Jena Malone in the Morgue Scene from Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon (2016)

Jena Malone plays Ruby in “The Neon Demon” (2016), Nicolas Winding Refn’s stylised horror film about the Los Angeles fashion industry. Ruby is a makeup artist who befriends Jesse, a newcomer model, and also works preparing bodies at a mortuary. In this scene, set in the cold blue light of the morgue, Ruby is alone with the body of a woman, played by Cody Renee Cameron, after Jesse has rejected her advances. She applies makeup to the corpse and then kisses and caresses it, a deeply disturbing moment that shows how far her obsession has gone. Refn shoots it with long, still takes and an eerie electronic score, leaving the audience unsettled rather than aroused. Both actresses are partly nude in the scene. The Neon Demon divided critics on release but has become a cult film for its bold visuals and its satire of beauty, envy and predatory ambition, with the story ending in an even more shocking act of violence. This scene is often cited as one of the most transgressive moments in mainstream twenty tens cinema.

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