Benjamin Millepied

“One of them that was a great inspiration, I'll pick On the Waterfront by Kazan. This was quite fascinating because Kazan was the theater director in New York and the first couple of movies he really was just shooting as if it was theater... You see he evolves as he starts to make more movies that there's an enormous change and how he starts to master this relationship with camera and movement... The physicality of the actors is in the relationship to a camera that's never self-conscious.”

“So now I'll pick Tree of Life by Terrence Malick. And so that's for different reasons it has to do with dance. Terry has a way to capture that magical moment I think better than anyone else and he does it by just his continuous shooting. I've been on set, the opportunity to watch him work on set, the camera keeps rolling and he sort of lets the actors walk in all kinds of directions... Catch these moments that are completely graceful and completely unexpected and take your breath away.”

“Interestingly, a totally different approach to movement here because obviously Fosse, choreographer, director... The movement isn't about how he moved the camera on in scenes... The dances are complex and they happen on stage and he would essentially capture all these different angles and the choreography for me happened in the editing room. The editing of Fosse is what's absolutely phenomenal. I also loved obviously Cabaret is a masterpiece and so is All That Jazz.”

“I think it's also interesting to talk when you think of movement and also of the importance of stillness, to talk about Antonioni, which is a director that I love for the tension, the mystery in these films, the things that are unsaid. I think what I admire here is actually how so often he decides to not move the camera and also not necessarily see the character from the front, but experience the character from over the shoulder, the back... Antonioni is a really great director to watch.”

“So of course when it comes to movement, it's really important to study Kurosawa because I would start with the first film which is Sanshiro Sugata, which is a martial art film. There's an incredible scene in this film which is this duel between the two lead actors... It's just an incredible scene. But throughout you see how bodies roll and fight and fall... And how there's such intelligent cutting and movement and yet he has the ability to take a camera and go from seamlessly.”

“So last, I pick Koyaanisqatsi. I highly recommend it. The score is outstanding, I listen to it all the time. I think of Philip Glass a little bit as kind of a Beethoven. There's something about Beethoven, he always knew how to choose the right next note. These melodies are really simple and yet he creates these very complex variations with them... And these melodies continue to give me incredible pleasure. So Koyaanisqatsi, I recommend.”