Pina (2011)

A tribute to the late German choreographer, Pina Bausch, as her dancers perform her most famous creations.

Director:

Wim Wenders

Writer:

Wim Wenders

Stars:

Regina Advento, Malou Airaudo, Ruth Amarante

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Regina Advento	...	Herself - Dancer
Malou Airaudo	...	Herself - Dancer
Ruth Amarante	...	Herself - Dancer
Jorge Puerta	...	Himself - Dancer (as Jorge Puerta Armenta)
Pina Bausch	...	Herself (archive footage)
Rainer Behr	...	Himself - Dancer
Andrey Berezin	...	Himself - Dancer
Damiano Ottavio Bigi	...	Himself - Dancer
Bénédicte Billet	...	Herself - Dancer
Ales Cucek	...	Himself - Dancer
Clementine Deluy	...	Herself - Dancer
Josephine Ann Endicott	...	Herself - Dancer
Lutz Förster	...	Himself - Dancer
Pablo Aran Gimeno	...	Himself - Dancer
Mechthild Grossmann	...	Herself - Dancer

Storyline

In modern dance since the 1970s, few choreographers have had more influence in the medium than the late Pina Bausch. This film explores the life and work of this artist of movement while we see her company perform her most notable creations where basic things like water, dirt and even gravity take on otherworldly qualities in their dancing.

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Plot Keywords:

choreographer | modern dance | documentary subject's name in title | performer name in title | retrospective | 

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Taglines:

Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost

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Genres:

Documentary

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some sensuality/partial nudity and smoking

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [de] Official site [jp]

Country:

Germany France UK

Language:

German French English Spanish Croatian Italian Portuguese Russian Korean

Release Date:

24 February 2011 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Пина

Filming Locations:

Müngstener Brücke, Solingen, North Rhine - Westphalia, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

€3,238,460 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$83,027 (USA) (6 January 2012)

Gross:

$3,520,458 (USA) (4 May 2012)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Neue Road Movies, Eurowide Film Production, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Germany's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012.

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Quotes

Pina Bausch: What are we longing for? Where does all this yearning come from?

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Connections

Referenced in Midnight Movie Review: Film Top 10 2011 (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Mémoires du Futur I"
Composed and Produced by René Aubry

User Reviews

A cinematic eulogy

Pina is being classed as a musical, but it's more of a documentary. More than this, it's a cinematic eulogy to Pina Bausch, one of the world's most influential dancers.

The filmic concept is simple. Footage consisting mainly of contemporary performances of Pina's ballets performed by her dancers is interposed with archive footage of the legendary figure herself. Each dancer, at their turn, looks squarely at the camera and offers their own recollection of how Pina inspired them. This is followed by a demonstration of their learning.

It seems that filming dance is making a comeback in cinema. But after seeing 'Black Swan' and now this, I wonder if dance loses something on the big screen? Maybe the realism or the urgency. Definitely something. It's the same with music concerts. You have to be there.

I'm of the opinion that you have to be an artist to understand other artists. They're a different breed. Where else, for instance, would the remark 'you just have to get crazier' be appropriate if not in dance? Some scenes are bizarre. No they're not. They're mad. Mad like Pina told her students to be. There are some arresting images, which to tease us, Wenders doesn't linger on.

The predictable comment being made of Wenders' film is that it is surreal. I don't believe it is truly surreal. Yes, some of the visuals are unusual – like the Australian dancer who dances with abandon on a street corner with cars driving past and a train travelling upside down. Or the act involving two men spitting water at each other. Or better still the act with a man pulling his trousers up and down. But I swear the effects seem remarkably natural.

I was agape throughout the scene where one dancer in a serene industrial site shows a couple of cuts of meat to us and shouts 'veal!' before dancing on her tiptoes for what seemed like forever. Where was the beauty? I wondered after. I can't explain it. It is just there.

There's nothing snobbish about this film. There's not much that is esoteric either. The music is eclectic and the nationalities of the dancers are diverse. Pina united people. This film isn't exclusively for dance lovers; it's for admirers of culture.

Although I would find a second viewing of Pina to be quite taxing, I have no trouble in recommending it to anyone. It's unlike anything I've seen. It expresses beauty in a way I did not think plausible.

www.scottishreview.net