AR Rahman's film 'Le Musk' to premiere at Cannes XR
Award-winning music composer AR Rahman's debut film directorial Le Musk is set to premiere at the Cannes Film Market's upcoming Cannes XR program. The short film is touted to be a cinematic sensory experience that will incorporate virtual reality with music, motion, and scent. The film will tell the story of Juliet Merdinian, an orphaned heiress and musician. More details inside.
- Le Musk follows Merdinian—20 years after being orphaned—searching for the men who changed her destiny forever, using the only memory she has—their scent.
- Rahman's wife Saira ideated the 36-minute-long film's concept. The couple incorporated their love for perfume as part of the audience's experience to create a more immersive effect.
- Rahman directed the film from Gurachi Phoenix's screenplay and also composed the score.
The film was shot using 14 different cameras to capture high-quality resolution and frame rate. It was post-produced in stereoscopic 360 VR workflow for a better frame rate and high resolution. Adding to the efforts taken to make the film a great viewing experience, 10 different VFX houses across the globe worked on the project with almost a petabyte of data, as per Variety.
"Le Musk has been several years in the making with collaborators worldwide; we've aimed to create an unprecedented, subtle sensory cinematic surrealism," Rahman told Variety. He added aroma and music collectively bring "warm memories subjectively for the audience." The film's lead actor Nora Arnezeder said, "We have unlocked a new, expansive frontier in storytelling where we hope to inspire and inquire through the senses."
Actors Arnezeder (Army of the Dead) and Guy Burnet (Oppenheimer) are in the lead alongside Munirih Grace (Pure) and Mariam Zohrabyan. Le Musk is produced under Rahman's banner ARR Studios in collaboration with Ideal Entertainment and Intel. Thenandal Studio and Palani Andavar Holdings serve as associate producers. Cannes XR is part of the Cannes Film Market solely dedicated to cinematographic content and immersive technology.
