On the same day it was announced as being in competition at this year’s Cannes film festival, comes the first look at The Neon Demon, the latest from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn.
The film-maker, best known for his Ryan Gosling collaborations, Drive and Only God Forgives, shifts the focus in his fifth feature with Elle Fanning in the lead role.
In The Neon Demon, Fanning stars as Jesse, an aspiring model who moves to Los Angeles to make it in the cut-throat industry. But unlike her competitors (“small-town girls”), she seems to stand a chance. “Some girls crack under the pressure,” Christine Hendricks, playing what appears to be a talent scout in the trailer, says to Jesse. “You. You’re going to be great.”
It follows the heady style Refn displayed in his previous two efforts, with neon lights pulsating in most frames and a percussive electronic score.
As far as plot goes, this sultry teaser does a commendable job of keeping it mostly under wraps. But we do find out that the women Jesse at first regards as friends, turn on her (one of them is fond of calling herself a “dangerous girl”) – and that Keanu Reeves and Jena Malone co-star, with Refn working again with composer Cliff Martinez and editor Matthew Newman.
Speaking about his inspiration for the film, Refn told the Hollywood Reporter in 2014: “One morning I woke and realized I was both surrounded and dominated by women. Strangely, a sudden urge was planted in me to make a horror film about vicious beauty.”
- The Neon Demon will have its world premiere in the Official Competition of the 69th Cannes film festival. Amazon Studios will release it in June.
