Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Liv Corfixen decided to document her husband, Nicolas Winding Refn, in My Life Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn during the filming of Only God Forgives, his follow up to the massively successful Drive. She busted out a camera to capture their family’s move to Bangkok for 6 months, including disciplining the couple’s two adorable daughters and arguing about laundry, and in the process, she gave us a candid look at Ryan Gosling few have ever witnessed.
The director and Gosling have one of those special connections that few filmmakers and their stars have. There’s an understanding, a shorthand, and a caring between the two that makes them work so well together both on-set and off. Obviously, they each count Drive as one of their most popular projects to date. Their collaboration process is clearly on display in the 2015 documentary that’s just under an hour long, as is their rapport and deep enjoyment of working with each other. Gosling is mostly his shy yet charming self, while Winding Refn explains the similarities between sex and violence to his pal. The doc also shows Gosling getting the news that they have to attend a screening of Drive in order to earn a chunk of money that will go towards the making of Only God Forgives, so he hops in the car…and even realizes he forgot his dress socks for the event. Doh! For anyone that is not a close pal of Gosling’s, it’s a very rare and candid glimpse at Ryan wearing basketball shorts (and multiple tank tops, you’re welcome), and, hold on to your ovaries, playing with young children.
Gosling’s playful side comes out around the two girls, as he pretend fights with them and gives them rides on couch cushions. He’s just another regular old part of their family and they feel so comfortable with them that the younger one even lets off some “fireworks” in her diaper as he holds her.
While the documentary is clearly focused on Winding Refn, as he pours over budgets and storyboards and frets about both the completion and the upcoming reception to the film, for which he wisely and honestly manages expectations, Gosling’s brief and mostly boring appearances in the film are a thrill, due to their rarity. Watching the two converse while Gosling is sitting in full beaten-face make up is a sight rarely accessible to most. As is the way he eats a banana around the 18-minute mark — he picks off pieces of it instead of just biting in?
That we’re now privy to the way Gosling chooses to consumes his fruits is not the biggest takeaway from this intimate look at a marriage between two artists (and really, in two ways: both husband and wife and director and actor) and the collaboration that occurs at home, during rehearsal, and on-set. But let’s just say the doc is educational and eye-opening in ways we weren’t quite expecting.
