Pina (Wim Wenders, 2011): Germany

Reviewed by Jose De Anda.  Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival.

Pina Bausch was a renowned choreographer from Germany. Pina had a background in ballet and her work was prominent in the 70’s. After dancing for Germany’s most renowned choreographer at the time, Kurt Joos (one of the founders of German expressionist dancing), she studied on scholarship in NY at Juilliard under some very well known choreographers. Pina died after being diagnosed with cancer just days before commencing the shooting of Mr. Wenders documentary of Pina.

The film Pina is a narration through Pina’s dancers about Pina’s work. Each dancer tells a little about Pina and delivers a very nice dance. The movie is basically a short interview of some of Pina’s dancers followed by the dancer interviewed performing a Pina piece. The interviews add to the realistic feel of the movie. This film is unconventional according to it’s genre. Musical films are typically shot in high key lighting and tend to be more on the formalistic side of the coin. This film is very dimly light (low key lighting) with lots of shadows and predominantly black, white and grey with the exception of the use of colors.

Pina is shot in low key lighting almost through it’s entirety and has very realistic feal to it. The movie is cut very little, especially when compared to other dance/musical movies giving it a realistic feel. Usually the shots tend to go long periods of time before cutting.This makes this movie very unique as it breaks through stereotypes of the genre. One of many strong points in this movie  is the fact that it has some very abstract and interpretive scenes. Wender’s uses the color red very significantly both at the beginning and end of the film. There’s the scene towards the beginning were the brown dirt floods the frame and there’s the red rag on the ground and how the dancers seem to respect the red. This was quite interpretive and the film has many scenes that are interpretive making this film even more unique.

I consider that  the varied locations of the dances by Pina’s dancers implies that  dancing was in ever aspect of Pina’s life and that it was everywhere and everything for her. The dance scene with the chairs inside the dollhouse was very significant as well. The fact that they were in a dollhouse implied that dancing was a whole separate world. Central in the movie is the fact that dancing was not just a way of life but life itself for Pina Bausch. This is implied through the various locations of the dances.

The strongest scene would have to be the scene towards the end before the closing scene where a dancer in black is piling dirt on the other dancer. In the sequence you then see the dancer that was trying to be buried carrying the dancer in black while another dancer in red is coming towards her. I interpreted this as the dancer carrying the dancer in black was basically holding death on her shoulders but only able to do so becuse the red passion was coming her way. Scenes like this make Pina such a delight to watch.

I noticed some key differences between the opening and closing scene in this film. The opening scene is this little Pina on this huge stage screen and in the closing scene now Pina is this giant thing on the frame. This meant to me that when she started out in choreography she was a tiny presence but by the end of her career and life she was a big presence that occupied large part of the scene. In conclusion Pina is a revionist film to the dance/musical genre; Pina breaks through genre stereotypes and sets itself apart from the rest of the films through strong interpretive scenes and storytelling through strictly visual means.