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Following their earlier collaborations on Room With A View, (LA)HORDE and Rone present Ghosts, a short film written by Spike Jonze, featuring the dancers of the Ballet National de Marseille → Watch/Listen
Ghosts is a short film and collaborative project by a coalition of artists operating at the
peak of their respective fields. Featuring performances by the dancers of Ballet National de Marseille, it was directed by pioneering dance collective (LA)HORDE, soundtracked by
acclaimed French producer Rone, and scripted by the visionary filmmaker Spike Jonze.
The film follows (LA)HORDE’S earlier collaboration with Rone on ‘Room With A View’, the musician’s 2020 show at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and sees the dance collective
extend their ongoing artistic exploration of uprising and rebellion through the lens of
movement and dance. Set and filmed in the Fine Arts Museum of the Palais Longchamp in Marseille, Jonze’s script follows a single, apparently invisible protagonist as she meets a cast of similarly invisible characters, all trapped within the grand, deserted building.
Moving, hesitantly at first, through the space, our protagonist passes from solitude and threatening physicality to states of rapture and intimacy. The film ends with a sudden collapse of the division between fantasy and reality when our protagonist meets the solitary night guard, who exits the museum at daybreak, possessed.
Perhaps unconventionally, (LA)HORDE’s choreography was not created to fit any soundtrack ; instead Rone’s music was composed to accompany the silent footage. As well as a new challenge, ‘Ghosts’ offered a once in a lifetime opportunity for Rone to work alongside Spike Jonze, who the musicians calls ‘an idol of my adolescence.’ Crafted around an undulating, rhythmic core, Rone’s soundtrack is a lesson in restrained, growing kinetic energy that builds carefully towards a final, exhilarating peak. Organic and tactile, sounds are constructed from glitches and static, as invisible limbs comb through empty air. Rone’s music seems to emanate from the bodies of the dancers themselves.
The release of the short film is associated with the release of a three-track single including
two versions of the original theme and an unreleased track featuring French SF writer Alain Damasio.
About SPIKE JONZE :
Filmmaker Spike Jonze has been a vital and innovative voice in American popular culture since the 1990s. Rising to prominence through his work on iconic music videos for artists like Beastie Boys and Björk, Jonze became a household name through his feature films, in particular his 1999 debut Being John Malkovich, and Her (2013), a film that earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 2013. Since finding mainstream success, Jonze has continued to work on a diverse range of projects, including music videos, theater pieces and commercials.
About (LA) HORDE :
(LA)HORDE is dance a collective that was founded in 2013 by the three artists Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer and Arthur Harel. Together they question codes of various artistic disciplines, especially contemporary live art and performing arts. At the head of the Ballet National de Marseille since September 2019, they have created choreographic works, films, video installations and performances that always evolve around the body in movement.
From the interaction and the juxtaposition of these different media, they develop scenarios
and actions that take up radically contemporary themes and questions.
About RONE :
Rone is a French composer and electronic musician who has shown throughout his career an ability to combine his music with other art forms such as literature with Alain Damasio, photography with Stéphane Couturier or contemporary dance with the collective (La)Horde.
As for moving images, he composed the soundtracks of Vladimir Mavounia-Kouka’s animated films La Femme à cordes (2010), La Bête (2014) and I Want Pluto to be a planet again (2016). In 2015, he was the first musician to release a VR videoclip for his track Quitter la ville. Besides, he composed the following year the soundtrack of the first French VR fiction: I, Philip by Pierre Zandrowicz (2016). In 2020, he composed the soundtrack for Frédéric Farrucci’s LA NUIT VENUE (Night Ride),
which features the character of Jin, an illegal immigrant in Paris, ex-DJ and electro music lover who is forced to work as a VTC driver. Rone’s work on the film LA NUIT VENUE was awarded the 2021 César for Best Original Score. He also produced his second soundtrack for Jacques Audiard ́s Les Olympiades/Paris, 13th District, which will be released in the cinema all over the world in 2022.