But McCarthy suspects the Amazon Studios release will “mostly be received with yawns, walk-outs and/or derision”, pointing out that, in Cannes it was “far more lustily booed than any other film this year”.
Coming off the heels of a second trailer for Nicolas Winding Refn’s long-awaited The Neon Demon, musical partner in crime Cliff Martinez has unveiled the flick’s immaculate and eerie theme song. The question is about his choice of story.
When aspiring model Jesse moves to Los Angeles, her youth and vitality are devoured by a group of beauty-obsessed women who will use any means necessary to get what she has.
Their jealousy and desire for Jesse eventually leads them to murder and eat her. I admit to laughing, but the irony of the situation wasn’t lost on me: A man makes a film decrying insane attitudes toward women, yet it’s a woman who winds up taking the heat.
“It is an obsession that has only grown”, he said.
‘Because of the digital revolution you can alter the look so what you are seeing is unreality. Despite this, he stood firmly behind his wish not to make a politicised film, but rather to enter the sparkly LA world through Elle Fanning. As divisive as the film that went before, “The Neon Demon” tries to be a attractive examination of jealousy and desire, but while it succeeds in being handsome, it is as vapid, superficial and uninteresting as its subject matter. “We want to experience”, he added.
“That city is so haunting but so enticing, it sucks you in but it will spit you out”.
Refn also took aim at his compatriot Lars von Trier, when asked whether he and the “Nymphomaniac” director were trying to out-shock each other.
The two directors have been at odds for quite some time now, despite the fact that Refn’s father, Anders, has been the editor on a number of Von Trier’s dramas.