Nicolas Winding Refn, Miles Teller – Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell #Cannes2019

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Nicolas Winding Refn, Miles Teller, director and actor of the film Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell.

Nicolas Winding Refn is back at the Festival De Cannes, at the 72nd edition to present, out of competition, his new and first series, distributed by Amazon: Too old to die young – North of Hollywood, West of hell. Accompanied by his protagonist Miles Teller who plays Martin, a dark and ambiguous cop, Refn makes a distinction between TV and streaming by declaring that the former is dead while the streaming offers infinite possibilities in terms of creativity and its rules as a director has no limits ( besides money) when it comes to length, style, running time of each episode and plot. To play with this “infinite” theory, Refn has chosen to show Cannes’ audience the 4th and 5th episode to stimulate everybody’s imagination and obviously mess with people’s minds. Miles Teller reveals the reasons why he chose to work with Nick Refn and describes how he learned to follow Refn’s stream of consciousness as the script of every episode was being written while shooting.

Too Old to Die Young – North of Hollywood, West of Hell: Groundbreaking filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn expands his boundary-pushing approach to storytelling with the 10-part limited series Too Old to Die Young. As the lives of a young police officer and the heir to a Mexican drug cartel collide, their parallel journeys through the criminal underbelly of Los Angeles guarantee a catastrophic confrontation. Martin (Miles Teller), a cop on a career fast-track, and Jesus (Augusto Aguilera), a budding drug kingpin, are both operating on the seedier side of the San Fernando Valley when a violent act of revenge ties their fates together inextricably. Under the tutelage of ex-FBI agent turned vigilante Viggo (John Hawkes), Martin attempts to atone for his role in the death of a fellow officer by assassinating the most depraved criminals he can find, while Jesus steps up to lead the Los Angeles branch of his family’s crime empire, as inevitable tragedy envelops them both. By the series midpoint, the stage is set for Martin’s rebirth, transforming him from crooked cop into unrelenting hunter, stalking the city and beyond for loathsome predators. Starting with a pair of degenerate siblings whose stock-in-trade is violent, degrading pornography, Martin exacts his own brand of justice on a world that will soon demand vengeance of its own. In Refn’s stylized world, infused with poetic mayhem, Martin and Jesus cross paths with a hedge-fund billionaire, a precocious 17-year-old girl, a victim’s rights advocate turned avenging angel and the self-proclaimed high priestess of death, as they unknowingly hurtle toward disaster. Brilliant colors, pulsating music and unadulterated violence alternate with eerie silence and deceptive stillness as Refn deftly navigates operatic plot twists on the way to an explosive conclusion.

If you want to learn more about the serie, click here.