"The Neon Demon" at Gandules

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Film still from "The Neon Demon" directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (Denmark, France, United States, 2016).

Nicolas Winding Refn, the director of Drive (2011), is the author of this abstraction about the poison of fame and the desire (and hunger) for other people’s beauty. Nocturnal and hallucinatory, packed with neon lights, hypnotic symmetries, lurex and glitter, The Neon Demon is also an amazing visual spectacle, endlessly imitated since its premiere (and never surpassed).

In the vein of films like Showgirls (1995) and Maps to the Stars (2014), The Neon Demon is a ruthless tale about Los Angeles as a place that promises dreams and creates monsters. Jesse (Elle Fanning), a naive and dazzlingly beautiful teenager, arrives there with a suitcase and the desire to succeed as a model. Five years after his smash hit Drive (2011) and three years after casting off conventional narratives with Only God Forgives (2013), Nicolas Winding Refn freed himself from the burden of storytelling to formulate this fascinating abstraction on the poison of fame. And fame, in this case, is linked to a pathological obsession with beauty.

In The Neon Demon, beauty—seen as perfection and associated with youth—is synonymous with power and, therefore, a source of desire, envy, obsession and tragedy. Nocturnal and hallucinatory, packed with neon lights, hypnotic symmetries, lurex and glitter, Winding Refn’s film is a visual spectacle, imitated endlessly since its premiere (and never surpassed), as well as an unpredictable take on the fantastic. This, and terror, is the filmmaker’s starting point for taking envy of other people’s beauty—and hunger for it—to extremes.

The film will be screened in original version and subtitled in Catalan.

A film in the 2026 edition of Gandules Cinema in the Open Air.

Summer Cinema Under the Stars

Barcelona’s summer film festivals invite viewers to spend a balmy evening on the beach or in a courtyard watching an assortment of classic and contemporary flicks. Check out our article Summer Cinema Under the Stars where you'll discover the perfect place to spend an afternoon out of the heat or a night enjoying a film under the stars.

For more events check our online events calendar.