RESET

"A deeply focused, no-nonsense look at the creative process ... This is artistry at the highest levels of skill. Reset documents in fascinating detail the work, pain, tension, fear and pressure it takes to mount a world-class production." – Film Journal International

Best known as the choreographer for Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (where he met his future wife, Natalie Portman), in 2014 Benjamin Millepied took on the role of artistic director with the world's oldest ballet company, the Paris Opera Ballet, where his first step was to shake things up. Reset is an elegant, beautifully shot look behind the curtains as he prepared his dancers for his debut gala, a contemporary ballet set to a brand new composition by Millepied's regular musical collaborator Nico Mulhy.

Given extraordinary access by both Millepied and by the Paris Opera Ballet, documentarians Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai shadowed the choreographer for three months, recording every step (and misstep), every plié and jeté, from initial rehearsal to opening night. Rivalling Frederick Wiseman's La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet (MIFF 2010) for both its immersion into the dancers' rarely seen creative process and for its exquisitely composed cinematography, Reset captures bodies in motion – and the effort, and sometimes pain, behind them – in breathtaking detail and fluidity.

"If the austere, restrained approach of Wiseman's film captured the rigid, hierarchical institution before Millepied took over … [Reset] reflects the energetic, assured, occasionally anarchic approach of the new incumbent. It is electrifying viewing." – Screen Daily