The outspoken Dane drew a parallel between the injustices in the world of cinema and those of society as a whole, and recalled that it would be better if injustices were not remedied by the same means as the French Revolution.
Among the many who are expressing their support for the strike that is agitating the world of cinema, and worrying the very rich CEOs of American Studios, the strike of the actors union SAG-AFTRA which has been added to that of the screenwriters of the WGA, c ‘is also Danish Nicolas Winding Refn.
Someone who, when he speaks, never goes too subtle in expressing his thoughts.
Interviewed by the US site IndieWireRefn said: “I totally agree: you have to burn everything to start over, almost”.
Like many others, including Fran Drescherpresident of SAG-AFTRA, Refn draws a clear parallel between the economic injustices that characterize the world of cinema and society as a whole: “PI think what is happening in our industry right now, from a business perspective, is just another piece of a global problem of inequality and lack of opportunity sharing that is becoming unacceptable to anyone“.
And, even, Refn put in the middle Robespierre and the French Revolution, whose 234th anniversary is remembered yesterday.
“All we can do is look back to the French Revolution and remember what happened at the end: they cut off everyone’s heads. I think we should try to avoid such an ending.”
“We have to get better at sharing the wealth, because if we don’t we lose our humanity, and it all just becomes a corporate folly. And that never led to anything good,” added the director.
Refn then also spoke of the type of cinema and TV series that are produced today, of what are now commonly called “the contents”: “We produce content, but we almost never talk about why. We’re just talking about making it, and making more of it as fast as possible, and it’s all getting a huge swipe, but that’s not exactly a healthy mirror of society and us as people. (…) it’s just a matter of stuffing everything into one film, as fast as possible and as insignificant as possible (…) the more empty it is, empty calories, the more it can be consumed, the faster it can be overcome. From this arise stupidity, lack of empathy, ignorance: all the opposite of what art is able to bring. So, in a sense, we’re going in the wrong direction.”