The Man Behind 'A Most Violent Year' - Interview With J.C. Chandor (The Hollywood News)

 

‘80s-set corporate morality tale A MOST VIOLENT YEAR has been earmarked as one to watch more than most. Echoing Sidney Lumet’s urban thrillers of the ’70s, it brings a fresh sensibility to the genre by casting two of American cinema’s true up and comers – Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.

Looking to the past while paving a way to the future, the talent behind the project is writer/director J.C. Chandor. THN got the chance to sit down and talk turkey with the man himself. Expecting him to be a serious-minded sort, we were surprised to find Chandor open and talkative about his work, giving detailed insights into everything from his leading lady’s fingernails and getting tributed by Jonah Hill, to the elements that inspired the highly-intriguing end result…

THN: The setting for the film is very specific and gives the story its title. What came first for you, the setting or the characters?

JC Chandor: The characters were definitely the starting point, and then they sort of needed a home. So I built up these characters… and there was a very sad school shooting. Very catastrophic situation where a young kid just went nuts and shot up a little elementary school near me, and I had kids who were in an elementary school at the time… And I found myself literally Googling the phrase ‘What was the most violent year in New York City history?’ Then all these crime statistics came up, and I found this chart… this movie starts, it takes place in January of ‘81, so 1981 is basically when, you know, the statistics started to peak, it was the crash, the wave… And my characters suddenly had a very specific home and I had a good title. (Laughs)

So, an unusual starting point perhaps, but one that was inspirational to you..?

Yeah. I find that a lot of interesting things come from that, and from numbers. Just following where it takes me. I remember Stanley Tucci gave a speech in my first film (MARGIN CALL) where it’s all about numbers, and it’s a great character moment for him, because you’re seeing his intelligence, but you’re also seeing what he cares about, and his regrets and everything else. But it came  from this fun search… it turns out there’s a website where people chart every bridge in the United States… and I actually found a real bridge in a real place, and then I just started running math on that particular city and everything else, and his entire speech in the movie basically wrote itself. (Laughs)

 

Moving onto Jessica Chastain… This is certainly a type of role I haven’t seen her in before. How did you develop that character and performance between you?

She’s wonderful, she was very involved… Jessica signed on very early in the process. She read a very early draft of the piece and was integral… I had a bunch of ideas I hadn’t put in yet, and I would slowly pitch those to her and it was a real collaboration on that role.

In this particular instance we just knew the character’s wardrobe was so important, as a formal presentation to the world, of who she was or who she wanted to be. So my costume designer and I, with Jessica and with help from the Armani Collection who Jessica had worked with before… they basically opened up their archives to Jessica and my costume designer, and they got to go in there and find this woman… and it was a blast from there, the long fingernails… her Mom had fingernails that were of similar length. That was of course a sign in that period, which was that you didn’t have to do manual labour in your house anymore. Almost a form of a corset basically, because you didn’t have to, obviously… and so that was what was going on in that period and this character was certainly trying to present that image to the world. The irony was she was integral to the success of that company, only by using her head instead of her hands.

Speaking of her hands, there’s that now-famous scene where she’s talking with David Oyelowo and she flicks the cigarette… I understand that became quite a talking point?

(Laughs) It has. In fact an actor that I know, nice guy… at one point, I’d met him once but I didn’t know him very well at that point… He was walking by my wife and I in a pub, and he kept doing this thing, smiling at me then doing this thing Jessica does, and then mouthing something. It was actually Jonah Hill! And I said to my wife ‘Why does Jonah Hill keep mouthing at me and making this gesture?’ We’re like old forty year olds with young kids, we aren’t exactly up on the latest trends. (Laughs) And she’s like ‘I have no idea, have you ever pissed him off?’ And then he finally comes over ‘cos he realizes we are not getting what he’s doing, and he’s like ‘That was so disrespectful’, or whatever she says in the film…

And then you twigged?

He said ‘You didn’t you know this was from your movie?’ We both looked at each other and laughed tremendously. That is all Jessica, and that’s what’s so fun, when you let someone… both she and Oscar are Juilliard-trained actors, they went to school together, and the amazing thing about classically-trained actors like that is that they get so comfortable with that role and with that material… The words become the Bible for them, and then they are so free to add all these other things to those words. That line is of course exactly the way it was in the script, but then it’s so fun to see an actor or actress then take it and make it everything and more than you ever thought it could be. It’s pretty cool when you see that.

