Bronson

Charlie Bronson, Britain’s most violent prisoner and the antihero of Nicolas Winding Refn’s tour de force, is a man with a calling. He just needed jail time to find it. In 1974, Charlie robs a post office and draws a seven-year sentence. But stone walls do not a prison make. His “hotel room” becomes an incubator for his art, which is violence. Taking a perverse glee in fighting, he’s sent to a mental institution, where, drugged and drooling, he still musters defiance. His eventual release is short lived, and he returns to jail. Placed in an art class, Charlie creates his masterpiece. It is not a painting. Though based on a real person, Bronson is less a biopic than a virtuosic explosion of style. With twisted imagery, the music of Wagner and Pet Shop Boys, and a stunning performance by Tom Hardy, Refn creates an aesthetic that is both complicit in Charlie’s violence but also theatrical. Charlie narrates his own story before an audience, and the movie is just an extension of this burlesque staging. Our moral compass reeling, we’re tempted to see him as an animal, but violence is simply the fullest expression of his identity. Overjoyed by his fame and ever-increasing capacity for harm, Charlie walks the cellblock beaming with pride. He has become somebody. He is—quite terrifyingly—the hero of his own story.
CAST
Tom Hardy, Matt King, James Lance, Kelly Adams, Amanda Burton

Nicolas Winding Refn - Danish-born Nicolas Winding Refn wrote and directed his first feature Pusher (1996) at the age of 24. Violent and uncompromising, it became a cult phenomenon and won him instant international critical acclaim. It was followed by the highly stylized Bleeder, which won the prestigious FIPRESCI Prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival. His third feature, Fear X (2003), premiered at Sundance. Its success led him to revisit Pusher, and he made two additional films to create the Pusher Trilogy. He is currently working on Valhalla Rising.

Screenings:

Mon. Jan 19 9:00 p.m. - BRONS19EN Egyptian Theatre, Park City
Wed. Jan 21 2:30 p.m. - BRONS21PA Prospector Square Theatre, Park City
Thu. Jan 22 9:30 p.m. - BRONS22GN Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center, SLC
Sat. Jan 24 noon - BRONS24ED Egyptian Theatre, Park City