Drive

Words and Photgraphy by Ian Smith

A look into how Nicolas Winding Refn’s beautiful 2011 film has inspired other creative practioners

outside of the film industry, and how it managed to do this so out of the blue

Fact Box -Directed by - Nicolas Winding Refn Produced by - Michel Litvak, John Palermo, Marc Platt, Gigi Pritzker, Adam SiegelScreenplay by - Hossein Amini Based on Drive by - James Sallis Starring - Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, Albert BrooksMusic by - Cliff Martinez Cinematography - Newton Thomas SigelEditing by - Matthew Newman

but by night, a highly skilled get away driver for the criminal underworld of Los Angeles. Never working for the same people twice, The Driver gives his clients 5 minutes, in which no matter what happens he will be there waiting for them, after this time is up he is gone. Things start to change when he meets the beautiful Irene, her son Benicio, and later her husband Standard, who has just returned from jail. The Driver agrees to help Standard in robbing a pawn shop to pay protection money he owed from jail to a gangster named Cook. It soon unravels that they have been set up, and The Driver is going to have to use all his abilities to sort the mess he has found himself in out.

For those who have not yet seen Drive, it was a surprise hit last year in 2011, when director Nicolas Winding Refn teamed up with Ryan Gosling, star of The Notebook (2004) and Blue Valentine (2010) to create what can only be described as one of the most beautiful pieces of cinema of the last decade. Drive comes from the 2005 novel of the same name, and started off its film life in 2008 as a big budget blockbuster staring Hugh Jackman. The original plan was later scrapped and by 2008 Gosling had been signed up to play the lead role, being allowed to pick his own director for the film he chose Winding Refn, being a fan of his earlier work. Although only listed as an actor in the film, it becomes apparent in interviews with Winding Refn that Gosling had a very large part in creating the film, from choosing locations to shoot, putting forward the style of music for the film, and even picking out the now infamous jacket The Driver wears throughout the film. The basic story of Drive follows a young, nameless man, simply known as “The Driver”, who works as a mechanic / stuntman during the day,

Although shot in both day and night, it is the after dark shots of LA’s underbelly that really inspired the photography for this article

Side Roads

This article is to showcase some work inspired by the film, in particular a set of photographs, taken in a wildly different location from downtown LA but aimed at having the same general feel as the film. These images do not come close to that of Winding Refn's beautiful piece of cinema, but the inspiration behind them is most important.

Moonlit

Nameless Driverss

Gosling’s character has no name, not one that he goes by anyway. In the film he is a fictional antihero, but whats to say any number of lonesome motorists out at night

are not a real life incarnation of The Driver.

Watching drive it is easy to see where its influences are derived from, it doesn’t try to hide them. Winding Refn, says he was inspired by 70s and 80s cult hit films like the 1985 film To Live and Die in L.A. and 1975s The Day of the Locust, however he sites his main influence as Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The Driver character in the films is very much like ‘The Man With No Name’ from Sergio Leone’s Dollars trilogy, however this may be due to his lack of speech and intense non-verbal communication. Both the title sequence and soundtrack are both very reminiscent of 80s cult films, with the titles being inspired by 1983’s Risky Business’ and the soundtrack being inspired by 80’s Synth Pop.However when we review films, we always talk about what has inspired them to be created. We talk about how they have been influenced by a certain piece of cinema, art, literature etc. What we rarely do is talk about the influence they have had over other people, what other people have created when inspired by a piece of cinema, wether their

work is related or unrelated to the film.After seeing Drive for the first time, I left the cinema feeling like a whole new area of work had been opened up to me, a feeling a film has never given me before, and not given me since. When talking about film, I am not usually the most arty person, sure I love good cinematography, and I respect the time gone in to making a beautiful film, but I’m never usually wowed by quite how beautiful something is, and Drive really wowed me. I have never seen something so violent, so destructive, yet so fragile and beautiful. It was a mix of emotions I have never felt before, and by the end of the film I was nearly reduced to tears. I’m still not sure if they are tears of joy, or tears of sadness, and they well up every time I re-watch the film, all I know is it is probably the most inspiring film you could possibly watch. I’m listening to the soundtrack as I type this and even that makes me just want to go grab my camera and go take photos of things that remind me of the film, its that powerful.

By the end of the film I was nearly reduced to tears. I’m still not sure if they are tears of joy, or tears of

sadness

“”

Self Portrait

Self portrait is designed to replicate a brief clip in the opening of Drive, where the city is observed through the wing mirror of The Drivers car. I find it fascinating how the focus of the film is not actually what is being filmed, as the audience is watching the reflections, you often find yourself forgetting it is a mirror being filmed. I found these amazing polished spheres, whose reflections were perfect for what I had wanted to photograph. I tried some without myself in them, but eventually found the ones with

myself in far more intriguing.

I have never seen something so violent, so destructive, yet so fragile

and beautiful. It was a mix of emotions I have never felt before

“”

Ian Smith