JC Chandor, hands in gold – BBC

VIDEO – At 39, the American director up for lost time. In the space of five years and three films, including a new one with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain, the filmmaker has already made a solid reputation.

His first film, Margin Call (2011), showed the scenes of an investment bank on Wall Street the night before a stock market crash. For camera panting, the novice trader son, was offered a luxury cast: Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Demi Moore, Simon Baker and Zachary Quinto. Chandor enjoying his selection at the Sundance Film Festival to catch a big fish: Robert Redford. The septuagenarian actor agreed to be alone on a stormy sea in the beautiful All Is Lost (2013).

A year later, A Most Violent Year meets Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain and confirms Copyright qualities and director of a man who does not sulk his pleasure. “I have eaten my brakes for too long not to enjoy it and now go for that one gives me the opportunity to make films.” Prior to his name at the top of the poster, JC Chandor has directed commercials. For over ten years, he ruminated. He even left everything at one time to become a real estate agent. Then his perseverance paid off. “I have also been lucky, admits Chandor. Robert Redford liked the script of All Is Lost and it was available. I could turn very quickly, whereas in the past, two projects have collapsed when entering into production. “

A Most Violent Year has done in a less rushed. The young director has imagined there are already five years this pair of ambitious entrepreneurs and ordinary immersed in the New York of 1981, the most violent year in the history of the city, according to statistics. Chandor was 8 years old in 1981. “I grew up in New Jersey, a suburb of New York. My father worked in the center and I remember that when I went to see him at his office, I had the impression of entering a dangerous city. “

Chandor does not hide its influences, the Sidney Lumet Serpico in William Friedkin French Connection . But A Most Violent YEAR is a brilliant tribute to a lost Hollywood cinema. With this gangster film without corpses (or so), the director of Margin Call continues to sift capitalism. And remember that we do not buy share of the American dream without compromise nor envious.

Insecurity is the price to pay in a country where firearms are freely available. “When I was writing the script, there was a shooting at a high school 15 minutes from home, remembers Chandor. After that, the school of my daughter, who is 7, has an armed guard at the entrance. Unfortunately, this will not prevent a young sociopath 19 years to make a carnage. “Pessimistic, Chandor? “The film is pessimistic, but the characters are optimistic. The city is harsh and corrupt, but the couple did not leak. I would speak more disillusionment and sadness. “Two words that explain why producers do not fight to finance such a film. And give him all the money.