Juan Antonio Bayona traces her rich Filmo: “Cinema is a feeling of wonder”
Guest of honor at the Nantes Spanish Cinema Festival, Juan Antonio Bayona returns for first on the entire filmography, including series, as well as this World War Z 2 which he never shot.
Between his masterclass and the screening of some of his films (The orphanage, a few minutes after midnight And The snow circle), Juan Antonio Bayona granted us a little of his time around a Coffee CON LECHE. The guest of honor of the Nantes Spanish Cinema Festival engages in his work, made up of six films and two series. Encounter.
The orphanage (2007)
Bayona signs a very solid first film, halfway between family drama and horror. Very big success that immediately attracts Hollywood’s attention. But the Spaniard does not eat (yet) this bread.
“When I was a kid, I was constantly afraid. And it is strangely the discovery of horror cinema that ended up healing me. I loved it. So when I do The orphanageI am inspired by a large number of genre films that have marked me. I am often told about the news The nut tour by Henry James, but I was above all influenced by his cinema adaptation, The innocentwritten by Truman Capot and directed by Jack Clayton. And then of course Rosemary’s Baby of Polanski… The theme of childhood interests me particularly and there is a lot of Peter Pan in the scenario of The orphanagethat I signed with Sergio G. Sánchez. We hypothesized that the character of Wendy could have developed a form of cruelty by dint of tirelessly waiting Peter at his window … The kind of drama that speaks to me (Laughter.)
With the success of the film, I received many Hollywood proposals. But I was in a good school: I grew up next to the sites festival (The International Fantastic Film Festival in Catalonia) and I met a number of European directors who had this kind of opportunity. Some left there making remakes there, many others have disillusioned … I didn’t want to go to the United States this way, even if I have always been admiring Hollywood cinema. I was offered Twilight 3 And Hunger Games 2but I decided to do The impossiblewhose theme really resonated with me. And it was a film in English but produced in Spain, with a Spanish technical team: a good compromise to keep control. »»
The Impossible (2012)
The 2004 tsunami in Thailand seen through the eyes of a family. A great melo under the cover of a disaster film, whose scene the unstoppable wave remains an immense piece of immersive cinema.
“This scene asked for a year of preparation. The whole film was based on it, we couldn’t miss. A quote has been asked specialists in special effects in London, just to see how Hollywood production would have proceeded. Assessment: 11 million pounds to achieve only half of the scene, when we only had $ 2 million to turn the whole! We returned to Madrid and we made the choice to use traditional effects rather than digital special effects.
What really motivated me was to create an immersive feeling, something deeply sensory. My goal was that the spectator felt like the wave in front of him, then to be trapped in the water. I am not really a fan of catastrophe cinema, in any case it is not what moves me the most. The first film I saw was Supermanwhen I was three years old. And what I felt when he flies for the first time remained deeply rooted in me. A Sense of Wondera feeling of wonder. For me, that’s cinema. I run after this emotion in each of my films. »»
Penny Dreadful (2014) – 2 episodes
A rereading of fantastic literary creatures of the 19th century, with a high -end cast (Eva Green, Josh Hartett, Timothy Dalton…). Bayona helps to develop the project, puts the first two episodes in a box, and then leaves.
“The most difficult was to put on the rails a series of this magnitude and to have to let it go … a Coer. But I was happy to take my first steps in Hollywood this way. It allowed me to see how this environment worked, without the pressure of having my name directly associated with the series. I was very super of course with the showrunner John Logan, a great guy. What interested me in this project was to be able to offer my version of all this gallery of characters from classical horror cinema, such as Frankenstein, the werewolf or the vampire. The idea of working on these legendary figures seduced me enormously. And visually, it’s not bad, right? »»
World War Z 2 (never released)
Always courted by the United States, Bayona agrees to carry out the continuation of World War Z With Brad Pitt. The film will never see the light of day. A few years later, David Fincher was also broken his teeth on the project.
“It was a year of intense work that ultimately resulted in anything. From the start, we thought that if we couldn’t find the right story, then we wouldn’t make the film. It is not for lack of having imagined major scenes that I would have loved filming … However, it was very stimulating to collaborate with the plan B team, the production company of Brad Pitt. The process was very happy. But this type of project often has a set date set even before writing or filming begins … And at one point, I realized that I did not feel enough the need to tell this story myself. This is why I preferred to spread the project. »»
A few minutes after midnight (2016)
Bayona adapts Patrick Ness’s novel where a kid takes refuge in his imaginary world to face her mother’s illness. Modest project but absolutely monstrous tear powerful.
