of signalling crisis At the heart of an action-image (which Deleuze categorizes as a subset of the movement-image more generally) is a character who always knows how to act his bodily movement tying the narra-tive space together Moreover this kind of cinema is often crafted out of generic images (or what would be referred to as clicheacuted in Deleuzian terms) so that it



48

is easily assimilated and read by the viewer As such the action-image is a form of cultural shorthand When this kind of image starts to rupture and break down its lsquoclichedrsquo or stereotypical nature is one of the first things that becomes apparent We would suggest that Drive is a film that is on the periphery of this break down that is Drive displays some of the hallmarks of the breakdown of the action-image but nonetheless is an action-image film Deleuze writes that the crisis of the action-image is made manifest in a number of symptoms lsquothe form of the trip ballad the multiplication of clicheacutes the events that hardly concern those they happen to in short the slackening of the sensory-motor connectionsrsquo (Deleuze 2005 3) As we shall see while Refn does draw on the well-honed language of the action-image cinema the infiltration of vari-ous attributes of lsquoartrsquo cinema ensures that Drive sits uneasily within the simple category of lsquoactionrsquo Indeed the action here is altogether looser (the open-ing sequence as analysed earlier demonstrates ably Refnrsquos ability to combine frenetic pace with an oneiric quality indeed it seems no accident that the filmrsquos credits finally appear over a panoramic and floating travelling shot that takes in a night-time softly lit cityscape) and the film is knowing in its overt cine-literateness (if Refn is using a clicheacute he employs it as such by making the very mechanics of such a visual device extremely apparent) Moreover the lsquoblank-nessrsquo of the main character as we shall see enables him to function as a vessel through which the filmrsquos emotional content seeps (ie the viewer is apt and able to map any number of emotional scenarios onto him) As a lsquoreal herorsquo he functions as an overarching lsquoarchetypersquo that calls to mind a range of references from cinematic history as such we suggest he conveys the audiencersquos longing or nostalgia for the action heroes of the past who always knew how to act

There are a number of ways the film offsets genre with art cinema the first and most salient of which is through Refnrsquos editing strategy David Bordwell (2006) has suggested that a notable trend in post-classical Hollywood film is an intensification or heightening of certain elements in dominant film language rapid editing use of varying degrees of lens length a prolif-eration of close-ups and wide ranging camera movement While all of these are salient features of Drive we would like to focus on the use of rapid edit-ing especially when contrasted with Refnrsquos use of dead time and how this strategy blurs the boundary between art and genre film-making We would suggest that the film partakes of intensified continuity not in the way that Bordwell refers to as a correlation with earlier tendencies but rather in rela-tion to its own inner dynamics The average shot length [ASL] in Drive is seven seconds which when compared with that of a generic Hollywood film of its time is comparatively long in particular when one considers the genre within which Drive would be included car-chasecrime thrillerheist Breaking down Bordwellrsquos summation of the average shot length over the decades one can see that lsquothe weight of the norm has clearly shifted downward [hellip] [O]nly art movies [hellip] risk a 10-to-11 second averagersquo (2006 123) Interestingly the filmrsquos average ASL of seven seconds suggests that Drive draws upon films from the 1980s but to lsquoslowerrsquo effect which is to say that if the average shot length of mainstream films from the 1980s tends towards a maximum of seven seconds (Bordwell 2006 122) then Drive takes its cue from the slower end of the spectrum Clearly Refn differentiates his film from this trend through the filmrsquos primarily languid pacing then as suggested earlier the film functions as a stylized dream version of films from the 1980s rather than a mere lsquocopyrsquo

Richard Dyerrsquos comments on pastiche (2006) seem germane to a film like Drive in terms of the film being a clever imitation that extends upon the original



49

3 ForinformationaboutASLinmoviesseeYuriTsivianrsquosCinemetricsdatabase(httpwwwcinemetricslv)

4 AsalaconiccharacterTheDriverisakintoRefnrsquosotherprotagonistssuchasMadsMikkelsenrsquosOneEyeofValhalla Rising(2009)orGoslingrsquosJulianfromthedirectorrsquoslatestOnly God Forgives(2013)ForRefn(s)ilenceiscinemaWearesousedtosoundswersquorealwaystalkedatSilenceisveryrareforusforalongdurationoftimeItmakespeopleveryuncomfortableButwhatitdoesitalsoforcesustoperceiveonamuchdeeperlevelbecausewecannolongerjustbetoldthings(Smith2013)

