THE NEON DEMON

US, 2016, 180 minutes, Colour.
Elle Fanning, Jena Malone, Bella Heathcote, Abby Lee, Desmond Harrington, Alessandro Nivola, Karl Glusman, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn.

It is a good idea to take a deep breath before going to see a film by Nicolas Winding Refn. He likes to take on rather tough and demanding subjects, even in his early films when he was very young, Pusher, about drug dealers in Copenhagen in the mid-90s. in more recent years he has made the film about prison, Bronson, a somewhat lurid film about Los Angeles, Drive, and an excursion to Bangkok and violence, Only God Forgives. This time we are back in Los Angeles – and lurid again.

The film opens strikingly with a young girl posing in a glamorous gown on a divan but her throat cut and blood clotted – but then she goes off to remove her make up. The world of The Neon Demon is that of fashion and fashion photography. In fact, throughout the film, many of the sets are made to look as if the performers are in a photo-shoot and close-ups and couples talking are filmed in the style that would be striking in publications.

The young girl is Jessie, Elle Fanning, who turns out to be very under age although she is advised to tell everyone she is 19, arriving in Los Angeles like so many other hopefuls, dreaming of a career in the movies on television or modelling… She is very pretty and knows it, not afraid to say it. And she is ambitious, self-assured with a touch of the narcissistic. And, she is in luck with her looks.

The initial photograph was taken by a friend she met online, Dean (Karl Glusman) who is attracted to her but she is intent on her career. Despite the glamour, she has to live in a seedy motel with a rough manager, played by Keanu Reeves, who is upset when her room is trashed, only to find that a wildcat has been trapped there.

But, she gets an interview with an agent, Christina Hendricks, who gets her a photo shoot with a very grim and “artistic” photographer, Desmond Harrington, which leads to an interview with a fashion designer, Alessandro Nivola, and her career seems to be on the way.

In the meantime, she meets make-up artist, Ruby (Jena Malone) who befriends her but it is obvious to the audience, if not to Jessie, that this is a lesbian attraction. Also in the retinue are two very artificial models, one who has experienced a great deal of reconstruction, the other tall and failing to get employment (both played by Australian actresses Bella Heathcote and Abbey Lee).

The storytelling is both real and surreal, much of it played in the dark, at other times in bright sunlight and vistas of Los Angeles. Much of it is a dreamlike, especially from the point of view of Ruby and her fantasies about Jessie, especially a disturbing scene in the mortuary where Ruby works in make up for the corpses.

In fact, the film moves to some motifs from horror films at the end, with an offscreen explanation that the audience might interpret as metaphorical until we realise it is real, and think to ourselves, no, the Refn is not really going to show that… – and he does, leaving some of the characters bewildered and the audience somewhat stunned and bewildered as well.

With the focus on modelling and the young women models, the issue can be raised about the impact of “the male gaze” and the objectifying of women – but the film also raises the question of “the female gaze” and both gay and straight perspectives.

The films of Nicolas Winding Refn are quite unique in their way, expertly crafted, disturbing content, and certainly not for everyone’s taste.

1. The title? Bright lights? Hellish? Diabolical characters and activities?

2. A dream factory story, fashion? Destruction, and the horror touches?

3. The director, the graphic aspects of his content, the visuals, bright shadows?

4. The narrative, reality, dreams, surreal? The musical score and its dramatic variations?

5. The role of women in the film, the male gaze and accusations of objectifying women as sex objects? The female gaze on the women? The significance of the lesbian gaze and its effect?

6. Style of photography, close-ups, framing of couples, poses and postures, the effect?

7. The fashion world, sets, scenes, colour, clothes? The scenes and the photography looking like photo-shoots?

8. The macabre introduction, Jessie, seemingly dead, the dress, the blood, on the divan, the pose? Jessie alive, taking off the make up? Dean and his photography and hopes?

9. Jessie, her age, lying about it, her absent parents, her plans, self-focused, acknowledging that she was pretty, mirrors and the scene of her kissing her image, narcissistic? Her ambitions, meeting Dean online? The encounter with Ruby, the attraction, Ruby helping her? The blend of the naive and the shrewd? Her surface character – how much depth?

10. The film of surfaces, beauty, the range of female characters, how much beauty within?

11. Ruby taking Jessie to the party, dark, the tableau, drugs, erotic, the conversation in the bathroom? Sarah and Gigi? Their personalities, careers, self-importance? Looking down on Jessie? The relationship with Ruby?

12. Jessie staying at the motel, dark, down-market, the manager, harsh, the chaos in the room, the wildcat (and the later images with Ruby in the mansion), the destruction, Jessie’s fear, Dean and his paying for the damage? Dean and the outings with Jesse, romantic, her resistance?

13. Jessie, the interview, the agent, liking Jessie, the contact with Jack, going to the photo-shoot, his seriousness, intensity, getting her to pose, the closed shoot, Ruby and the glitter make up, Ruby ousted, Jack wanting Jessie to, her accent in?

14. Going to the designer, his style, the lineup, Gigi and her walk, failing, Jessie, his immediate attraction, her success?

15. The talk with Sarah and Gigi, Gigi and her cosmetic surgery, the extent? Sarah, her hopes? The two and their envy?

16. Ruby, the offer of consolation, Jessie going to her apartment, Ruby’s approach, the lesbian experience, Jessie’s resistance, explaining she was a virgin?

17. Ruby, the make up, for the corpses? Her work, the girl after the autopsy, the necrophilia scene, Ruby and the seductive images of Jessie, with the corpse? The effect?

18. The catwalk, Sarah and her chair, Jessie getting ready, the dress, the sequence of the triangles, her kissing her image?

19. The aftermath, Ruby and the girls, Ruby and the menstruation scene? Jessie and her collapse?

20. The beach resort, Jack and the photo shoot, firing the girl, employing Gigi, Sarah and her illness? Vomiting? The macabre aspect of the eye? The two girls saying literally that they had eaten their rival? Gigi, taking the eye, eating it? The effect?

21. The final credits, surreal, Jesse walking…?