Notorious for ultra-violent movies like Drive and The Neon Demon, the Dane had lost the will to direct until \u2018the Tom Cruise of surgeons\u2019 saved his life \u2013 and triggered an astonishing creative rebirth<\/p>\n
Nicolas Winding Refn has his phone out, showing me one of the goriest scenes he\u2019s ever been involved in. Given that the Danish director\u2019s movies have involved hands getting sliced off, eyeballs being gouged out and a son reaching deep inside his mother\u2019s womb, that\u2019s certainly saying something. In this video, the camera is fixed upon a beating heart when suddenly \u2013 slash! \u2013 it gets sliced open with a knife. We travel into the open chamber, as needles arrive to pierce through the muscle. Unsettling and compelling, could this be a future Palme d\u2019Or winner?<\/p>\n
Unlikely. You see, Refn isn\u2019t the director of this footage; he\u2019s actually the guy lying conked out in the operating room while a surgeon attends to him. Requesting that someone films your own heart surgery is a very Nicolas Winding Refn thing to do. \u201cAt first they said no,\u201d says the film-maker known for Drive, Bronson and The Neon Demon. \u201cBut then they said, \u2018As it\u2019s you, we\u2019ll record it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/e40bca9f7c21fda0a8777e4ad62698620a1db4aa\/1443_779_3412_2729\/master\/3412.jpg?width=140&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=b538a98d03fc31a13476cb3398b1e54f\" "\\"\u2018I")
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