Bleeder

Nicolas Winding Refn's second film, set in Copenhagen. There are two lines. The first is Leo: his girlfriend is pregnant and he cannot bear it; his anger grows and turns to violence. The second is Lenny: a man who works in a video rental shop, can talk endlessly about films and cannot talk to a woman. The idea is to set those two lines against each other. Both are stuck, both stand outside their own lives; one turns to violence, the other closes up completely. The video shop sections are the most loved part of the film: conversations between the shelves, recommendations, the owner's monologues. Refn wrote them out of his own passion for film. The visual language is rawer than his later work: handheld camera, natural light, a low budget. Kim Bodnia plays Leo and Mads Mikkelsen plays Lenny. Refn and Mikkelsen had worked together on Pusher. A valuable work for anyone curious about late-1990s Danish cinema and Refn's early period. Before you watch, know this: the film shows domestic violence directly and uncomfortably, and softens it nowhere.