Issue 114: The Her Private Hell issue – Out now!

Nicolas WInding Refn's extravagant new picture, which is the realised vision of a death dream he experienced while his heart stopped for 20 minutes, is called Her Private Hell, and it is 100 per cent proof Refn, accept no substitutes. It’s his first feature in a decade, following a sojourn making headfuck-inducing shows for a variety of major streamers. The film follows a young woman, Elle (Sophie Thatcher) in all kinds of trouble. She’s an actor with daddy issues and is being stalked by a strange serial killer with glowing red eyes called the Leatherman. Her knight in shining armour is in fact a monosyllabic GI named Private K (played by Charles Melton) who allows his fists to do the talking. All of this immaculately framed and choreographed action plays out under the 18-tog duvet of Pino Donaggio’s original score. Refn apparently cold-called the Italian maestro as a fan after finding out he was still alive, and commissioned him to write what is arguably some of the best and most emotional music of his career.

In the tradition of someone like Alejandro Jodorowsky, Her Private Hell is a late-night cult hit in the making that you must give yourself over to or simply walk out of the room. We are long-time NWR boosters, having adorned previous covers with 2011’s Drive and 2016's The Neon Demon, and we’re proud to be presenting a new issue which picks apart the context of this gorgeous, sui generis oddity. 

In the issue, we meet cast and crew, go on a global tour of giallo movies, pick apart one of its key reference points (moving image god, Kenneth Anger), and speak to some other filmmakers who are doing exciting, idiosyncratic things in the world of genre filmmaking. We’ve even managed to find the secret blueprints for a NWR themed bar in Copenhagen which we have printed in full. Come through, and we hope you enjoy.

On the cover...

Our cover portrait of Sophie Thatcher is the work of Racheal Bruce, an illustrator and educator from Saint Louis, Missouri. She uses markers, coloured pencils and ink to create figure-focused images with rich environments. Her work imbues the feeling that a fantastical unreality could exist in our physical world, with all of the whimsy and eeriness that comes with it. Of the cover she says: “I had a blast working on this fractured portrait of Sophie Thatcher! Balancing the repetition of her features and the sharp, geometric shapes was like solving a puzzle and required several iterations.”

Other illustrations in the issue are by Maria Francesca, Eloïse Héritier, Marie Mohanna, Andrei Nicolescu, Katie Scarlett, and Stéphanie Sergeant, Ariadna Sysoeva and Emma Zannelli.