Pina
Directed By: Wim
Wenders
Featuring:
Members of the Tanztheater Wuppertal
Director of Photography: Helene Louvart, Editor: Toni
Froschhammer, Production Designer: Peter Pabst, Original Music: Thom Hanreich
Rated: PG for
dancing, I assume.
Now
two years into the “three dimensional revolution,” the style has finally
arrived in its most luscious and perfected use in Pina, a dance documentary from Wim Wenders, featuring the
choreography of Pina Bausch. 3D became the next step in cinema after James
Cameron’s Avatar, but since then,
directors have struggled to find an art in creation space and depth, while
studios have thrown it on top of films without any care for what use of 3D
should be. Even skillful directors like Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams), Martin Scorsese (Hugo), and Steven Spielberg (The Adventures of Tintin) haven’t particularly cracked the 3D bubble in a way
that occasionally wows but often remains flat. What exactly are we supposed to
do with all this space?
But
Mr. Wenders, who has made a name both as a director of narratives (Wings of Desire) and concert
documentaries (The Buena Vista Social
Club), understands why 3D should be used: complete spectacle. The same
could be said for the choreography of the late Ms. Bausch, whose choreography
defies most structures of what we understand as dance—breaking our
understanding of tradition for something new and inventive. And thus, the
marriage of the two artists—Ms. Bauch as the creator and Mr. Wenders as the
capturer—makes for pure magic in this total extravaganza.
