Interview: ‘Society of the Snow’ Filmmaker J.A. Bayona Discusses How His Career Has Led Him to This Project

J.A. Bayona knows how to do spectacle. He also knows how to make your pulse race while keeping things intimate. Whether it’s The Impossible, A Monster Calls, The Orphanage, or anything he’s helmed, there’s a poet alongside a blockbuster director. He marries those incredibly well in Society of the Snow, one of his strongest works to date. Earlier in the week, composer Michael Giacchino spoke to me here about working alongside Bayona. Today, the man himself sits down to chat.

In my review of the movie (here), I spoke of the filmmaking, like so:

Director J.A. Bayona is so deeply invested in honoring the victims as well as the survivors, it leads to some very interesting choices. The script he co-wrote with Nicolás Casariego, Jaime Marques, and Bernat Vilaplana not only has a ghost essentially narrating from above, whenever anyone loses their life, they’re honored on screen. It’s incredibly respectful, while also being creative. At the same time, Bayona the director makes the crash absolutely thrilling. Armed with a strong score from composer Michael Giacchino, those moments work very well alongside the quieter ones. The pacing is a little slack, but this moves faster than you’d expect a two and a half hour movie to.

Below, you can hear my conversation with Bayona. I bring up all of his career, in part just to showcases how diverse a filmmaker he is, but also because it really does feel like everything has been building to this movie. He confirms that, while also giving some interesting stylistic tidbits about his prior flicks. Now that Society of the Snow has hit Netflix, you can watch and appreciate this film, which will almost certainly make you want to go back and revisit those other ones.

Here now is my interview with Society of the Snow filmmaker J.A. Bayona. Enjoy:

Society of the Snow is now streaming on Netflix!