Elle Fanning is ready for her close-up. Ahead of its premiere at next month’s Cannes Film Festival, a fresh wave of images for Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon have surfaced online, casting light on the dark underbelly of the director’s cruel and malicious version of the fashion world.
Stylish, yet inherently sinister, the images find Fanning’s aspiring model Jesse under the lights as she prepares to strut her stuff on the catwalk. But as the film’s most recent trailer attests, The Neon Demon is rooted in a warped version of Los Angeles where Fanning’s budding up-and-comer is prey to a flock of power-mongering and deranged women who will stop at nothing to scupper her dreams and, ultimately, take what is not rightfully theirs.
Also on board for Refn’s visceral, neon-drenched trip are Karl Glusman, Bella Heathcote, Jena Malone, Abbey Lee, Desmond Harrington, Christina Hendricks and Keanu Reeves. Talking to The Film Stage, the John Wick star pinpointed the evocative themes fuelling the story beneath The Neon Demon‘s stylish aesthetic.
“[There’s] something about those colors that attracts and repulses at the same time. And then there’s the demon part. What is the demon within; what is the demon on the outside? Is it ego? It may be a fear of death. Or desire. It’s all sorts of fun stuff.”
Looking further afield, Nicolas Winding Refn has already carved out plans for his follow-up to The Neon Demon: Netflix’s adaptation of Italian crime series Les Italiens, where he will serve as showrunner and executive producer. The former is expected to grace theaters in June following its appearance at Cannes.
