10 Times Directors Projected Their Strange Fetishses In Mainstream Movies

3. Nicolas Windig Refn - Violence

Windig's fame rose with the release of his Drive (2011), featuring Ryan Gosling. Either people loved it, or hated it for its intense violence and the celebration of it. More recently, he directed Only God Forgives (2013), which was received less positively, but was again a two hour long string of violent images, and according to some, not much else. Refn himself admitted to the fact he has a fetish for violent images and emotions, though he says he's not a violent man himself. He is absolutely fascinated with violence and even considers human body parts as created for violence due to our instinctual need for survival. A lesser known work of Refn is Bronson (2008), featuring Tom Hardy, which discusses the life of Charles Bronson, or Michael Peterson, notorious British prisoner, known as the "most violent British prisoner ever". Whether Bronson is a biography of a violent man or a celebration of his violence never becomes truly clear, but the underlying tone of giddiness (and 80s dance music during the violent acts) would suggest it is the latter.