5 Drive isnotunlikethecinemaofTakeshiKitanointhisrespectthatsimilarlycontrastsexplosivefurywithmagnifiedemotionindeedRefnopenlyreferencesKitanoinDriversquoselevatorscene

6 Thiskitscheffectresultsfromtheconfluenceofthesynthesizermusicscoretheuseofslowmotionandthelightingschemethatalterstoreflectthechangeinemotionaltempo

7 ThislightingdesignisarecurringoneinRefnrsquosstylisticrepertoireSeealreadyinhisearlyBleeder(1999)whereasuddenchangeoflightmarksaboundbetweencharactersandhighlightsaspecialmomentbyabandoningreality

8 ThehighlystylizedelevatorsceneasakeymomentinRefnrsquosFear X(2003)playswithsimilarambiguityinregardtoitsprotagonistHarryrsquos(JohnTorturro)realandoneiricreality

to knowing and emotional effect it is our contention that Drive exhibits a nostal-gia for this period via a diversion into art cinema In other words while the film clearly invokes the films of the 1980s aesthetically and generically formally it bears closer resemblance to an art-house film such as Jean-Pierre Melvillersquos Le samouraiuml (1967) the average shot length of which is 74 seconds3 We argue then that the filmrsquos affecteffect comes from the deliberately heightened contrast or tension between these two points of reference For instance when one compares the filmrsquos longest shot (1386 seconds) with its shortest (05 seconds) the intended extremity of the film as an experience is rendered clear We would suggest further that this tension is exacerbated by the scarce amount of dialogue in the film indeed the main protagonist utters only 133 sentences in the entire film despite the fact that the majority of screen time is devoted to his character development4 Moreover Goslingrsquos cultivation of a lsquoblankrsquo acting style compli-ments his characterrsquos lack of words (later in the film he will wear a mask but this only serves to remind us of his opacity as a narrative figure) As suggested earlier while Drive is not a time-image film per se certain elements divert it into this territory the figure of The Driver for instance could be likened to a Deleuzian lsquoseerrsquo someone who is prone to record rather than act or who possesses a visionary-like quality While it would clearly be erroneous to argue that Goslingrsquos character cannot act (he does so at crucial moments decisively and precisely) the filmrsquos more dream-like and languid qualities are an effect of moments of non-action and dead time of intense waiting and watching before acting

The second way in which we can delineate Drive as a primarily expressiveexcessive film is through the way in which the viewerrsquos emotions are appealed to The film has an explicit duality in its juxtaposition of sudden outbursts of extreme violence5 This discrepancy is made more apparent by the sound-track Arguably the love scenes in particular seem overblown because of the inner disjunction between the aforementioned lsquoblankrsquo and laconic style of acting and the deliberate and precise creation of a kitsch mise-en-scegravene on the part of the director6 Clearly the key scene in the film that demonstrates this is the moment in the elevator in which Gosling and Mulliganrsquos charac-ters finally kiss a kiss that is followed by a sudden and sobering use of brute violence The use of slow motion in this scene creates a slow and lulling effect that separates this moment from the ensuing violence (for which we return to 24 frames per second) even though the viewer already anticipates the outburst of violence This fusion of speeds creates an inner rhythm within the scene while a moment of silence followed by non-diegetic music (synth-pop) transforms the scene from one of potential horror into something more akin to a stylized music video clip It is these kind of moments that contribute overwhelmingly to the filmrsquos appeal as a visual experience For instance in this scene the filmrsquos mise-en-scegravene aids the construction of an inner focaliza-tion the characters are separated from lsquorealityrsquo primarily through the contrast between darker or low-key lighting and a spotlight that directs the viewerrsquos focus towards this lsquoromanticrsquo moment7 In other words the outside world (one of impending threat and danger) is eschewed briefly by replacing what we could call an objective reality (immediate threat of death) with an inner sanctuary or even a dream world8 Naturally the viewer reads this moment as a manifestation of the mental reality of the characters ie the overpowering love between Goslingrsquos and Mulliganrsquos characters provides a temporary safe haven Thus the scene also packs an emotional punch the viewer feels the tension in the scene because we always anticipate that anything could and probably will happen at any minute



