Pina (2011)

    I had to write a review for my film class and this was one of the movies available to choose.  It was already in my queue from the 2012 Oscars.  Because I'm lazy, I'm just going to copy what I turned in for her class.  So if it seems a little more structured than my usual ranting, that's why.

This is a film about dance, of course, but more importantly it’s a film about legacy.  Pina Bausch was a pioneer of modern dance and this film by Wim Wenders certainly highlights the explosive energy and lyrical fluidity of her choreography.  It also allows the grieving dancers a chance to reflect on her sudden death and what she meant to each of them personally.  We the viewers are spared a boring recitation of her background and biographical data, as the dancers most close to her share their most personal memories.  As a feature-length eulogy, this has the potential of being extremely maudlin but Wenders intercuts the dancers’ voiceover monologues with stunningly shot dance tributes, leavening their sorrow with an ethereal lightness.  

            Several of the dancers discussed Pina’s deep-seated loneliness, with one woman remarking that it was as though Pina had a hole in her center that could never be filled.  Perhaps that’s what drove her to create dances heavily reliant on themes of connection between men and women, humanity and nature, feeling and thought. Her Café Müller piece showcases the isolation and blind groping for belonging amid the uncertainties and anxieties of the human condition.  Dancers with eyes closed move across a black stage littered with chairs and tables while a frantic man tries to clear the obstacles from their path.  The tension is palpable as is the sense of awe at the level of trust she inspired among her troupe.

            Grief is a terrible emotion that wrenches you from your daily life at the most unexpected moments:  on the subway, crossing the street, being slowly pulled down a mineshaft past the world’s creepiest graffiti, or quietly contemplating a stream in the park. The dancers of Tanztheater are given the extraordinary opportunity to find free expression of their grief in solos and duets ranging from stoic and sad to joyful, grateful, and humorous, all framed in Wenders’ lush cinematography and trademark juxtaposition of pastoral softness and stark industrialism.

            Wenders is considered one of the foremost German directors and has always been drawn to the sense of the mystical.  This is why I think he was initially drawn to Pina’s work, recognizing in her a kindred spirit.  Her Vollmondpiece highlights her often austere, cold set design contrasted against the vitality and exuberance of her dancers.  A large rock dominates part of the stage while water pours in the background, slowly filling the stage.  Dancers cavort singly, in pairs, or in small groups, echoing the fluidity of the water in the flowing fabric of the women’s dresses and loose hair as well as in the swoops and falls of their dancing.  The energy remains high and playful throughout the excerpt, and the movements are marked by precision in their repetitions, with each gesture seeming to be performed at exactly the same level of effort every time.  They are joyous but disciplined.

I thought this film was icredibly beautiful and poignant.  I didn’t know anything about Pina Bausch before I sat down to watch it and now I not only have a sense of her work but also a profound consciousness of her as a person, feared, revered, deeply respected.  She pushed people to greatness but loved them even when they failed.  I can’t think of a greater thing to leave behind.