MV Agusta to premiere ‘Beauty is not a sin’
Words and images courtesy MV Agusta
A short movie by Nicolas Winding Refn and MV Agusta will be premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
Temptation comes in many shapes and sizes, and giving in to temptation often lets us crave forgiveness and absolution. But being overcome by desire isn’t necessarily immoral. Sometimes, it just expresses our attraction to beauty. And Beauty is not a Sin. In his inimitable style, Nicolas Winding Refn takes us along for the ride.
MV Agusta is proud to announce the production of “Beauty Is Not A Sin”, a short movie written and directed by Hollywood’s acclaimed Nicolas Winding Refn, and produced by: Art + Vibes for MV Agusta with Laura Grassi, Stefano Gaeta
The Superveloce 1000 Serie Oro which, thanks to its meticulous craftsmanship, bold and provocative design, stunning beauty and thrilling performance, is a motorcycle that ignites every motorcyclist’s deepest desires, served as inspiration to create a piece of cinematic art that will be premiered at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 31st.
Nicolas Winding Refn Q&A
Can you tell us more about how BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN came about? Who approached you for the commission, and how did you approach a commissioned work?
I was approached by my good friend Massimiliano Brun (“Max”) who was working together with Agusta to make a ‘commercial’. They had a conceptual approach that I found very interesting and I did what I always do – gave it the pure by NWR treatment.
What interested you in the short film format? Did you consciously think of it as a genre different from feature-length films, and if so, what – apart from duration – would you see as the biggest differences?
For me, the length of anything I create doesn’t matter nor has it ever mattered. In the age of digitalization, length is only a state of mind. Why can’t an eight-minute short be a feature film experience? I don’t look at narrative in that way. To me, the length of the film has no purpose. It guides itself, it’s how it wants to be created…
You have talked often and movingly on Kenneth Anger’s influence on your work.
BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN includes direct visual quotations (e.g. from Kustom Kar Kommandos) as well as more general influences, such as color schemes, the tattoos, not to mention the fetishization of a motor vehicle… I have always been inspired by the work of Kenneth Anger and have used his inspiration in numerous ways throughout my work. You can, in a way, define how we fetishize luxury and objects because of him – there is always a clear pathway back to Anger and his work.
Your work tends to use dialogue sparingly – what brought you to make what is basically a silent short film in this case? What did that mean in a narrative sense?
I guess using dialogue so sparingly is a reaction to my dyslexia and always having to count on my own instincts and sensibilities. It is what I see or feel first that inspires me. Making BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN into a silent film made it more universal. After all, isn’t that the objective of everything we do, to make things for the entire world to experience?
Your filmmaking is heavily focused on images, on visual style. Did it feel like a natural move to create an iconography for an object, in this case the MV Agusta motorbike?
When working with luxury, there’s a sense of having to utilize the iconography of the object itself. Though, for me, it wasn’t so much the bike I was interested in, it was what the motorbike made me feel. Even though the iconography of the motorbike in general is very beautiful, like a piece of art, it’s how to encapsulate that feeling throughout the entire film.
Although many well-known directors have made commercials, only a few have been generally accepted as art works in their own right (Roy Andersson’s films come to mind, for example). Do you think there’s a dividing line between “pure” and “applied” arts, in filmmaking and in other genres? How do you see BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN in the context of your other works?
I believe art is a reaction of authenticity and purpose. I made BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN because I had a desire to create it. Therefore, it is an authentic NWR creation and an extension of where all my work is moving towards. The universe works in mysterious ways…
How do you feel about the inclusion of BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN in the Venice program? It’s a great honour to have anything screened at the Venice Film Festival, but what I find most interesting is that a commercial was selected for the first time ever in the official program. It is exciting to be a part of the festival’s evolution, as the floodgates will surely open to new possibilities. By screening BEAUTY IS NOT A SIN together with my first film, PUSHER, in the Venice Classics, it is a complete NWR experience, a collision of my past and my future.