50

9 Remarkably Bordwell here quotes Newton Thomas Sigel DOP of Drive about his energetic cinematography for The Usual Suspects (Singer 1995)

10 The scorpion on the back of the jacket comes lsquoaliversquo during the moments of sudden violence (watch very closely httpswwwyoutubecomwatchv=4BINsFNQxI4)

Viewers who are tuned into or familiar with Refnrsquos corpus of films may even expect that Drive will provide an unpredictable viewing experience For instance if one compares the behaviour of The Driver to that of Bronsonrsquos (Refn 2008) Charlie Bronson (even though they seem unalike on the surface) it becomes clear that Refn is fascinated by brute force especially when embod-ied by an unpredictable (and thus mysterious) male figure Indeed Refn undermines our expectations early on in the scene in which The Driver is reintroduced to the viewer as a cop only to be revealed as a stuntman From the outset then he is characterized as unreadable and shape-shifting If Bordwellrsquos statement that lsquoquick-cutting [hellip] boosts the scenersquos ldquoenergyrdquorsquo (2006 137) is taken to be correct9 we would argue that this is even more relevant to a film such as Drive that offsets rapid editing against moments of oneiric dead time Moreover the film draws upon both Hollywood and art-house traditions by eliciting certain emotional responses from the viewer and by foregrounding the style (or technique) by which such effects are produced For this very reason Drive can be readily categorized as a lsquomidcultrsquo film which explains the filmrsquos appeal to a wide-ranging audience

A reAl hero And reAl humAn Being pAstiche And nostAlgiA

Refn clearly draws on a rich cinematic heritage through pastiche As mentioned earlier Richard Dyer has argued of pastiche as a form that it can be used to signal to an audience that a text should be understood or read as an imita-tion Moreover he argues that while pastiche as a strategy undoubtedly creates a self-reflexive space in which the text as lsquoconstructrsquo is foregrounded this does not preclude emotional engagement on the part of the viewer or reader Winding Refnrsquos references are manifold the most salient being Walter Hillrsquos The Driver (1978) a B movie that similarly centres on a driver without a name and contains an electro-synth-pop soundtrack Yet the following are perhaps even more interesting as reference points In George P Cosmatosrsquos Cobra (1986) Stallonersquos laconic character also chews on a matchstick and carries a gun engraved with a cobra The figure of the cobra has clear resonance in Goslingrsquos character who functions like a scorpion within the diegesis (ie both films play on stillness and sudden bursts of violent action) This is already made clear to the audience through Refnrsquos inclusion of a fetishistic close-up within the filmrsquos opening sequence of The Driverrsquos jacket onto the back of which is stitched a patchwork scorpion figure (indeed the figure of the scorpion becomes animate-like in the filmrsquos most intense moments of violence ndash see Figure 1)10

Figure 1



51

Figure 2

In terms of European cinema however there are similarities between this film and the aforementioned Le samouraiuml in which Alain Delonrsquos clas-sically handsome yet boyish charm is played off against his violent profes-sion as a hitman Additionally a germane visual reference point is Michael Mannrsquos Thief (1981) in particular the title credit design which bears strik-ing resemblance to that of Drive (indeed the films share much in common aesthetically ndash see Figure 2)

While these intertextual references play no small part in Refnrsquos cultivation of a lsquocoolrsquo aesthetic in Drive the non-characterization of the figure at the centre of the narrative shores up the filmrsquos reliance on a cinematic heritage that in its turn has also created a powerful iconography or form of myth We would argue in particular that the film harks back to genres such as the western that in a more traditional format have presented the lsquoherorsquo figure as an uncompromised and by extension unquestioned agent whose action is legitimated through a specific (often simplified) moral code As such the delineation of Goslingrsquos character as a lsquoreal herorsquo is intended to remind the viewer of a variety of stereotypes the most evident of which is the all-American traditional cowboy figure (a mythical figure rather than a character) Additionally this characterization draws upon the aesthetic of Caspar David Friedrich whose figures are often framed (from behind) against a dark and expansive natural backdrop (see Figure 3)

