The filmmaker J.A. Bayona anticipates the Spanish premiere of The Snow Society (2024 Oscar candidate) by first showing its soundtrack, that of the multi-award-winning American composer Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Jurassic World), whom the Barcelona director met a long time ago. 13 years at the Úbeda film festival and who is, along with Fernando Velázquez, his favorite collaborator. In a concert by the Simfònica del Vallès hosted by the Liceu on December 8, this and other music from successful Bayonne films such as The Orphanage (2007), The Impossible (2012), A Monster Comes to See (2016) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018).
How important is music for Bayona when planning a film? “It's a narrative element,” the winner of three Goyas and two Gaudís answers on the phone. “When you work with a good film musician,” he continues, “you work with a great storyteller. And he brings something to the film that goes beyond what can be articulated in words. Above all, I like to work on emotion. And there the musical contribution is important.”
Without going any further, in The Snow Society Bayona adapts Pablo Vierci's book about how the survivors of the famous 1972 plane crash in the Andes remember their adventures over the years. “There was a part of the book that was difficult to bring to the screen, because it represents the entire inner life of the characters. Unlike Viven, the bestseller about the tragedy, this one is based more on subsequent reflection 40 years after the accident. That was difficult to do in film, because it wasn't about turning the story into action and dialogue: what interested me most was that spiritual part. And that's where music can play an important role. Because although we release the film with the level of realism of a documentary, the narrative itself forces you to make a selection and interpretation of the facts. And that is where the music provides that invisible nuance that is in the book.”
Bayona says that he chats with the composer during the work process. Giacchino first got a general impression of the film: it was not musical, but narrative, and from there he built a more atonal music that could almost be confused with the sound design, and then ended up taking the form of a musical melody.”
As for Fernando Velázquez (Getxo, 1976), Bayona met him when he was making short films. He liked that he was “a genius who, with few resources, created music like the ones we liked to hear in big American productions.” So far they have collaborated on three films.
Bayona's references have always been classics: film music from the 70s and 80s... “but I'm opening up more and more,” says the admirer of John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith and Ennio Morricone. Film music has evolved over the decades, the audience has become more sophisticated and Bayona feels it deeply.
“There was a moment of great confusion in the 70s when it went against the traditional music that was made in the 40s and 50s. That fashion returned from John Williams and the soundtracks of Star Wars and Spielberg. There the use of the leitmotif returned with force. To be honest, I leave stylistic freedom to the composers, but both Velázquez and Giacchino draw from those classical sources. And it is true that the public today is becoming more reluctant to music that emphasizes excessively. Our bodies also asked us for The Snow Society to be more atonal and less invasive,” he concludes.
