Nicolas Winding Refn Turns 2023 Heart Surgery Into New Film Her Private Hell

Q: Will the graphic footage of Nicolas Winding Refn's life-saving heart surgery eventually make its way into his experimental cinematic universe?

Possibly, but there is no indication Nicolas Winding Refn has committed to using the surgery footage in a film. What is clear is that he had the operation recorded and has already shown the video in interviews. Reports describe the footage in graphic terms, including a close view of his beating heart being cut open during the 2023 valve procedure. Refn himself said he specifically asked for the surgery to be filmed, and the material appears to hold strong personal meaning for him. The stronger evidence, though, is that the footage has so far functioned as inspiration rather than as on-screen material. Refn has repeatedly said the near-death experience directly revived his creative drive and became the emotional spark for Her Private Hell. He linked the film’s themes of fear, rebirth, protection and fantasy to his brush with death and to his anxieties as a father. But in the available interviews, he stops short of saying the actual surgical images are part of the movie or a future project. Given Refn’s history of folding intensely personal, visceral and provocative imagery into his work, it would not be surprising if the footage eventually surfaces in some form—whether literally, stylized, or repurposed in an installation, documentary fragment or future feature. For now, that remains speculation. The confirmed fact is that the surgery video exists, he values it, and the experience behind it has already entered his cinematic universe through Her Private Hell.

2 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 17

Refn said a 2023 life-saving heart operation revived both his health and his desire to make films, directly leading to sci-fi horror project “Her Private Hell.”
Doctors found a broken heart valve was filling his lungs with blood and initially prepared him for open-heart surgery, before a surgeon instead performed less invasive telescopic surgery in Copenhagen.
Three months of recovery and fear about leaving behind his 12-year-old daughter fed into the film’s father-daughter story and its chest-ripping horror imagery, Refn said.
The director cast the movie as a rebirth after turning 50 and losing his creative flame, arguing the film’s camp, fragmented style is something “AI could never do.”
Mixed reviews after the Cannes premiere have not changed his view; Refn said division matters more than consensus and that the near-death experience gave him a renewed artistic mission.