Only God Forgives was met with a mixed reception in Cannes back in May, but film fans will finally be able to judge it for themselves this weekend when the film sees limited release. It stars Ryan Gosling, who re-teams with his Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. The star and director recently spoke about the film, which was called out for its extreme, stylized violence.
Gosling spoke with the Star-Ledger, covering how Refn made the film, his career and violence.
“I'd like to say all the violence in the movie was a cathartic experience for Nicolas,” Gosling said. “But I doubt it. He's had an obsession with violence ever since he was a little kid and saw The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”
Refn told Gosling “he was opting to go make something that was going to be very small, very personal and definitely divide people” for the follow-up to Drive. “And I just felt that's a ride I wanted to go on.”
As for Refn, he sat down with The Wall Street Journal, noting that it would have been too easy to make Drive 2, so he tried to avoid that. “Knowing I was going to do Only God Forgives no matter what was a way to force myself, creatively, to go against expectations,” Refn said. “It's like with Lou Reed making Transformer, one of the great rock albums of all time. Doing Metal Machine Music afterward was a way to erase what had happened, but renew the future.”
The film was made in Bangkok and Refn decided to give the entire film a Thai flavor.
When the film was shown at Cannes, critics noted the excessive violence and one member of the audience reportedly yelled “this is sh*t” as she walked out. The film was also in competition for the Palme D’Or, but failed to win. American audiences will get to make up their own minds as the film opens on Friday.