SIFF and Greg Olson Productions Present
L.A. NOIR
shadows in paradise
Drive (2011) Walt Whitman: Americans should know the universe itself as a road, as many roads, as roads for traveling souls. Jack Keruoac: I mean, whither goest thou? Whither goest thou, America, in thy shiny car in the night? We were all delighted, we all realized we were leaving confusion and nonsense behind and performing our one true and noble function of the time, move.
November 5, 2025
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn Screenplay by: Houssein Amini from James Sallis’ novel Cinematography by: Newton Thomas Sigel Music by: Cliff Martinez Edited by: Matthew Newman
All he needed was a wheel in his hand and four on the road. Joan Didion: Driving on the Los Angeles freeways is a secular communion. Participation requires a total surrender, a concentration so intense as to seem a kind of narcosis, a rapture-of-the-freeeway. The mind goes clean. The rhythm takes over.
THE PLAYERS: Ryan Gosling as Driver Carey Mulligan as Irene
She drove it as a river man runs a river, every day more attuned to its currents.
Bryan Cranston as Shannon
Director Nicolas Winding Refn: I had done some British TV productions, like Miss Marple. But basically, I’m Danish, I come out of the European art cinema tradition, though I grew up loving Hollywood movies. So I’m flying in from Denmark to the place I’d always dreamed of seeing: Los Angeles, Hollywood. And I'm in terrible shape. I’ve got an awful flu, I’m weak, can barely walk. Then I take some strong flu medicine pills, and I’m worse, almost hallucinating. How will I ever get through the meeting with actor Ryan Gosling, who likes my work, maybe wants to work with me? The meeting, over dinner, was awful. I could barley follow what people were saying. Ryan had a screenplay he liked, and wanted to see if I would film it with him. I couldn’t remember any of the screenplay, my mind was numb, I was almost asleep. The meeting was a disaster, it would be a short L.A. stay.
Albert Brooks as Bernie Rose Oscar Issac as Standard Ron Perlman as Nino Christina Hendricks as Blanche Kaden Leos as Benicio
Ryan drove me on the freeway from Santa Monica to where I was staying. We were silent. L.A. was floating by in the night outside. He turned the radio on, some 1980s ballad. I was in despair, I had a young family, no work prospects. I started to cry. I broke down, an existential crisis. But the night was still there, the city flowing, Ryan driving with music in the night. I said, “We need to make a movie of this, this feeling.”
Russ Tamblyn as Doc
Thanks to poet, film curator and teacher Tova Gannana for her film essay and her L.A. Cruising, Radio On pre-film playlist.
James Biberi as Cook
Jeff Wolfe as Tan Suit