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Where is Ignacio Estrada Today?
This summer, an idiosyncratic filmmaker from overseas who got his start make unique crime movies releases his latest movie, an adaptation of a classic Greek myth. No, I’m not talking about The Odyssey. I’m referring to Her Private Hell, the latest from Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn.
The first trailer for Her Private Hell lacks anything you’d expect from a Greek myth: no gods wearing laurels, no heroes in togas, not a single transformation from human to animal. Instead, it looks a lot like Refn’s other Hollywood films, all attractive young people, glowing lights, and strange music. Yet, the voiceover about a woman who goes missing does at least bring to mind the story of Eurydice and Orpheus, which inspires part of Refn’s movie.
Written by Refn and Esti Giordani, Her Private Hell stars Sophie Thatcher as Elle, a woman looking for her father after a strange mist invades her futuristic city. Along the way, she crosses paths with Private K (Charles Melton), a military man whose daughter has been trapped in the underworld. Rounding out the cast are Havana Rose Liu and Diego Calva as, as far as we can tell from the trailer, incredibly good-looking people, and Dougray Scott playing a guy credited as “Johnny Thunders,” so is maybe the New York Dolls guitarist?
Obviously, we don’t know really what to expect from Her Private Hell, but we do know Winding Refn will be borrowing from the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. According to legend, Orpheus and Eurydice are young lovers whose happiness comes to an abrupt end when a snake bites Eurydice, killing her. To rescue her, a desperate Orpheus travels to the underworld and plays a song for Hades, who agrees to let them go with one condition: he may not turn back and look at her until they’re back in the land of the living. The two almost make it, but when doubt overcomes him at the exit, and he turns around, damning her in hell forever.
