Pina Reviews

I was slightly disappointed in this documentary about the choreographer. After seeing all of the beautiful shots in the trailer I thought surely this would be a moving and transformative piece. Sadly, beyond the beautiful choreography the film doesn't have much to say.

I was slightly disappointed in this documentary about the choreographer. After seeing all of the beautiful shots in the trailer I thought surely this would be a moving and transformative piece. Sadly, beyond the beautiful choreography the film doesn't have much to say.

Back in the 90’s, I was a huge fan of Wim Wenders, especially ‘Paris Texas’. Unfortunately, his last movies were far from being impressive but I keep checking his new work once in a while. However, I must admit that this documentary was quite a nice surprise. Even though I had never heard of Pina Bausch before and even though my knowledge about modern ballet is close to zero, I was certainly able to enjoy this flick. Indeed, there were some really great dance bits and thanks to the film medium, you could get really close to see the expression of the dancers which is something that you miss when you see them performing on stage. I really wonder how the whole thing looked like in 3D. Like I said before, I’m far from being a fan of ballet but there is something really appealing, quite organic, about modern ballet which makes it quite fascinating and this movie was a perfect introduction. Still, even though I enjoyed it, I can’t say it was really amazing though. Basically, this Art is a foreign language to me and watching a movie in a language I don’t know was a little bit tiresome. Furthermore, they kept jumping from one dance creation to another without much transition or continuity. So, each time, you had to invest yourself in what was going on and, just when you felt a little bit more comfortable, they would move towards something different which was a little bit frustrating. Finally, the comments were pretty nice and it seems that Pina was quite an exceptional woman, a genius in this Art who had a great connection with her performers, but I would have appreciated a little bit more nuance and it could have been interesting if not everybody was constantly praising her. Still, as mentioned before, the dancing was quite marvelous and this movie is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.