This is to say that Refn sets out deliberately to isolate The Driver as a remarkable and lone figure within an awesome and anonymous land-scape Interestingly he is often framed in low-angle profile or from behind and all these strategies help to consolidate the viewerrsquos assumptions that he is a powerful mysterious figure (indeed this is our introduction to him) Unsurprisingly Drive also catapulted Ryan Gosling from an actor known for his roles in lsquoindiersquo films such as Half Nelson (Fleck 2006) and Blue Valentine (Cianfrance 2010) to mainstream success and female adulation In this film he functions as the prototype of the hero onto whom the viewer can cast



52

a number of readings Yet Refn also seems to play on Goslingrsquos previous incarnations as psychotic murderer (All Good Things (Jarecki 2010) Murder by Numbers (Schroeder 2002)) disillusioned and mentally disturbed teenager (The United States of Leland (Hoge 2003) The Believer (Bean 2001)) rugged masculine romantic (The Notebook (Cassavetes 2004)) or vulnerable man-child (Lars and the Real Girl (Gillespie 2007) Stay (Forster 2005))

We are given no background information on The Driver and his motiva-tion is assumed rather than articulated (essentially we surmise he acts out of love) Drive not only taps into a specific iconography then but also engages with the contemporary focus on masculinity in crisis via this nostalgia for a lsquoreal herorsquo who lives by his own ethical code and is always able to act accord-ingly Indeed the filmrsquos combination of an oneiric mise-en-scegravene (characterized by reflected light and smooth movement) the use of the clicheacuted image and the archetype of the hero take the film off into as argued earlier Deleuzian territory While on the level of the narrative there is clearly not a crisis of lsquoactionrsquo we would postulate that the lsquoexcessiversquo nature of the images in the film (ie the use of recycled images that signal beyond a world of surfaces through hyperbolic reference or representation) suggests a narrative world in crisis through which the main protagonist drifts The dreamlike diegetic world (the landscape is a deterritorialized Los Angeles a place devoid of landmarks) functions as a mythical construction or a purely cinematic creation And while the filmrsquos playfulness belies the notion that it calls for the reinstantiation of the prototype of the hero it also evokes a heady nostalgia for certain cine-matic stereotypes (clicheacutes) and diegetic worlds

As such the filmrsquos very construction aids the characterization of Goslingrsquos protagonist as a lsquoreal herorsquo and Mulliganrsquos as a lsquoreal human beingrsquo (a refrain from the song lsquoA Real Herorsquo by the band College which is included on the filmrsquos soundtrack) For instance one is apt to draw a direct contrast between the archetypal characters of Carey Mulligan and Christina Hendricks in the film Hendricksrsquos lsquosexyrsquo persona is played off against Mulliganrsquos lsquosweet-nessrsquo making her seem all the more childlike and vulnerable Gosling and Mulligan possess the right kind of qualities to embody the ideal protagonist

Figure 3



53

11 Warren Bucklandrsquos summary on Collinsrsquo lsquonew sincerityrsquo resonates with the values we argue for Refnrsquos film lsquoCollins set up an opposition between hyperconscious postmodern irony and the new sincerity [hellip] [N]ew sincerity rejects [irony] and attempts lsquoto recover a lost ldquopurityrdquorsquo (Collins 1993 245) For Collins the new sincerity reflects a nostalgia for an authentic past and a fetishisation of belief rather than ironyrsquo (Buckland 2012 2) Harking back to our earlier point concerning Refnrsquos relation to European auteur tradition Marko Bauer calls this trend lsquoa postmodernism in which auteurship would (still) be possiblersquo (Bauer 2012)