“Before you start A few minutes after midnightI was asked if I wanted to make the first Jurassic World. I thought about it a lot before making a decision … but I was too seduced by the story of Patrick Ness. What interested me in his book was that he showed how necessary the stories to assimilate reality. I wanted to explore this theme in depth, to tell how fairy tales exercise power over us and how much fiction helps us to understand the world.
It was difficult to say no to Steven Spielberg, who was an immense influence for me, both in my filmphilia and on a personal level. But I felt that I could not let the opportunity pass A few minutes after midnightwhich is ironically very ” Spielbergian ”. Steven is an ultra intuitive filmmaker, and I think I get it more and more. When I compare my first film to my last, I can see that my cinema is much freer. I now allow myself to be surprised during the shooting.
On The impossible And A few minutes after midnightthere was what one might call ‘happy accidents”, moments where the actors do something unexpected that raises the scene. You really become addicted to these moments. I think everything to plan at the extreme sometimes prevents something magic from happening. This is why you should not strictly stick to preparatory work. Filming is the most creative moment in the film: we are deconstructing to better rebuild. »»
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Difficult to say no twice to Steven Spielberg. In the midst of the constraints linked to such a franchise, Bayona struggles to try to inject the project a little of him and his obsessions.
“This is a perfect summary of what I felt (Laughter.) I had said no to Hollywood several times, but the pitch of Jurassic World Pique my interest. In particular the idea of destroying the island and creating, in the second part, something that would look like a haunted house film with dinosaurs (Laughter.). The problem with these big franchises is that after the first film, it is complicated not to repeat yourself. But I was left to do a pure B series and besides, this is what finally pleased Spielberg when he saw the film. He liked that we manage to inject new blood while respecting the universe he set up with the first two Jurassic Park.
I was very aware of playing in Steven’s sandbox, but it was exciting to work alongside him. I have moved memories of our discussions on my staging ideas. I learned my job by watching his films, so imagine vertigo … And then, I’m not going to lie to you: the film having been a great success, it allowed me to move to the preparation of the Snow circlea project that I had in mind for a while and for which I was already looking for funding before Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. »»
The Lord of the Rings: the power rings (2022) – 2 episodes
The MAUSSE PRIME VIDEO series, on which the platform was very, very large. Indecent budget, cult franchise and producers everywhere: not necessarily its best memory.
“Project quite curious, because I was writing the script for Snow circle. But I didn’t like my script and I threw everything in the trash. I had to start from scratch, and that’s right at that time that the offer arrived to The Lord of the Rings. The preparation and filming had to last nine months, but with the pandemic, everything stopped. I finally took a year and a half to make the first two episodes … a little longer than expected (Laughter.) But the COVVID allowed me to resume the writing of Snow circle.
A magnitude production like The Lord of the Ringsit is obviously a lot of compromise … But it worked on me like a stimulant: it gave me the energy necessary to return to Spain and work with greater freedom. I have a rather soft feeling about my work on the series, because I would have liked to be a little more involved in the creation process. But it was not really possible … “
The Snow Circle (2024)
An airplane crash in the Andes and seventy-day hell on earth cordillera: thirty years after the film by Frank Marshall on the same subject, Bayona reappears this true story of survivors which had to feed on the corpses of their comrades. At Bayona, survival becomes a sensory and spiritual issue.
“Finding funding for ambitious cinema shot in Spanish language is complicated. The industry is quite conservative and if it is not in English … especially with such a budget. The only possibility was therefore to work with Netflix, who gave us the adequate envelope, but also the possibility of making the film in the cinema. And there was very well worked, despite the fact that he is in Spanish. Like what…
The shooting lasted 140 days and the actors were losing little by little. It was essential for me: I wanted to capture what they were living themselves, day after day, on the set, and try to make it a kind of sensory trip. I left them for two months of preparation to familiarize themselves with the real characters they interpreted, or get in touch with the families of those who died. There was a lot of improvisation, the shooting was extremely free, because I saw the scenario as a simple starting point. I finished with more than 600 hours of rushes, and the construction of the film was done when editing.
My obsession was to take the public on the plane and that he felt what really happened. In order for the distance of the screen, we understand that these people have ended up doing what they have done in order to survive. You had to be both in their heads and their bodies. The question of dramatic construction was almost incidental: it was a pure question of human experience to share with the spectator. »»
A big thank you to Mathilde Gibault and the whole team of the Spanish Cinema Festival in Nantes. The festival continues until March 29.
