An Examination of Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Simple and Creative Use of a Quadrant System in the Film ‘Drive’

Tony Zhou of the film analysis series Every Frame a Painting (previously) examines how director Nicolas Winding Refn utilized a simple quadrant system to create “tightly composed and weirdly unpredictable” shots in his 2011 neo-noir arthouse crime thriller film Drive starring Ryan Gosling.

One of the many pleasures of Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘Drive’ (2011) is that the shots feel both tightly composed and weirdly unpredictable. Even though most of the images follow a simple quadrant system, Refn puts plenty of subtle touches within the frame.