Pina by Wim Wenders

Pina,  a documentary style film created by Wim Wenders, tributing the late Pina Bausch as well as focusing endearingly on her company’s members, was shown by SIFF at Cinerama this last February 17^th, with a special appearance and Q and A with Wim Wenders.   I would like to bespeak my loyalty to this film by stating that I am a devotee of German modern dance and venerate its members, so I cherish that someone has brought Tanztheater to the forefront of the American cultural consciousness, and  it’s Wuppertal founder, Pina Bausch couldn’t be a more deserving subject.   Wim Wenders was a wonderful guest and answered the questions put forth with great sincerity and good humor.

I have been waiting, pining for, fantasizing over, and allying with this film for months and months.  I had a taste, like so many, through the ensorcelling preview; and I was an immediate habitué, watching it over and over again, experiencing a downpour of anticipation and curiosity each time.

I have loved the work of Pina Bausch for some years, and having the opportunity to view her dances on film, on you tube for example, is important; but being able to view them in a format that combines excellent film making, artistic license from someone who knew Bausch and, heaven help us, 3D, is a gift.  That said,  my bootlicking days of the Pina previews are over. There are some accolades to be handed out and some disappointments.  Let’s get down to it.

Wim Wenders outdoes himself in regards to location. He depicts both stage performance and choreography performed outdoors; in nature and urban environments.  He breaks up the vignettes and clips with video portraits of the dancers, just watching the camera, with voice overs of their experience as a dancer in the Wuppertal Tanztheater. There are so many moments of true Bausch.  The long gowns, the unstable and volatile and yet obviously powerful woman being caught or guided by the helpful and concerned male.   There was water, dirt, sky, transportation, trees being carried, men in dresses, sleepwalkers and of course, and close to every fans heart, many chairs. The arms, dear God, the arms of that woman are bewitching. There is old footage along with the new footage made for the film, and these  are many excellent ingredients.  There are, for me , gaps.

Hmmm. so here’s what seems to  have happened.  Pina Bausch died.  Wenders decided to make the film anyways, himself and the company in a deluge of grief and abandonment.  This makes the film sincerely raw and sad as you can feel from it the childishly honest confusion that comes with loss.  There is something beautiful and uncomfortable about being invited in to this exposed  place.  There was a film that died with Pina Bausch.  We don’t get to see that film and I think that I wanted to see that film.  That is, no dances were shown in completion.  Only clips were shown, cut off suddenly to cut to a video portrait with voice over from a company member.  There were very short vignettes of dance that could have been enthralling in full.   I am confused at the choice to show clips of Bausch’s work.  Her dances must be shown in full.  They are a narrative of loneliness, pain, joy, redemption and physical poetry that,  casts a spell which I don’t believe should ever be shattered by people talking.  The fourth wall of her dances is imperative in conveying the visceral power of the movement to the viewer; and by watching the full piece of art, as it was intended, the viewer is transformed, altered into a different capacity of mind and body, contemplating the pain and absurdity and beauty and loneliness all in an acute, harsh but affectionate light.   I recognize that Wenders, as he said in his Q and A, that he wanted to introduce her dances to people who were unfamiliar.  This film was for them.  What can I say to that?  Make a film for the people who already love her I suppose.  Even so, the film does not successfully introduce the choreographer to America.   The audience was breaking out in laughter during segments of choreography that did rend at my limbs every time I had watched it in the past.  There was a particular part of Café Mϋller where two people who are clinging to one another are otherwise lifeless like puppets. There is a 3^rd person who is separate from the dance, as there often is an external persona acting on the dancers with Bausch, who is moving the woman’s hands and head in various positions over and over again to make the two kiss and to have the man carry the woman, etc.  He re positions her into these poses so many times that the two become suddenly autonomously animated, like wind-up toys, following the pattern of movement exactly as the man had put forth, including the end of the pattern where the man is carrying the woman and drops her because his body is not intentional or willed, rather, limp of self- navigation. This movement pattern becomes faster and faster, invoking panic and pain and inevitability and a proposed lack of self.  The perpetual  repetition buzzes and in the frenetic wave, there is born a deep existential sadness and knowledge.  This is what they were laughing at.  I thought it was just because people laugh when they’re nervous, but they really thought the puppet limpness and the man moving the woman around was funny. This was not nervous chittering.   I believe it must have been the way it was filmed, as I can’t accept that American’s need for slapstick makes them desperate enough to hit up Tanztheater. The fact is, Cafe Mϋller  can’t be fucked with.   One must see it through , and if not in totality, than in the correct lighting and angling with no breaks to voice overs.   The film “Talk To Her”, however, showed clips of Café Mϋller  successfully.  It was filmed well, though you don’t see it from start to finish.  I don’t know quite what happened here.   I want to be wrong. I want to think that everyone should watch Pina because you’ll get an accurate idea of her work, but I think watching it gives only an accurate idea of the company member’s experience with dance, which does not make for an unworthy documentary in the least.

it is not Wim Wenders responsibility to educate Americans on how to interpret modern dance.  It is a personal endeavor that the cackling lady behind me was failing at so miserably, I wanted to start a popcorn fight.  I recommend this film despite my hesitations to laud it without circumstance.  It is wonderful to watch the unique and utterly spellbinding choreography and theatre of Pina Bausch, even if the dances are not shown in completion. The dancers have danced for and with Bausch for years and exude the feel and beauty that is Bausch. It doesn’t matter, in the end, if it was my dream film.  This is important and will lead to viewers seeking out more.  One should expose him/herself to this kind of art as quickly as possible.

February 28, 2012 | Categories: Dance, Film, modern dance, Movies, Pina Bausch, SIFF, Tanztheater | Leave a comment