{"id":592580,"date":"2026-05-19T14:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592580\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T14:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T14:16:09","slug":"cannes-nicolas-winding-refn-cries-about-near-death-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592580\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes: Nicolas Winding Refn Cries About Near Death Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cDying is very interesting,\u201d began Nicolas Winding Refn<\/a> when asked about his mic drop moment at last night\u2019s Cannes<\/a> world premiere for his latest feature Her Private Hell<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tRefn told the entire Grand Theatre Lumiere audience, who gave him a 12-minute standing ovation, that he was dead for 20-plus minutes during heart surgery. Coming away from the experience, the Drive Cannes winning Best Director is seeing a second lease on life. <\/p>\n

\n\tAsked to expound on his near brush with death, Refn eventually broke down and cried, triggering a thunderous applause in the press conference. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBefore I died, I came to the end of my career. There was nothing for me to do. I had a leaking heart with the blood running backwards,\u201d shared Refn. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy lungs were filling up with blood\u2026suddenly I was told, I wouldn\u2019t live. Two weeks later, I was operated on. Thank God, the surgeon was Tom Cruise because he could go through my body with all his abilities and he could fix my heart with this hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was put together with electricity like Frankenstein,\u201d he continued. \u201cI\u2019m the Bionic Man.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI realized I could start over again. How many guys get a second chance. I was going to use that chance,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHow can I expand everyone\u2019s horizons for the kids?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHer Private Hell follows a group of posh actresses who are making a movie in a future metropolis. One of them, Elle (Sophie Thatche), is haunted by a nefarious murderer, the Leather Man, who is offing women around the city. Charles Melton, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Diego Calva, and Dougray Scott also star.<\/p>\n

\n\tHer Private Hell, though out of competition, tied with Fjord for the longest standing ovations at this year\u2019s Cannes through Tuesday AM. Both weighed in at 12 minutes. Deadline film critic Damon Wise said in his review, \u201cHer Private Hell\u00a0is either for you or it isn\u2019t and you\u2019re either for it or you aren\u2019t. Either way, this is a film that\u00a0demands\u00a0you pick a side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe pic opens on July 24 via Neon. <\/p>\n

\n\tWatch our interview below with Refn where he talks about his near death experience. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cDying is very interesting,\u201d began Nicolas Winding Refn when asked about his mic drop moment at last night\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[160823,181380,41891,6491,96,193282,202346,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-592580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-cannes","tag-cannes-2026","tag-cannes-film-festival","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-her-private-hell","tag-nicolas-winding-refn","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}