 

Regarding Oscar Isaac… an interesting thing for me is the dual nature of his character. He tries to avoid violence but appears confrontational in his business dealings and can be an aggressive operator. Do you agree or did you take a more sympathetic view?

No. I mean, I think he is a believer in the rule of law and the backstory that Oscar and I kind of dreamed up with him is… physical violence as a matter of pragmatic thinking… You know, logic in a common sense. So I don’t think he’s opposed to the use of force in all cases, and in policing and anything else. He’s not some kind of pacifist, but as a pragmatic, logic-based individual he realizes that in his particular instance, and I would think in most instances of business, which is what he’s most interested in, it’s a last resort if at all, and it’s a matter of your emotions getting the better of you… if you were to resort to that… good things are not going to come from it. And I think he believes that in a lot of different ways.

But as a citizen of planet Earth he is a very ambitious believer in animalistic instincts, and is a believer in capitalism and that it is a very successful way of organizing individuals and trying to motivate them and move the ball forward… so as a pragmatist he’s pretty ruthless. And obviously there’s a moment in the movie where, for me at least, his character completely shifts, which is the moment he speaks to the wife (of his delivery driver protégé, who gets hijacked during the film and flees the scene)… he basically says ‘I’m not going to let the mistakes of others stand in my fucking way.’ So that is brutal in its cold honesty. He will step through you… and if you are standing directly in his way through your incompetence, panic, weakness…

Of course what he says right before that, is: ‘Why did he run?’ I think he understands why he had a gun… Oscar and I discussed this actually, would he have fired the guy if he had just found out the guy had armed himself? And we never came to a conclusion, maybe Oscar did. But what he says in the script, which of course is what you have to believe of the character, is he goes ‘Why did he run? Why did he run?’ And it’s that moment of panic, which is essentially, I think, in Abel’s mind, is really just weakness… At that time in New York City there were famous cases, legal cases, of people who were arming themselves and shooting people dead in “self defence”, so the kid probably wouldn’t have been in that much trouble, he probably would have been back home two weeks later, frankly… I think that sort of weakness is a brutal… That’s capitalism and survival of the fittest. Is he unlucky for having been born at the time he was, for coming to America when he did, for choosing that neighbourhood to live in? Abel did not face that when he came to New York in the 1960s, he was like a young immigrant kid, he had a very peaceful time to grow up with. So that’s where the luck of it comes in… Anyway, probably a little too many layers there for most people to pick up on, but there you have it.

 

Talking of capitalism and what-have-you, this is an ‘80s-set film where that ethos came to the fore in society. Were there any other movies of the period that influenced you?

I think from memory, absolutely. My movies, at least the three that I’ve had the opportunity to make so far, have all started out as lighting exercises basically. And so as a writer I certainly don’t go back and watch other films of a period or of a genre, or come at something purely the way a director would… Because a lot of directors I greatly respect will go in and watch the fifteen greatest and the five worst movies ever made in a particular genre when they’re about to dive into it.

Very specific numbers!

Yeah exactly, as sort of an exploration. But as a writer I certainly don’t do that. And then I think, not as any organized thing… once it’s written it’s sort of crystallized in my head in a way, so then I don’t want to go back and do that.

I think the memories of films, going all the way back to the 1940s, classic Hollywood gangster films kind of stuff… You know, that opening scene of Jessica, she’s like the classic femme fatale… where she’s in a negligee in front of a mirror with a cigarette putting on make up. (Laughs) It’s literally out of a film noir or something. But by the end of the film it is in fact her signature that is the final signature that you realize is needed to seal this deal, and at that moment the archetype from that type of film is slayed, because certainly the woman wouldn’t be the last, most powerful penstroke.

So I’m playing off of those movies, and in a way the films of the ‘70s were kind of playing off the ‘40s and ‘50s, they were reinventing those films. So I’m certainly playing off audiences’ memories of those experiences. And obviously the fact that Oscar has, and has had since the day he graduated from Juilliard, which has followed him his entire career… he has this certain Pacino element.

