{"id":806324,"date":"2026-05-19T01:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/806324\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:11:18","slug":"nicolas-refns-her-private-hell-gets-7-minute-cannes-ovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/806324\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicolas Refn’s ‘Her Private Hell’ Gets 7-Minute Cannes Ovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tNicolas Winding Refn<\/a> returned to Cannes with \u201cHer Private Hell<\/a>\u201d and continued his festival hot streak of dividing audiences. The provocateur\u2019s latest feature is headlined by \u201cYellowjackets\u201d and \u201cCompanion\u201d star Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton<\/a>, the \u201cRiverdale\u201d actor who redefined his career at Cannes when Todd Haynes\u2019 \u201cMay December\u201d premiered in 2023.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe late-night screening was preceded by a dose of pouring rain as Refn and his stars made their way into the Palais. As the credits rolled and the audience broke out into applause, lead Thatcher burst into tears as Refn paced back and forth, hyping up the crowd for the 7-minute ovation.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs the applause finally died down, Refn took the microphone to share why this film was intensely\u00a0 personal. The filmmaker revealed that a few years ago, he\u2019d died for 25 minutes and had to be resuscitated. \u201cThat changes you, when I was brought back by electricity,\u201d Refn said. \u201cNow that I\u2019m alive again, I only have 25 years left of my life to live. But I\u2019m going to make damn use of that to live life to the fullest.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tThe crowd cheered loudly as he continued, \u201cTo make this film again and to be back here at Cannes, where I came from, is a huge step for mankind. And I am here to lead the torch but it\u2019s not just me.\u201d Despite the grave nature of that revelation, Refn couldn\u2019t stay somber for long and quickly pivoted into a bit about Melton\u2019s sexy body and the hot bodies of all his cast, which are on full display in the film.<\/p>\n

\n\tRefn concluded his remarks with a treatise on the power of cinema in an age when \u201call the politicans have fucked up the world and blown [up] all the countries and stolen our money, the only thing left is art.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNow that everything is so unequal and everyone is fighting and yelling at each other,\u201d Refn went on, \u201cthe only thing that brings us together is going to the movies and sit together and seeing the movies.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe director made it clear he\u2019s not complaining about watching movies on an iPhone \u2014 even he does that \u2014 but, he explained, \u201ccinema is about coming together for a collective experience, which is what human beings do and at the end we\u2019re just human beings.\u201d For his final thought, Refn seemingly referenced his own harrowing health crisis and declared: \u201cThis is year 1, day 1. Cinema is the future, cinema is alive. It\u2019s resurrected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tA neon-tinted fever dream, \u201cHer Private Hell\u201d stars Thatcher as a tortured movie star who must confront her daddy issues when her best friend marries her father. At the same time, a mysterious presence, known only as The Leather Man, is going on a killing spree of young women who shout \u201cDaddy!\u201d before being ripped open. Melton plays an Army private whose own daughter goes missing and embarks to find vengeance and kill the Leather Man.<\/p>\n

\n\tRefn\u2019s supporting cast includes Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Dougray Scott, Diego Calva, Shioli Kutsuna, Aoi Yamada and Hidetoshi Nishijima. The movie is backed by Neon, which has notably won Cannes\u2019 Palme d\u2019Or every year since 2019\u2019s \u201cParasite\u201d victory. \u201cHer Private Hell\u201d is not eligible for awards as it premiered out of competition, but Neon still has a handful of contenders such as \u201cHope,\u201d \u201cFjord\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

\n\tCannes has now been Refn\u2019s festival home for his last four movies, including \u201cHer Private Hell.\u201d The Danish filmmaker electrified Cannes in 2011 with \u201cDrive,\u201d which won him the best director prize. But follow-up projects \u201cOnly God Forgives\u201d (2013) and \u201cThe Neon Demon\u201d (2016) proved far more polarizing and sharply divided audiences, with reactions to \u201cThe Neon Demon\u201d ranging from<\/a> boos to walkouts and people yelling at the screen in outrage. \u201cHer Private Hell\u201d marks Refn\u2019s first feature in the 10 years since \u201cThe Neon Demon.\u201d Refn pivoted to television in the interim with the series \u201cToo Old to Die Young\u201d (2019\u2033 and \u201cCopenhagen Cowboy\u201d (2023).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHer Private Hell\u201d will open in U.S. theaters on July 24.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nicolas Winding Refn returned to Cannes with \u201cHer Private Hell\u201d and continued his festival hot streak of dividing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":806325,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[49625,320360,171,327902,327903,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-806324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-charles-melton","tag-entertainment","tag-her-private-hell","tag-nicolas-winding-refn","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116598583228197909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806324\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}