of the (post-)postmodernrsquos lsquonew naivetyrsquo or lsquonew sincerityrsquo (Collins 1993)11 Their scenes together in the earlier sections of the film are characterized by an over-exposed and sun-lit (making the characters themselves seem to glow from within) which helps to create an lsquoidyllicrsquo vision of their courtship (which remains old fashioned and chaste throughout the film) The viewer might attribute qualities of softness beauty and warmth to the protagonists as a result These moments between The Driver Irene and her son Benicio are offset strongly by the action scenes which mostly take place at night and which are often lit more harshly with a prominent use of neon light As such we would suggest that the filmrsquos extremities are also contained within the body of the main protagonist (whose body as we argued earlier functions as an extension of a car) as well as the lsquobodyrsquo of the film itself The Driverrsquos mechanical seemingly emotionless steady character resembles a not-so-fancy but reliable car a metaphor literally incarnate in Goslingrsquos acting (see eg the supermarket scene where seeing Irene he suddenly lsquobrakesrsquo then walks lsquoreversersquo and turns to another lsquostreetrsquo-aisle) This is to say that the film is from the outset machinic the camerawork possesses a smooth disembodied and omniscient quality that feeds into the movements of the protagonists (it creates the space into which they move) As such the camera seems to mimic the movement of a car and creates a world within which bodies are extensions of machines (which is most pertinent in the case of the main protagonist)

Earlier on in this article we referred to a number of other films that we perceive as being influential on Drive As such The Driver appears as an amal-gamation of previous lsquoheroesrsquo and thus stands as a somewhat contradictory protagonist This character is as much an homage to Stallone as it is to Delon for instance One could almost describe The Driver as bipolar in a broad sense he is well presented and seems shy and reticent which throws into relief all the more lines such as lsquoHow about this Shut your mouth or I kick your teeth down your throat and that will shut it for yoursquo These anguished bursts of dialogue after multiple scenes in which very little if nothing is said seem to mirror or compliment the filmrsquos overall structure of rapid cutting and dead time That is both the film and its main character function like a scorpion (the emblem or symbol associated with the main character from the outset via the motif on the back of his jacket) Even as Refn makes lsquonothing happenrsquo the viewer is made to feel a sense of unease due to the unpredictable nebulous nature of the agent who carries or drives the filmrsquos narrative forward When he is in the company of Benicio and Irene he acts in a halting and shy manner yet the scenes of action are marked always by his innate ability to act in an almost machinic-like fashion As suggested earlier The Driver seems to oscil-late between being the agent of action as delineated by Deleuze as someone who always knows how to act who is in command of the space he inhabits and a not-quite lsquoseerrsquo In the action sequences The Driver becomes mechani-cal and is able to execute dangerous manoeuvres adroitly and seemingly with-out emotion Yet in the moments lsquoin betweenrsquo he seems to come slowly to life his only emotional explosion occurs because he realizes Shannon has inad-vertently revealed Irenersquos identity and whereabouts to Nino and his gang

conclusion

Drive stages a rather conventional narrative of a lost man-child who finds redemption through his love for a good woman or a lsquoreal human beingrsquo but it relates this tale in such an excessively stylistic manner that it foregrounds



54

the clicheacuted nature of its own story Kristin Thompson has coined the term lsquostylistic excessrsquo to describe the strategy by which or the moment in which film displays lsquostyle for its own sakersquo (Thompson 1977 55) Thompson argues that such display is lsquocounter-narrativersquo and the viewer is not encouraged to connect what is seen to his or her inferences about the plot We would suggest that Refn deliberately highlights the constructed nature of narra-tive as well as the filmrsquos intertextuality through his juxtaposition of highly contrasting elements in the filmrsquos form and content In exposing its own structure or framework and in presenting boldly its intertextual and cine-matic references Drive is a film that uses pastiche to extend beyond a main-stream lsquogenrersquo audience Its appeal lies not only in its explicit entertainment value but also in overtly demanding the viewer to engage intelligently and cine-literately with both its form and content We have argued that the film achieves this by use of formal and stylistic qualities the tension of which is contingent on various dichotomies By offsetting dead time with intensi-fied continuity and infusing the iconography and structure of mainstream genre film-making with the sensibility of the lsquoauteurrsquo Drive stages a complex transformation of standard cinematic tropes At once recognizable know-ing reflexive and cine-literate the film engages the audience on multiple levels as both an action film and as a comment on its own genre Moreover whilst the film proudly reveals and plays on its artifice this does not prevent the viewer from identification if not empathy with its characters That is to say Drive is not merely a cold stylistic exercise By employing overtly various cinematic archetypes the film demands that the viewer over-attribute his or her emotional world to the main protagonists via its intertextual and highly nostalgic references

references

Abrams Simon (2013) lsquoArt is an act of violence An interview with Nicolas Winding Refnrsquo httpwwwrogerebertcombalder-and-dashart-is-an-act-of-violence-an-interview-with-nicolas-winding-refnAccessed 2 September 2013

