New York City in 1981 was a city recovering from a fiscal crisis while its citizens were plagued by an increase in prostitution, drug-related crimes and homicides. This is the year and place where writer-director J.C. Chandor decided to set his new film, “A Most Violent Year.”
The film stars Oscar Isaac as an immigrant who fights to protect his business in New York City with his wife, played by Jessica Chastain.
When Chandon stopped by The Frame's studio, host John Horn asked a seeming dichotomy between the film's title and its content.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
Why choose the title, "A Most Violent Year," when hardly any violence happens in the film?
I've decided to put this couple that's at the heart of the film — a husband and wife who run a business together — but [what] the title refers to is that it's their most violent year. It's their experience in this time. I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarantino movies and the like, but this is a movie that plays on your own bloodlust. This is by no means a spaghetti western.
You set up early on that there's going to be gunplay, but at the same time, you are setting this up for what they really are not.
Most people who reach real success don't kill people — not to be too cute about it — but what I'm trying to do in the film is really play off the fear, which is really the most wide-reaching byproduct of violence. There's the horrible act at the core and then these waves kind of go out. But as those waves go out, they start to affect this massive population, especially in a place like New York.
What these two are doing is sort of altering their path of what they would normally do under normal circumstances. And a lot of that is not always rational, but it doesn't mean that you don't start steering a civilization or city in an entirely different direction. I'm playing off your expectations, obviously, and hopefully still giving you the emotional kind of fun — that's the wrong word — but the thrill that you would [get] from a classic gangster film.
The character played by Oscar Isaac, Abel Morales, dresses and acts a lot like some gangsters we've seen in movies before. Was it intentional that he remind audiences of a certain type of character?
The simplest way to put it is, in 1981 — in that world — all of these gangster films of that period literally affected the way people did business and dressed. Just like my father always said after the movie "Wall Street" came out, everyone on his trading floor starting dressing differently because of the movie. Actually, I think Oliver Stone is still upset that people wanted to emulate his villain.
But look, it's a fact that movies affect the way people act and dress and, in a way, I think Oscar certainly has made this character his own. And once you see the movie, you realize what we're playing off against, but it's also just absolutely what that man at that time in that period, from that cultural background, would have dressed like. It's someone who's very formal and wants to present this suit of armor to the world — those '80s power suits with the huge shoulders and everything were designed to come into the room and that's certainly what we're trying to do with the film.
In all your films, your characters are battling for survival in extreme situations. Why attracts you to these kinds of stories?
My characters — all of them throughout the three films I've made — I think are normal people [who] just kind of want to keep going with what they're doing. And because of these outside forces, whatever they may be, [the characters] are tested. You know, I'm a pragmatist, too, and to get people off of their couch and go to a movie theater in this day-and-age takes something that has to be somewhat heightened — really give them an event so that those two hours or three hours that it takes to get there and get home are a worthwhile journey.
“A Most Violent Year,” starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, opens December 31st.