It's a movie with an extremely rare subject, about the desires and sins that the beauty of human skin evokes. Director Nicholas Winding Refn confronted the endless power of this "beauty" with cinematic means, interpreting it full of bewitching and destructive, pointing directly to the darkness of human nature. At the beginning of its Cannes release, the film was criticized as "gorgeous and empty" and "weak in story", which is a matter of opinion. But it is undeniable that it is precise and cutting-edge on the visual level, leaving many unforgettable moments. At the beginning of the film, Ruby takes Jessie to a nightclub, and Jessie is scolded by two female models in the bathroom of the nightclub. The director makes the characters form a triangular relationship in a small space, and the composition of the picture is always in a balanced state. But as the conflict unfolded, the picture suddenly cut to a panorama: everyone stood on the opposite side of Jessie, and Jessie was forced to one side of the screen. The sudden imbalance in the weight of the composition makes it clear the crisis that is coming quietly - her beauty attracts hatred and jealousy for Jessie, and creates an undercurrent of dramatic tension under the fixed camera. A scene where Jessie and her boyfriend go on a date is equally memorable. In the dreamy night, Jessie dances on the edge of the cliff, stretching her arms to the distance, and at her feet is the brightly lit city night scene. The director accurately expressed two messages through space and actor scheduling: Jessie's future will be promising; Jessie's fate is also on thin ice. In addition to admiring its wonderful visual communication, the film boldly borrows fashion photography, installation art, and explores new forms of film expression is the biggest highlight. Photographer Natasha Braier said in an interview that the concept of his images borrowed from fashion photographer Guy Bourdin and American artist James Turrell. Turrell). James Turrell is a contemporary artist who is good at expressing extrasensory experiences using light and space as a medium. Two of the film's most obscure passages draw upon it. One is that Jessie follows Ruby into a nightclub, watching a bound mold in a black space with red lights. The second is that Jessie fell in love with her psychological evolution in a fashion show, kissing herself in a blue-light flowing triangle. In these two paragraphs, the director boldly challenged the nature of the film's "recovery of material reality", erasing the real reality space, and using the dynamic flickering of light, color changes, and abstract modeling symbols to interpret the pure psychological space. During the viewing process, the audience seems to be in the installation art, experiencing the characters' psychology and subconsciousness in the sensory stimulation of sound and light. This artistic attempt is undoubtedly subversive, and it has launched a shock to the existing boundaries of film language. The film was selected as one of the ten best films of the 2016 "Cinema Manual", and perhaps this praised Nicholas Winding Refn's cutting-edge and arrogance.
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