Bauer Marko (2012) lsquoPure West Drive nostalgia for postmodernismrsquo Senses of Cinema 63 July httpsensesofcinemacom2012feature-articlespure-west-drive-nostalgia-for-postmodernism Accessed 2 September 2013

Bean Henry (2001) The Believer USA Fuller Films and Seven Arts PicturesBordwell David (1979) lsquoThe art cinema as a mode of film practicersquo Film

Criticism 4 1 pp 56ndash64mdashmdash (2006) The Way Hollywood Tells It Berkeley and Los Angeles University

of California PressBress Eric and Gruber Mackye J (2004) The Butterfly Effect USA and Canada

BenderSpink FilmEngine Katalyst Films and Province of British Columbia Production Services Tax Credit

Buckland Warren (2012) lsquoWes Anderson A ldquosmartrdquo director of the new sincerityrsquo New Review of Film and Television Studies 10 1 pp 1ndash5

Cassavetes Nick (2004) The Notebook USA New Line Cinema Gran Via and Avery Pix

Cianfrance Derek (2010) Blue Valentine USA Incentive Filmed Entertainment Silverwood Films Hunting Lane Films Chrysler Corporation Shade Pictures Motel Movies and Cottage Industries



55

Cohen Rob (2001) The Fast and the Furious USA and Germany Universal Pictures Original Film Mediastream Film GmbH amp Co Productions KG and Ardustry Entertainment

Collins Jim (1993) lsquoGenericity in the nineties Eclectic irony and the new sincerityrsquo in Jim Collins Hilary Radner and Ava Preacher Collins (eds) Film Theory Goes to the Movies New York Routledge pp 242ndash63

Cosmatos George P (1986) Cobra USA Cannon Group Golan-Globus Productions and Warner Bros

Deleuze Gilles (2005) Cinema 1 The Movement-Image London Continuummdashmdash (2005a) Cinema 2 2 The Time-Image London ContinuumDyer Richard (2006) Pastiche London RoutledgeFleck Ryan (2006) Half Nelson USA Hunting Lane Films Journeyman

Pictures Silverwood Films Original Media Traction Media and Verisimilitude

Forster Marc (2005) Stay USA Regency Enterprises New Regency Pictures and Epsilon Motion Pictures

Gillespie Craig (2007) Lars and the Real Girl USA and Canada Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Sidney Kimmel Entertainment and Lars Productions

Hill Walter (1978) The Driver USA and UK EMI Films and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

Hoge Matthew Ryan (2003) The United States of Leland USA MDP Worldwide Media 8 Entertainment Thousand Words and Trigger Street Productions

Jarecki Andrew (2010) All Good Things USA Groundswell Productions and Hit The Ground Running Films

Kitano Takeshi (1993) Sonatine Japan Bandai Visual Company Shouchiku Co Shocircchiku Eiga and Yamada Right Vision Corporation

Lee Chang-dong (1999) Bakha satangPeppermint Candy South Korea and Japan East Film Company

Lin Justin (2006) The Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift USA and Germany Universal Pictures Relativity Media Original Film and MP Munich Page Filmproductions

mdashmdash (2009) Fast amp Furious USA and Japan Universal Pictures Relativity Media Original Film One Race Productions and Dentsu

mdashmdash (2011) Fast Five USA Universal Pictures Original Film One Race Productions and Dentsu

mdashmdash (2013) Fast amp Furious 6 USA Universal Pictures Relativity Media Original Film One Race Productions Dentsu Etalon Film F amp F VI Productions A I E and Universal City Studios

Mann Michael (1981) Thief USA MannCaan ProductionsMartin-Jones David (2006) Deleuze Cinema and National Identity Identity

Narrative Time in National Contexts Edinburgh Edinburgh University PressMelville Jean-Pierre (1967) Le samouraiumllsquoThe samurairsquo France and Italy

Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cineacutematographique Fida Cinematographica Filmel and TC Productions

