TIFF – Wim Wenders’ Pina

Reviewed by Paula Citron
September 13, 2011

Pina
Toronto International Film Festival
Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch
Choreographed by Pina Bausch
TIFF Bell Lightbox 1
Sept. 8/Sept. 18, 2011

“Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.” Those are the immortal words of dancetheatre icon, Germany’s Pina Bausch.

German director Wim Wenders was all ready to shoot. Bausch had picked four choreographies for the film. Then, tragically, Bausch was diagnosed with cancer and past away a few weeks later.

Wenders cancelled the film, but Bausch’s dancers insisted that he make it. The movie Pina became how the dancers remember her, interpolated by their performances.

3D is the greatest thing that every happened to dancefilm, as I’ve noted before. The audience is taken right inside the dance.

The film is marvellous, but I do have one small cavil. It is also predictable because of the format of dance sequences and dancers’ memories.

But to see these great works imaginatively shot both indoors and out, particularly The Rite of Spring and Café Mueller, is a film for the ages.

The second screening of Pina is Sat. Sept. 18 at noon at the TIFF Bell Lightbox 1.