Pierre Alain Giraud in Cannes: Playing with the Fire, an immersion between music, technology and emotion

Present in the immersive section at the Cannes Film Festival, Pierre Alain Giraud unveils Playing with the Fire, a hybrid work between concert, virtual reality and digital installation. Carried by pianist Yuja Wang, this project explores the boundary between music, image and sensory experience, with a logic of total immersion for the viewer.

An immersion born between engineering and cinema

Before becoming a filmmaker, Pierre Alain Giraud first worked as an engineer, a background that still influences how he designs his projects today. He then evokes a career path between documentary, technological research and artistic creation, with a constant desire: to invent new forms of narrative immersion.

His imagination dates back to childhood, marked by silent film screenings. “My first cinema memory is Chaplin’s films,” he says, highlighting an early sensitivity to visual emotions and wordless narration.

This is not Pierre Alain Giraud’s first participation in the Cannes Film Festival. He had already presented an immersive experience there two years ago, around the Noir project, inspired by the history of Claudette Colvin and civil rights struggles.

This first work already used augmented reality devices to integrate virtual elements into real space, laying the foundation for his current research on immersion.

Playing with the Fire: a musical and sensory immersion

The current project is born from a major artistic encounter with pianist Yuja Wang. Impressed by her playing, Pierre Alain builds around her an experience where music becomes the engine of visual universes.

Fire, a central element of the project, is conceived as a symbol of creation and destruction. Notably inspired by the works of Gaston Bachelard, the filmmaker explores human contradictions through this element. Playing with the Fire is based on volumetric capture technology that allows recreating the pianist’s presence in a virtual space. The viewer sees Yuja Wang playing as if she were physically present. From this musical performance, surreal worlds unfold, creating a progressive immersion experience between music, image and narration.

The device combines virtual reality, physical installation and filmed performance.

A creation in constant motion

Pierre Alain Giraud insists that his creative process constantly evolves. Immersion is not limited to a fixed idea: it transforms as filming progresses and technical constraints are met.

“We imagine something on paper, then discover something else while building it,” he explains. Certain scenes, such as The Firebird, required complex work combining animation and choreography.

The project was built in several stages. The music was first recorded in London, in a demanding context where the pianist was already giving many concerts.

Pierre Alain describes Yuja Wang as an extremely perfectionist artist, never fully satisfied with her performances, which according to him reinforces the intensity of the work.

Another major filming stage took place in Grenoble, with an impressive technical setup: a green piano filmed by 70 cameras in a fully controlled environment. A total immersion experience for the musician and the team alike.

A collective and evolving work

The project was developed over approximately two years, between the initial idea born at Cannes and its current realization. A first meeting with the pianist was organized just two weeks after this initial impulse.

Pierre Alain Giraud is also working on other projects, including a series written for Korean actress Lee So-ri, as well as a more political immersive work with the Noir project team.

When asked about his future collaborations, the filmmaker states he is not solely seeking well-known personalities, but first and foremost stories to tell.

For him, the boundary between passion and talent is secondary. What matters above all remains passion, the driving force of all immersive creation.