Sundance Journal 2009 Day 7: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Bronson

When fleshing out the script for Bronson, Nicolas Winding Refn didn’t have much to go on – the subject of the film has been in solitary confinement for the better part of his adult life and yet, the Danish filmmaker somehow managed to take a thin on plot biopic and fancy a style that uses fantasy to explore the missing pieces and the mindset of a man who finds extreme pleasure in extreme pain.

Refn was on hand to present his audacious biopic imagining of the celebrity behind the bars. What is unfathomable is that the subject in question, Michael Peterson was sentenced for a petty crime and has 34 years under his belt. I had do an IMDB search to see what Tom Hardy‘s former shell looked like, I wasn’t familiar with the actor (he bulked up for the role), but his performance should do for him for what a similar character study in Andrew Dominik‘s Chopper did for Eric Bana.