Pina (2011)

Too much of everything

An Exercise In Nonsense

Admirable film.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

A beautiful tribute to Pina Bausch, a German dancer choreographer who pioneered the modern dance genre. The film consists of Pina's troupe of dancers performing several of her dances on stage and in real world settings. The dance numbers are segued with close-ups of each dancer and we hear their voices dubbed in telling stories of Pina and how she inspired and shaped them.

I saw Wim Wenders' «Pina – Dance, Dance, Otherwise We Are Lost» after watching the fine documentary «The Salt of the Earth (A Journey with Sebastião Salgado)» (which he made three years later), and the inversion proved disappointing. When Pina Bausch died unexpectedly, without the dancer and choreographer by his side (as he projected the film since the 1980s), the end result is only fair. I do not know why Wenders thought that 3D could be the "solution" to film dance, when in the past this performing manifestation has been registered in more than adequate ways, without relying much on visual technology: for instance, Norman McLaren made his shorts «Narcissus» and «Pas de deux» with less resources, just as Carlos Saura did «Bodas de sangre», without diminishing the beauty of dance or making its filming less effective. In the end, the majority of living beings who will watch «Pina» will do so in two dimensions. On the other hand, I did not see the need to move the choreographies to exteriors, sometimes in ugly locations (a quarry, for example, or the urban streets with signs of drug stores, lottery or the "big M"), when the best images and moments are those registered in sets of ambitious (and achieved) expressiveness, decorated with few elements, as the sets for «Le sacre du printemps», «Café Müller» and «Vollmond». Beautiful testimonies by Bausch's dancers, come from all corners of the world, and the choreographies rescue this documentary, which goes on for 100 minutes that sometimes seemed endless to me. Yet I would not tell anyone not to see Wender's film: more for dance reasons than for cinematic value, «Pina» is a registry of the work of a great artist, of a daughter of two centuries. It deserves to be recommended, the more so because there are many persons who will enjoy it to the fullest.

I've seen some plays of Pina's work and also heard about her in my drama classes, thus I decided to watch this movie to better understand her life, her achievements, in short, to know her better. From the beginning to the end I was shocked, nothing say about her personal life, she barely appear in the movie, however I could completely understand her, I emulate her dance, I dance with the art, I dance with the feelings, I spent all the time there, following her passion. During the scenes her dance partners spoke about her and I could see her strength and, mostly, her beliefs. She truly believed in her acts, she believed with so much passion and with freedom that we certainly finish the movie flying,our minds creativity boiling and our body exhausted, freely. If you are reading this review is because you considered to watch this movie...just one advice: Go with passion!

This wasn't art. This looked like someone took too many mushrooms and told the dancers to do ridiculous things.How can Pina be considered anything but a fool after seeing this? Such boring choreography, goofy eulogies by the dancers, and dull visual effects.Took my wife and daughters, who are all dancers. They laughed all the way home at how horridly bad the movie was and were shocked at what some call art.We knew little about Pina going in, but when we left we were convinced of one thing, anyone who considers the person who created those dances as anything other than a goofball is an idiot.Do yourself a favor, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!