The latest from Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, The Pusher Trilogy) is the austere and brutal 12th-century epic Valhalla Rising, what I elsewhere called "a trippy nightmare of savage poetry burning slow across bleak and otherworldly landscapes." These ain"t your daddy"s Vikings:
For years, the fearsome figure known only as One Eye (Mads Mikkelsen of Pusher, Flame & Citron and Casino Royale) has defeated everyone he"s encountered, but he"s treated more like an animal than a warrior. The only person he has any relationship with is the young boy who brings him food and water daily. Constantly caged and shackled, One Eye has drawn the attention of a new force now sweeping the countryside and displacing the society"s leaders: Christians.
Before the film"s premiere, Refn called from sunny California to discuss his "hallucinogenic drug" Valhalla Rising, how he made both this film and last year"s Bronson simultaneously, and why Mads Mikkelsen never gets invited to his birthday parties.
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