The scene Gaspar Noé helped bring to life in Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Drive’
The films of Gaspar Noé are like cinematic Marmite. Defined by dizzying visuals (no doubt inspired by his life-changing viewing of 2001: A Space Odyssey as a child) and forays into the innate brutality within humanity, you either love his films or you hate them.
Noé made waves at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002 when he debuted Irréversible, which caused many viewers to walk out in disgust. The movie, which is told in reverse chronology, depicts many violent acts, including a ten-minute rape scene that is beyond uncomfortable to sit through. The film is claustrophobic, aided by Thomas Bangalter’s anxiety-inducting score and disorientatingly impressive cinematography courtesy of Benoît Debie.
Debie has collaborated with Noé on most of his films, helping to craft the filmmaker’s distinctive visual style. Noé’s work is often painted in bright neon lights, which are often contrasted by dark shadows. It is easy to recognise one of his films through cinematography alone, helping to establish his status as a modern-day auteur.
Another modern filmmaker with a penchant for vivid neon lighting is Nicolas Winding Refn, who has used bright visuals for movies such as Drive, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon. Refn is another controversial figure in the industry, with some people loathing his work, finding it to be all style and no substance, while others heavily praise it.
Thus, it is unsurprising that Refn has sought advice from Noé when making his own films, leaning on the king of controversy for advice on executing tricky scenes. One of the most memorable moments in Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, sees the actor smash another man’s head into an elevator wall, throwing him about before stamping on him. It’s a brutal scene, although it looks like child’s play in comparison to the violent scenes in Irréversibe.
There is one moment in Noé’s film where Albert Dupontel’s Pierre smashes Jo Prestia’s Le Tenia in the skull with a fire extinguisher. In a dimly lit room surrounded by onlookers, Le Tenia’s head is crushed to a pulp, with lurid reds and greens seeping into the setting to give the scene a wholly unsettling and suffocating atmosphere.
This scene provided Refn with inspiration for the elevator scene in Drive. At Empire Big Screen, the director revealed that he “called up Gaspar Noé and asked him how he did the head smashing, because he’s the king of head smashing.”
He continued, “And he told me how he did it, and I met with him in France also, where he went through how they did it and I tried to emulate it. But it’s not as good as his. But I had a kiss. He didn’t have that.”
Watch both below.
