|
Art Imitates Life
By Paul Boyd, director and co-writer of Vicious Circle
(from the 2008 HBO New York International Latino Film Festival)
I love going to the movies. As often as I can, I make the effort to go out, sit in the dark and be transported into a new reality. I'm addicted, a movie freak; I love them, always have. If I get the luxury of feeling some emotion while watching a film - even an inkling, a heart tug, a wet eye, even sick to my stomach - I'm happy.
Not that I'm a push-over, but I do try to see the good in even the worst films. I suppose this is because, as filmmaker, I know how truly challenging it is to bring a vision successfully from the page to the screen.
To make people laugh or cry; to make them feel something. That's all I wanted my film to do; to have an emotional connection. When you feel emotion, it makes you think - and I wanted to make a film that made people think, to draw their own conclusions. I didn't want to dumb down the structure in fear of tasking the audience. I happen to be fond of stories that involve me and make me use my intellect. I enjoy movies that tax my brain and make me think. I believe Hitchcock always had that canny ability to keep the viewer on the edge by giving them just enough information. Not that I claim to be in the same league as the Master, but his example of "less is more" is a lesson for most filmmakers.
With Vicious Circle, I wanted to make a film that was puzzle-like in a sense, but only as it pertains to the circle, which is the major structural theme of this film. Overcoming fear and learning how to break the vicious circle is the message of the film - breaking out of a rut or a pattern formed since childhood. Once set in motion, early habits and prejudices are hard to break.
The story in Vicious Circle moves in many smaller circles, revisiting scenes with new information, allowing fresh perspectives on the events. I wanted the film to reflect how we all (as human beings) assume things about each other. Assumption is a major theme in the film, as every character assumes something or other that, in turn, contributes to the plot.
In an abstract sense, a lot of my own life is in this story. This connection to the theme makes it a more important story for me to tell. I wanted the film to be a lesson for my own two children who, like the people in the story, are of mixed race and share a father but have different mothers. The film is a message for them and others to stick together - the harder the climb, the prettier the view. The film is about the bigger picture, not the details; what's behind the surface of what makes us tick. How ego and subconscious truly drive the train of our emotions and actions. The film is a metaphor for life in the same way chess is for war: Success in the game of life is based on how we play.
Vicious Circle is, essentially, a love story about sacrifice and how in life it is often others who pay for our sins. Everyone in the film paves his or her own path; each is responsible for what happens to him- or herself. I believe this to be true in life.
I don't see enough films that represent young Latinos. With this film, I wanted to make a movie for them, for the thousands of young Hispanic teens whom I see every day in L.A. A movie for them that has style and a modern sensibility, avoiding typical themes. RJ (Paul Rodriguez Jr.) and Angel (Emily Rios) are the cutting-edge of Latino street youth; they both push the boundaries of creativity and dream of one day transcending beyond their neighborhoods. |
The fragility of a rose, the courage of a knight, the power of a king - these symbols, like many others, are important to this story. The rite of passage in becoming an adult, a chess piece making it all the way across the board. In the film, the knight checkmates the king when the son confronts his father about the wrong moves he made in the past and how they affected the family. The knight becomes the king, the son becomes the patriarch; it's an important development in the hero's journey. Odysseus took ten years to return from the Trojan War; RJ takes one day to return home from his war. But sometimes one bad day can bring a lifetime of change. I tried to stay true to the rules of chess with regard to how it affects the motivations of the characters, boiling things down to their basic form; RJ's skateboard is his horse, and he moves in mostly "L" shapes.
The vicious circle in the film is the family's plight, which can be fixed only by the two opposites coming to terms with their inherent differences and accepting the harmony; working in unison after a life of opposition. That's the significance of the logo: two chess horses interlocked as the yin and yang, opposed yet in flow. That is the Vicious Circle. Photos courtesy of the filmmaker.
The film won Best Picture at the 2008 New York International Latino Film Festival, where it world premiered. |
|
|
