15/11/2022 - Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn presents his new TV series, an explosive mix of violence and glacial beauty which doesn’t give in to compromise

Angela Bundalovic in Copenhagen Cowboy

Three years after his masterpiece Too Old To Die Young, released on Prime Video, the Danish prodigy Nicolas Winding Refn is once again taking over the small screen with his series Copenhagen Cowboy [+see also:
trailer
interview: Nicolas Winding Refn
series profile], a work due to be released on Netflix on 5 January 2023. Presented in a world premiere out of competition in Venice and enjoying its Swiss premiere at the Geneva International Film Festival (GIFF) – which saw the Drive director lead a masterclass - Copenhagen Cowboy doesn’t disappoint. Scenes of breath-taking beauty, slow narration which often boils down to nothing more than looks and micro-movements made by seemingly helpless bodies, apathetic characters who float through a dystopic world where violence is endemic… It’s a recipe for a TV series which will definitely get tongues wagging.

A cinematic gem which unscrupulously breaks down the barriers between the world of the small screen and the seventh art, Copenhagen Cowboy might be considered an anti-series manifesto, of sorts, a genuine work of art more akin to visual art than the occasionally exaggerated dynamism of TV series. Explosively blending perversion and violence à la Twin Peaks and the formal elegance of emblematic artists like Nobuyoshi Araki, Refn’s latest effort refuses to bend to rules. Inspired by westerns and by rape and revenge movies, but also by emblematic films like Kill Bill and Fight Club, Copenhagen Cowboy is an odyssey inhabited by “very Refn” characters: inscrutable, seemingly apathetic, stylish but not hipster, indomitable and decidedly unconventional. It’s a bewildering journey through the bowels of an obscure and mysterious Copenhagen which swallows up audiences, black hole-style.

Copenhagen Cowboy follows the ups and downs of Miu (played by the magnetic Angela Bundalovic), a cowboy/cowgirl without a past or a future who collides with a merciless criminal world. From the squalid underground brothels of an abandoned villa, by way of a labyrinthine Chinese restaurant, and on to an elegant abode inhabited by troubling, bloodthirsty characters (Andreas Lykke Jørgensen is exceptional in the role of serial killer Nicklas), Miu must carry out mysterious missions in search of truth and redemption. The protagonist of Copenhagen Cowboy is catapulted from one absurd situation to another - like a helpless and violent puppet bought and sold by its mother - by a cruel woman going by the name of Rosella, until the pivotal moment when she meets Chinese restaurant owner Mother Hulda (Li li Zhang), who’s unwillingly embroiled with the local mafia. Over the course of six episodes and without haste, Miu’s personality is gradually revealed to the audience, like a brand-new dish to be savoured one small mouthful at a time.

Whilst Refn certainly isn’t the first director to show pigs devouring the victims of mafia criminals, he is, without a doubt, the first to make his male characters grunt like swine. What’s striking about Refn’s work, over and above its narration, are these apparently heterosexual white men who lose their hegemonic position. The Danish director revels in shuffling the decks, in punishing a form of masculinity which he believes to be invincible by way of delectable revenge scenes. Whether we’re dealing with pimps or cold-faced, chauvinistic-come-mafiosi husbands, no-one succeeds in intimidating the heroines in this series. Refn explodes the myth of violence as a male prerogative, proving just how universal violence and the desire for revenge truly are. Miu’s character is emblematic in this regard because, behind the slender body “of a little kid” (as she’s often described), hides unrivalled mental and physical strength with the power to push women to revolt.    

Copenhagen Cowboy is produced by NWR, and is broadcast and sold worldwide by Netflix.

(Translated from Italian)

Photogallery 09/09/2022: Venice 2022 - Copenhagen Cowboy

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Nicolas Winding Refn, Lola Guldenlove Corfixen, Lizzie-Lou Corfixen, Liv Corfixen, Lola Guldenlove Corfixen, Angela Bundalovic, Alberto Barbera
© 2022 Fabrizio de Gennaro & Dario Caruso for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it, @studio.photo.dar, Dario Caruso