Pina (Wim Wenders 2011): Germany

Reviewed by Jacqueline Kaden. Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival

I was skeptical of Pina. Going into this film, I was sure it was going to be a tear-filled recounting of a dancer’s life as other dancers did what they do best– danced. While this was slightly true, I found myself sitting in a movie that had little tears. In fact, it had more smiles and expressions of joy than anything; a tribute film worth seeing if you are an art lover.

Pina is a film remembering Pina Bausch, presented by her dance company to her or her memory. The film opens with Pina walking across the stage making hand motions of the seasons. After this, we see a line of the dance company snaking through a stage, smiling, making these same hand motions. At first, it is confusing as to why they are making these motions. But it becomes clear throughout the film that it is a message (only one of many) that the dancers are conveying about their feelings. The processional of dancers is repeated three times throughout the film, and each time, the viewer is more keenly aware that the dancers are letting Pina go with the seasons.

The dances the dancers perform are intense and unlike most dance companies, are true art. At one point in the film, the dancers recount how Pina was a painter and the dancers were her color. I believe this to be genuinely true. The work that Pina did through these dancers has real relevance. The dances are passionate and filled with energy of course, but are also filled with (again) messages. These messages are raw and splayed out, almost as if, by dancing, the dancers are trying to understand these feelings and emotions. Some of the main messages portrayed are the idea of gender roles, love, family, alliances, trust, lust, and pain. Particularly in one dance when one of the dancers portrays what I believe is the zeal of religion and the inner struggle it causes. In this dance, his hands go up in the air in a prayer and his hands shake, then he brings them to his chest and beats it, then follows through with the rest of his dance. There is distress and passion on his face, and he calls out the name of another dancer who, stone faced, comes and holds him as he repeats his prayer and chest-beating. This scene and many others use repetition and genuine emotion from the dancers to show the viewer really what is going on. With other dance films I have seen, the dancers seem to be removed and the messages the dances are trying to show are muddled or nonexistent. In Pina, there is no lack of connection and feeling. As the viewer comes to the end of the film, they know that this is because of what an influence and powerful teacher Pina was.

My criticism for this film is that it indulged in the mysterious effect that death has on the personalities of people. The recounting of Pina’s work was all genius, all good, all powerful and all knowing. While this is a tribute film, I was annoyed by the fact that there were no tales of her as a down-to-earth person like the rest of us. She was an enigmatic figure who touched all she worked with, but she was still a human somewhere. Though, through the dancers dances, I came to learn the pain-filled, curious, and deep parts of Pina Bausch.