“Opus”, interview with director Mark Anthony Green

At the 16th Bari International Film & Tv Festival, FRED Film Radio interviewed the director Mark Anthony Green to talk about “Opus”, a film with John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, Juliette Lewis, Murray Bartlett presented at Rosso di sera section.

The idea of tribalism

“Opus” describes celebrity as a dangerous cult. How does Mark Anthony Green think the obsession of fame, even among ordinary people through social media, is influencing our society? “I think the thing we interrogate in the movie is bigger than just celebrities” says the director. “It also goes to elected officials, it goes to community leaders. Opus is a super fun movie, it’s a wild ride. But the thing we interrogate – this idea of tribalism – it exists in religions, in churches, on television and in radio. Unfortunately it’s a universal kind of global pandemic that’s bigger than just celebrities. I chose a pop star because it felt like the most fun way to do it, but it’s a big problem”.

An authentic film

Before becoming a director, Mark Anthony Green was a journalist like Ariel, the main character of “Opus”. Through the film, the director also tells the story of the obsession of a certain type of journalists to be in the spotlight. “The journalism in Opus, to me, was really important to get the power dynamic correct. And that was it”, says Green. “If her relationship to Moretti was different, if she was an assistant or something like that, then I still think we could have told this story. I’m sure that I brought a lot of my experience when I look back at young Mark Anthony and the mistakes that he made when he was Ariel’s age. It was easy for me to apply a lot of that, because I lived it and was a journalist for 13 years. But the most important thing was just for it to feel accurate, for young journalists to watch this film and feel like: “Oh, that is an accurate representation of me”. And I felt the same way about pop stars. I wanted Elton John, Liberace and David Bowie, if they were still here, to be able to watch this film and to be like: ‘Yep, those songs sound right’. I think that authenticity is something that I owe the audience. And I’m super proud to say that Opus is a very authentic film’”.

Artists aren’t supposed to have answers

It took Mark Anthony Green six years to make “Opus”. And in these years the world has become even darker, making the film even more relevant. “I would trade the relevancy in a heartbeat if it meant the film was less relevant. But unfortunately, that’s not our current situation”, says the director. “And I think in particular, this very specific thing that Opus kind of tackles and interrogates, the world has gotten much worse in that regard. And so I don’t pretend to have any answers. I don’t think artists are supposed to have answers. We’re supposed to provoke and to create experiences that people share and that smart come up with the answers and figure out a better path forward for us”.

The need to have idols

“Opus” puts a cult at the center of the story. But why, according to the director, do we need idols so much? “I think it’s very human. One of the most human instincts is to want to belong to something bigger than yourself. To want to belong to a group, to be connected and tethered to other classes of people and a guild or a movement or whatever. That is so human”, says Mark Anthony Green. “And with less and less people being religious and having organized religion in their life, I do think that we’ve kind of supplemented the void of that with these people. And it’s so visceral and it can also be fun and it can feel like you really belong to something. But I think the question that Opus asks is: ‘Does this still serve us?’. Are we better off because of our extreme belief and idolatry of these people or has this institution gone too far?’”.

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