Director: Liv Corfixen
MPAA Rating: NR
The documentary My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn acts as a behind-the-scenes look into the life of the director behind the critically acclaimed film Drive, which starred Ryan Gosling. While its goal is to present an intimate look into the life and career of Refn, the film – shot by his wife, Liv Corfixen – only gives us a small peek behind the curtain and ends up feeling much more like a DVD extra than a fleshed-out documentary.
Shot during the creation of Refn’s follow-up film to Drive, Only God Forgives, Corfixen’s documentary follows Refn’s work in Bangkok, where (for the first time) his wife and their two children accompany him for the duration of shooting. For six months the family lives in a beautiful apartment in the heart of Thailand while he works on the film, and Corfixen documents everything from the shooting process and script editing to the stress and agony that making a film can create.
Because it’s Refn’s wife doing the filming and not a crew of documentarians, there’s a more personal, intimate feel to the film. Refn, their children and even Gosling frequently address Corfixen, who is behind the camera, giving the entire film a home video vibe. This tone will turn off some viewers, however I wouldn’t have had much of a problem with it, had there only been more substance to the overall cinematic journey.
Clocking in at just over an hour, the film attempts to delve into Refn’s thought process while making Only God Forgives, but it feels like it backs off any time things start to get interesting or too confrontational. This may be the result of the director being a tad too close to her subject, considering it’s her husband, but that isn’t to say what’s here isn’t interesting; I was just left wanting more.
Fans of Refn’s work will already know the pressure he must have been under when moving onto the next project after Drive, which was a critical and commercial success. Seeing him deal with this pressure firsthand was a fascinating watch, as was his reaction to the final cut of Only God Forgives, which was not nearly as well received, to say the least.
There’s a scene in My Life Directed where it appears Refn and Gosling agree to attend a film festival in order to receive a large sum of money that they can use to bribe city officials to allow them to shoot on the streets at night. This was incredibly interesting and left me yearning for more. If the focus of the documentary was to show his creative process, then show more of that. If it was supposed to show his home life and how his job affects his relationship with his family, show more of that. It just seems to me that, if footage was being gathered for six months, the material could have been compiled in a more substantive way.
My Life is an at-times fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary that will satisfy fans of the director but most likely leave others wanting more. Other than the impressive score by Cliff Martinez, this is nothing more than a well-made home movie that acts as a companion piece to Only God Forgives.
