Last night, the Film Independent at LACMA series hosted a free Members-only screening of writer-director J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year, which had its world premiere as the opening night film of AFI Fest last month and will hit theaters December 31. Chandor and Oscar Isaac, the film’s star, stuck around after the screening for a Q&A with Film Independent curator Elvis Mitchell, during which they discussed sociopathic businessmen, old-school gangster movies and what makes a year most violent.

When Chandor’s last film, All Is Lost, was in post-production and he was beginning to work on this script, a horrific school shooting and the subsequent security measures at his own daughter’s elementary school inspired him to research crime statistics, which was when he discovered that the year 1981 was statistically one of New York City’s most violent. So 1981 New York is the film’s setting, and Isaac stars as Abel Morales, an immigrant trying to expand his business and build an empire amid incredible violence and corruption that threatens to destroy everything he’s worked for. Jessica Chastain also stars, as Abel’s wife, Anna.

“A lot of people have have said, ‘you know, the movie’s not actually that violent! It’s called A Most Violent Year,’” Chandor said, “which, when compared against other movies, that’s very true. But when compared against a couple trying to run a small- to medium-sized business, if you actually look at the acts of violence in the film…there are horrible things that happen.” Mitchell pointed out that the title doesn’t refer only to physical violence, but emotional violence as well. Isaac agreed: “it’s their most violent year.”

“The sort of structure I’m playing with is the classic—going back to the 1930s, almost—gangster films,” Chandor said. “In a way, I’m playing off that entire history of those films, but trying to do something a little different with it, flip it on its tail.” Isaac was inspired by a very different source: “I read Memoirs of Hadrian,” he said, “and I just thought it was such an interesting dissection of ambition, and power, and detachment and also ethics… So I did think of [Abel], a bit, as that—as an emperor, as someone trying to transition from ambition to mastery.”

Abel and Anna are complex, compelling characters, and both Isaac and Chastain are getting a lot of awards season buzz for their performances already. After Isaac first read the script, Chandor recalled, “He was like, ‘I don’t like money, I don’t like real estate and I don’t like business, but I want to play this part!’” Isaac spoke about some of the challenges of accessing the emotion underneath Abel’s pride and obsessive ambition. “I did actually read a lot about sociopaths in business,” he said, “and the idea of someone who puts on empathetic traits even though they don’t actually feel them, as a means to an end.” At the same time, however, “he’s someone with vision and optimism, and when everybody else is leaving the city, he’s choosing to build.”

“You’ve had these characters in all three of your films,” Mitchell observed. “The question is: is it vision or delusion?”

“It’s both,” Chandor replied; “it’s human.”

Mary Sollosi / Film Independent Blogger