EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: CONTAINS PROFANITY

All smiles off the screen but few on it in Ryan Gosling's new movie "Only God Forgives", premiered at Cannes on Tuesday.

The A-list actor notable by his absence on the red carpet, instead in the U.S. directing his first movie.

Director Nicolas Winding Refn and Gosling had previously teamed up for the 2011 hit 'Drive'.

But despite winning the best director award two years ago, Refn is still having to defend the bloody nature of his tales.

SOUNDBITE: Director Nicolas Winding Refn, saying (English):

"I have surely a fetish for violent emotions, violent images, and I just can't explain where it comes from but I do believe through art it's a way to exorcise certain things in you."

Only God Forgives is a story of revenge.

Set in the haunting neon streets of Bangkok, it describes the tale of two brothers running a boxing club as a front for a drugs ring.

Gosling's character must battle his own demons