Industry News19 May 2026

‘Her Private Hell’ Review: Pino Donaggio’s Score Is The Secret Sauce In Nicolas Winding Refn’s Trippy Return To Cinema – Cannes Film Festival

Memories of cinema past and present come rushing at you like 2001’s Star Gate sequence in Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell, his first return to cinema since 2016’s Neon Demon and his first project since dying for 20 minutes from a serious heart condition three years ago.

‘Her Private Hell’ Review: Pino Donaggio’s Score Is The Secret Sauce In Nicolas Winding Refn’s Trippy Return To Cinema – Cannes Film Festival

How does it all fit together? Well, it does and it doesn’t, and Refn leaves you alone to figure out the true significance of The Leather Man and his two fabulously gnomic assistants (Ms. S and Ms. T). The genius of Her Private Hell is that, like a kind of visual ASMR, it offers nothing really concrete, just a lot of satisfying triggers and sensory associations. The actors feel that energy too, and the performances almost dare you to follow them, experimenting wildly with their characters in ways that make only the most subliminal kind of sense.

Title: Her Private HellFestival: Cannes (Out of Competition)Distributor: NeonRelease date: July 24, 2026Director: Nicolas Winding RefnScreenwriters: Nicolas Winding Refn, Esti GiordaniCast: Sophie Thatcher, Havana Rose Liu, Kristine Froseth, Charles MeltonRunning time: 1 hr 49 mins

Source: deadline.com

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