When Jérome Delormas, artistic director of La Gaîté Lyrique, approached Hornet director Yves Geleyn, he knew exactly what he wanted. In addition to the technical documents which presented the architecture of La Gaité Lyrique and its new project, he wanted its first digital production to present a subjective and poetic image of the venue. The visitor is invited to venture inside and catch a glimpse without it being too litteral or realistic.
Jerôme Delormas wished to offer dream and entertainment, a whole new experience, an insight as much as an illustration. The visitor is gently guided by friendly characters, typical of Yves Geleyn’s world. Yves was commissionned to make a dreamlike teaser for La Gaité Lyrique, to be broadcasted prior to the actual opening of La Gaité. The director was given complete liberty. Yves Geleyn’s universe displayed throughout his previous works, as well as his reliability were the keys to the artistic freedom entrusted in him.

For Yves Geleyn, the work had to evoke the technological potential of the space, its incredible dimensions, without descending into the aesthetics of a scale model. The virtual visit must overall be sensory, immersive and emotive. If it makes reference to the history of this venerable Offenbachian theatre, long fallen into disuse, it’s only through allusions and metaphors.The film, completely infused with the shadowy and naïve world of the French director, is full of enigmas and references, in particular to Kabuki and baroque and italian theatre. There is a bestiary of strange creatures, with fur, beaks and feathers, which magically gives way to enigmatic spaces, rooted to their location. Halfway between the abstract and the figurative, the film maintains a subtle balance between, light and shadows, paper and mineral reflections, wood and metal, sound and silence. The 3D made by One More Production isn’t so much realistic as emotional. It’s all about fluttering, halos and apparitions, bathed in the wonderful soundscape of Marc Teitler and Bernd Norbert Wuertz. It’s thanks to the alchemy of these mysterious elements that Yves Geleyn has succeeded in evoking the soul of La Gaîté Lyrique whilst making reference to its technological promise, and without abandoning the poetry that underlies his work.