The character runs a heating oil business… there’s a neat story about that actually. The restaurant we shot that scene in where he walks up to the table and the other families are sitting around the table… We chose this restaurant which was a classic Brooklyn red sauce joint, and the bartender was an old, great guy, and he looks at the lighting, and he looks at what we had done to the room… And I was sitting down at the bar writing something in a notebook as we were shooting. He says to me… you know, where we were shooting, the section of Brooklyn that has a bunch of canals in it, where heating oils and different gasolines were stored, exactly like what was going on in the movie… he said after the GODFATHER films came out all the guys from that industry used to start having all their normal, boring business meetings in these formal settings – they were almost recreating the movie! Is art imitating life, or is life imitating art? (Laughs)

My Dad was a stockbroker and he said after WALL STREET came out suddenly everyone started dressing like those guys. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. Oscar and I, maybe in retrospect, might have overplayed that a little bit, but it was certainly fun that you got to play with your expectations, because obviously the two characters… his character and the Godfather… couldn’t be more different. That guy was inheriting an empire, and this is a guy trying to make one. In terms of the American experience those are two very different sides to the spectrum.

This interview appeared on The Hollywood News.

A Most Violent Year DVD Review (The Hollywood News)

Imagine if Sidney Lumet had directed THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY. That instead of a blood-soaked gangster thriller about a man trying to better himself with guns and fists you had something more thoughtful, yet just as sinister. Writer/director J.C. Chandor’s third film takes the backdrop of New York at the outset of 1981 – the notorious year of the title – and uses it as context for the engrossing story of an entrepreneur trying to operate the cleanest way possible in the murkiest of environments.

Oscar Isaac plays Abel, who runs a heating oil company and finds himself in a dilemma when delivery driver Julian (Elyes Gabel) is hijacked by armed thugs and the fuel stolen. His wife, mobster’s daughter Anna (Chastain), wants him to man up and take the battle to his enemies, but he’s looking for the “most right” way to handle the situation. “Most right” instead of “right” – that definition is key to the way Isaac thinks and to how he goes about eventually resolving his woes as it becomes increasingly clear he’s being targeted by unknown competitors.

Though the performances are all good (showcasing a trio of actors who are going to be important over the next few years), it is Isaac who forms the core of the movie. His dilemma is a fascinating one – despite his attempts to follow a code and not resort to violence he is steeped in it, and to a certain extent has entered willingly into a warzone in the first place. Right hand man Albert Brooks describes an investigation by the DA (Oyelowo) as a “badge of honour” in a business where getting grime under your fingernails is part and parcel of the game. Abel is a purveyor of threats and intimidation when it comes to his own interests, and with Isaac’s contained intensity it’s only a matter of time before things get physical. His dual nature is what makes A MOST VIOLENT YEAR so interesting.

Chandor and cinematographer Bradford Young recreate the dingy glamour of THE GODFATHER, enhancing the restrained feel of a story that could easily spill over into the extreme but doesn’t. The run-down locations, covered in graffiti, look like they’ve been there for decades (though apparently the vandalism was added in post-production!). Chastain boasts an array of Armani-based looks, and at points resembles Michelle Pfeiffer in Brian De Palma’s SCARFACE, appropriate given the echoes of Moroder-style synthesizer amongst Alex Ebert’s sparse soundtrack, which is both elegant and suggestive of an approaching menace.

There’s a single action sequence involving a chase through a tunnel that works wonders, playing out as an atmospheric riff on THE FRENCH CONNECTION. And while there’s an inevitable human cost paid at the end of the tale, it’s combined with an icy air of self interest, as everyone is revealed to be somewhat fluid in the morality department. All’s fair in business – an apt conclusion to events set in the era of “Greed is good”.

What stops A MOST VIOLENT YEAR from being a classic is the fact you simply don’t engage with the characters. Poor Julian gets the rough end of the deal, but he’s very much a side character. No-one in the main cast has a redeeming feature, and while Isaac’s situation is watchable, you view it as a detached observer rather than someone who cares about what happens. Maybe this was Chandor’s idea, setting the piece as he does at a time when surface became the be and end all of society. However if that’s the intention I still felt rather removed from proceedings.

The features are exhaustive. You get short featurettes giving a thorough insight into the process, some longer sections delving a bit deeper and as a pleasant diversion for fans there’s a friendly chat between Isaac and Chastain, who it turns out went to school together. Crucially there isn’t an abundance of repetition (outside of the promotional clips) and the cast and crew are articulate.

Chandor’s achievement here is taking a genre that in the hands of a lesser director would be a stylistic exercize, and making it breathe again with a bit of intelligence, bringing something new to the table via complex characters and a mature sensibility. You won’t be rooting for these people, but their scenario will stay with you long after the credits have rolled.

This review appeared on The Hollywood News.