Juliette Binoche on how Robert Redford encouraged her to make her directorial debut ‘ In-I In Motion’

Juliette Binoche’s directorial debut In-I In Motion tracks the Oscar winning actress’s collaboration with UK choreographer and dancer Akram Khan on their titular dance theatre performance about male-female love nearly 20 years ago.

The documentary, which world premieres out of competition at San Sebastián International Film Festival before heading to Busan Film Festival, draws on dozens of hours of previously unseen footage of the pair’s behind-the-scenes journey to create the show they performed some 100 times around the world .

Binoche also produced the film alongside Sébastien de Fonseca of Miao Productions in co-production with Paris-based Ola Strøm at Yggdrasil and Solène Léger of Léger Production. mk2 Films is handling international sales.

She talks to Screen about what she learnt about directing, why she believes AI will not stifle human creativity and how the late Robert Redford encouraged her to make this film.

Why did the film take so long to make?

We [performed at] the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2009 and Robert Redford came to my dressing room after the show and said: ‘You have to make a film out of this performance’. I told him ‘I’d love to, but I don’t know how.’

I asked my sister [cinematographer Marion Stalens] to film the last seven shows [in Paris]. I had those tapes in my drawer for 15 years, not knowing what was going to happen. I met investor Ola Strøm at the Cannes Film festival two years ago and the project took off from there.

Have you always wanted to direct?

This experience is very specific. I co-created it with Akram so I already knew the process very well. It had always been at the back of my mind to turn it into a film. I watched 170 hours of rushes. I learned the editing process, I discovered the work of sound that I’d previously ignored as an actress. It was exciting to be behind the scenes working with brilliant crew members. 

Do you want to director again?

There are more stories I’d like to tell, but not one where I act at the same time. I couldn’t direct myself.

Which filmmakers inspire you as a director?

What is inspiring is ach director has their own way of working. Some are always preparing and picky; others [want] more improvisation. This is my first film and I am humbled by being called a “director” because it is not a work of fiction even though I made choices and I worked my ass off.

Did any of your previous acting roles prepare you for such a physical experience?

I have gone water-skiing down the Seine in Lovers On the Bridge, I jumped out of a plane in Mauvais Sang, I have swum in pools a lot in my films, I rode horses in The Horseman On The Roof, and galloping on very strong horses feels like you’re flying. Acting is always both emotional and physical – it’s an acrobatic kind of journey.

This a film about the creative process. At a time when we are seeing the beginnings of AI in filmmaking, how can creatives like you and Akram adapt and thrive?

I don’t think theatre or live performance will ever die. I understand the fascination and easiness that AI brings. You write a little bit, push a button and all of a sudden, there are ideas. But it’s called artificial intelligence; it’s not genuine or human intelligence. [AI is] not creative enough for me. I want to fly. I don’t want anybody to fly in my place.

 In-I was staged before the explosion of the #MeToo movement. Do you believe male-female relationships and the film industry itself have materially changed since then?

The #MeToo movement really changed our awareness of the brutality being directed towards women. The show is an interesting combination of a role reversal where we see a young girl chasing a man, running after the man, and the man cannot escape. It’s about that teenage need for love, the impulse to want to share something, to be alive, to be sexually awakened. There’s a layer of innocence in that impulse, unaware of any consequences, but the need is fully activated.

It is the opposite of #MeToo, of a “leave me alone, don’t touch me, don’t speak to me, or I’ll bring a lawyer.” It is totally genuine and free in that way.

Both stories happened to me and I wrote from my own experience and Akram wrote from his personal experiences.

What do you hope audiences take away from the film?

That people take more risks in their lives, to be more creative and go to places they dream of instead of saying “I can’t. I’m too old.” You may not be Maria Callas if you want to sing or Leonardo da Vinci if you want to paint, but if it makes you joyful, if it allows you to be truthful, if it helps you to participate in a world of beauty, if it enables you to take action and have opinions, go towards it, make it happen.

The purpose of the film is to invite people to come out of comfort zones into a creative side of selves they never thought they could.

You were president of the Cannes jury earlier this year and awarded the Palme d’Or to the exiled Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s political drama It Was An Accident. How important is it for you that  art and politics co-exist?

As an actor, whenever there is a cause to sign for or a statement [to put your name to], you can be reproached if you sign and reproached if you don’t sign. It’s a very interesting world we are living in. Everyone is so lost and angry.

The more the world moves into darkness, the more artists have to open their hearts. I believe that creative people can make miracles. It is not politics that can save us, but our capacity to transform, our spiritual side.

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