Nicolas Winding Refn breaks down in Cannes recalling near death due to ‘depression’ | Cannes Film Festival

Danish leader Nicolas Winding Refnwho is best known for films such as the Pusher trilogy and Drive, spoke emotionally about his near-death experience and heart surgery three years ago.

The director, whose first film in 10 years, His Secret Hellwhich was shown on Monday evening, told the assembled journalists that he “died for 25 minutes” in 2023.

“His protruding heart” was “discovered by accident”, Refn continued. “My lungs were filling up with blood.” Suddenly, I was told that I might not live, but if I did they don’t know what would happen.” So, two weeks later I had an operation.

He added, tongue in cheek: “Thank God the surgeon was Tom Cruise and he was able to fix me with his hands, and then he brought me back to life with electricity.”

Through tears, Refn explained that the experience changed his work and life.

He said: “Before I died, I had finished my work because I had nothing left, so there was nothing to do.”

“I realized that before I die, I was given a gift, I can start again.” Like how many people get a second chance?

Its wording is similar to that given in interview and Screen International on Sunday, when he told Wendy Mitchell, “I was dead for half an hour, and I was resurrected by electricity, like Frankenstein,” he reveals. “I realized that I could start again. I had the desire to go back to making films like I had never made before.”

Refn’s 2011 film, Drive, was a big hit on the Croisette in 2013; returned to the festival in 2013 with Only God Forgives and in 2016 with The Neon Demon.

Her Secret Hell is a thriller about a tortured starlet, played by Sophie Thatcher, whose best friend marries her father. Meanwhile, a mysterious man played by Charles Melton known as Leather Man wants to avenge his daughter.

Tuesday saw the premiere of another film by a director who has returned to Cannes after battling many health problems. A dark drama Minotaur It is the first film in almost 10 years from the Russian director Andreï Zvyagintsev, who was in the hospital for 11 months and Covid in 2021.