Mostow Jonathan (2003) Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines USA Germany and UK C-2 Pictures Intermedia Films IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH amp Co 3 Produktions KG and MostowLieberman Productions



56

Mulvey Laura (2006) Death 24x a Second Stillness and the Moving Image London Reaktion Books

Refn Nicolas Winding (2003) Fear X Denmark Canada UK and Brazil Det Danske Filminstitut Fear X Ltd Moviehouse Entertainment NWR Film Productions Nordisk Film and TV2 Danmark

mdashmdash (2008) Bronson UK Vertigo Films Aramid Entertainment Fund Str8jacket Creations EM Media 4DH Films and Perfume Films

mdashmdash (2009) Valhalla Rising Denmark and UK BBC Films La Belle Allee Productions NWR Film Productions Nimbus Film Productions One Eye Production and Savalas Audio Post-Production

mdashmdash (2011) Drive USA FilmDistrict Bold Films OddLot Entertainment Marc Platt Productions Motel Movies and Newbridge Film Capital

mdashmdash (2013) Only God Forgives Denmark France Thailand USA and Sweden Space Rocket Nation A Grand Elephant Bold Films Film i Vaumlst Gaumont and Wild Bunch

Schroeder Barbet (2002) Murder by Numbers USA Warner Bros Castle Rock Entertainment and Schroeder Hoffman Productions

Silverman Kaja (1992) Male Subjectivity at the Margins London RoutledgeSinger Bryan (1995) The Usual Suspects USA and Germany PolyGram

Filmed Entertainment Spelling Films International Blue Parrot Bad Hat Harry Productions and Rosco Film GmbH

Singleton John (2003) 2 Fast 2 Furious USA and Germany Universal Pictures Original Film Mikona Productions GmbH amp Co KG and Ardustry Entertainment

Smith Nigel M (2013) lsquoNicolas Winding Refn on the tepid Cannes reaction to ldquoOnly God Forgivesrdquo and why ldquoSilence is Cinemardquorsquo Indiewire httpwwwindiewirecomarticlenicolas-winding-refn-on-the-tepid-cannes-reaction-to-only-god-forgives-and-the-power-of-silence Accessed 2 September 2013

Thompson Kristin (1977) lsquoThe concept of cinematic excessrsquo Cine-Tracts 1 2 pp 54ndash65

Truffaut Franccedilois (1954) lsquoUne certaine tendance du cineacutema franccedilaisrsquolsquoA certain tendency of French Cinemarsquo Cahiers du cineacutema no 31 pp 15ndash29

suggested citAtion

Rogers A B and Kiss M (2014) lsquoA Real Human Being and a Real Hero Stylistic excess dead time and intensified continuity in Nicolas Winding Refnrsquos Driversquo New Cinemas 12 1+2 pp 43ndash57 doi 101386ncin121-243_1

contriButor detAils

Anna Backman Rogers is a Senior Lecturer in the Cinema Studies Department at Gothenburg University Sweden She researches and writes on American Independent Cinema and Film-Philosophy and has published on the work of Gus van Sant Jim Jarmusch Sofia Coppola and Miranda July Her book on Indie cinema is forthcoming with Edinburgh University Press (2015) and her book on the films of Sofia Coppola is forthcoming with Berghahn (2016) She is also the co-editor with Laura Mulvey of lsquoFeminismsrsquo which is forthcoming with Amsterdam University Press (2015)



57

Contact Department of Cultural Sciences University of Gothenburg Box 200 40530 Goumlteborg SwedenE-mail annabackmanrogersguse

Mikloacutes Kiss is Assistant Professor for Film Studies in the Department of Arts Culture and Media at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) He has been an assistant and researcher at the University of Peacutecs (Hungary) and the University of Jyvaumlskylauml (Finland) where he received his PhD He is an edito-rial board member of [in]Transition the first peer-reviewed academic journal of videographic film and moving image studies His research and publications bridge narrative and cognitive film theories as well as art-cinema and contem-porary puzzle films He is currently at work on a book about cognitive disso-nance and contemporary complex cinema (under contract with Edinburgh University Press forthcoming in 2016)

Contact Department of Arts Culture and Media Studies University of Groningen Oude Boteringestraat 23 9712GC Groningen the NetherlandsE-mail mkissrugnl

Anna Backman Rogers and Mikloacutes Kiss have asserted their right under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd


Copyright of New Cinemas Journal of Contemporary Film is the property of Intellect Ltdand its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv withoutthe copyright holders express written permission However users may print download oremail articles for individual use


44

In his article from 1979 entitled lsquoThe art cinema as a mode of film practicersquo David Bordwell asserts that lsquoif Hollywood is adopting traits of the art cinema that process must be seen as not simple copying but complex transformation In particular American film genres intervene to warp art-cinema conventions in new directionsrsquo (1979 61ndash62) Our contention in this article is that Nicolas Winding Refnrsquos Drive (2011) which was critically lauded upon its release and proved to be popular with both art-house and mainstream cinema audiences exhibits this kind of lsquocomplex transformationrsquo of an American film genre by foregrounding features associated with art cinema and more specifically European and auteur film-making As such we suggest that Winding Refnrsquos film by way of auteur theory is an inherently European take on a quintessen-tially American kind of cinema (the Heist and Hitman genres) We will argue that the filmrsquos appeal derives precisely from an intelligent and cine-literate deployment of the tensions within this dichotomy of EuropeanAmerican film-making (between form and content speed and slowness narrative clar-ity and ambiguity) Moreover we suggest that the notion of the film direc-tor as auteur is an essential component in the contextualization of Drive as a European interpretation of an American genre A range of theoretical material will inform our reading of the film Bordwellrsquos aforementioned article (1979) as well as his work on intensified continuity (2006) Gilles Deleuzersquos delineation of the crisis of the action-image (2005) Richard Dyerrsquos analysis of pastiche as form (2006) and Kristin Thompsonrsquos work on stylistic excess (1977) This post-ironic style counters the postmodern tendency towards cynicism with playful and irreverent traits in terms of both form and content yet retains the subver-sive gesture of juxtaposition without regard (or respect for) hierarchies of taste or value Moreover it engages knowingly with forms of cultural shorthand such as the clicheacuted image and popular culture

We will argue then that Drive is a film of distinct dichotomies built on a blueprint set out by Classical Hollywood cinema its hero genre and a heter-osexual storyline that is infused heavily with art-house qualities the inclu-sion of dead time the use of a slower average shot length and a tendency towards stylistic excess that cannot always be contained by the narrative We suggest that Drive is a film that foregrounds or reveals its own construction in a number of ways but its appeal lies in the fact that it does not prevent intense emotional engagement on the part of the viewer It is neither a cold exercise in mere style nor a simple copy of an earlier formula but rather a film that manages to marry a number of narrative and stylistic features in such a way that the film itself arguably is not easy to categorize Indeed what a film like Drive makes clear is that auteur or art-house and commercial cinema in the United States have always been deeply imbricated If Bordwell argued in part that 1970s American cinema ushered in a new phase in which the art-house aesthetic was increasingly adopted by the mainstream Drive is exemplary of an apotheosis of this tendency One could argue that there has never been a clear-cut distinction between art and commercial cinema within the American film industry but this boundary is evermore obfuscated with the co-option of indie distributors and production companies by conglomerate forces If Bordwell has more recently argued (2006) that ndash in spite of the fact that we are in the age of post-classical Hollywood ndash many of the central tenets of clas-sical film-making remain germane to our analysis of contemporary American films Drive would seem to pose a counter-example to this argument As a seamless fusion of genre cinema that deliberately employs formal traits of art-house cinema the film posits itself as a liminal experience on the



45










(Abrams 2013)




46





(1979 59ndash60)




47



(1979 61)






48






49











50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








45










(Abrams 2013)




46





(1979 59ndash60)




47



(1979 61)






48






49











50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








46





(1979 59ndash60)




47



(1979 61)






48






49











50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








47



(1979 61)






48






49











50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








48






49











50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








49











50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








50






Figure 1



51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








51

Figure 2






52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








52




Figure 3



53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








53




conclusion




54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








54


references












55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








55























56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








56














suggested citAtion


contriButor detAils




57








57







'A Real Human Being and a Real Hero: Stylistic excess, dead time and intensified continuity in...

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