39 replies to this topic

[innopac]

New Film -- Wim Wenders

PINA - Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost: trailer for film

Wenders 3D dance film to debut at Berlin Film Festival: article link

[dirac]

Thank you, innopac, for the heads up.  Looks promising.

[Ray]

Here's a review of the film, by art critic Glen Helfand for the Huffington Post (it's included with reviews of other films).

[Alexandra]

Oh, I want more Bausch on DVD!

[sandik]

Your lips to the gods' ears!

[Amy Reusch]

It seems like ages since the trailer for this film appeared... It was in the NY Film frstival but I learned of it too late... When is it going to make the rounds of the Art Houses in the US?  I hope I don't miss any other chance!

[rg]

as i understand it PINA will be released in NYC-area theaters in mid-Dec. and (if i heard correctly) more widely in January.

[Natalia]

According to Fandango.com, the film opens in Washington, DC, on December 23. Even if I buy the DVD now through European Amazon (as I have multi-system player, so format doesn't matter), I can't wait to also see it properly in a movie theater, on 3D.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm already smelling 'Oscars'! It's Germany's entry to the 2012 Academy Awards-Best Foreign  film category. http://cineuropa.org...cumentID=209327

[Helene]

If anyone is interested in the soundtrack to the movie, World Champion Pairs skaters Aliona Savchenko/Robin Szolkowy are skating to it this year for the Free Skate.  Their latest competition, Cup of Russia, was the best performance of the year so far:

[Natalia]

I received my DVD of PINA a couple of days ago and watched it last night. What a beautiful, haunting film! It's more "an event for the senses" than a dance performance, although it appears to include portions of some of Bausch's better-known theatrical dances, such as Cafe Muller. The filming, the music, the performances and small spoken tributes to the late Pina Bausch by artists with whom she worked...everything about this DVD is to be lauded.

Having the DVD only makes me yearn more for seeing it in the cinema, in 3-D. Most definitely Oscar material, IMO.

p.s. After viewing this, I found myself walking around my house trying to do the little "4 seasons" hand motions that constitute a leitmotif performed by the Wuppertal troupe throughout the film (I've got "Der Winter" down pat...especially since it's turning cold in DC)! This seems to be Bausch's answer to the Village People's "YMCA" hand & arm motions.

[Paul Parish]

Natalia, I too have been doing the 4 Seasons Dance-- it makes me so happy, on the street, on the sidewalk, it just catches up with me and I hear a jazz march and I break out into it.

We saw the film here last week -- The film was screened in Berkeley just before hte company performed "Danzon" here, and afterwards several dancers were interviewed by Rita Felciano (VERY good interview). Domenique Mercy  volunteered that dancers generated the material, in response to Bausch's questions, but that she didn't use phrases "that could not survive repetition."

And indeed, however spastic the movement, you'll notice it's like Petipa, you see the moves repeated and repeated exactly. And  that little "Spring Summer Fall Winter" dance REALLY survives repetition.-- it's  a classic, there's always more in it every time your repeat it.

The gestures themselves are classic -- for spring, the hands open out in low second position, as if you were stepping out in a polonaise   or Czardas; march for 4 counts and on FIVE Summer begins, the arms go straight up in triumph, like a gymnast's salute after s/he finishes the combination; march for 3 counts and on the 4th the left hand falls, the right forms into the letter "C"

SO Fall and winter have an upbeat into them .On the down beat of "Fall," the right hand twists like a falling leaf (as in the Asian fan-dances on the falling leaf motif) jerking downward 3 times. Then, on the upbeat of Winter, both arms make fists to prepare for the shivering action of "Winter, where the torso contracts, the forearms "shake against the cold,"  and the elbows knock together rapidly, like a snare-drum roll....

For four counts, and then Spring is back and the body opens up and out, the hands spread with a little burst, like buds opening, the chest opens, the head rises the eyes open and look round, and it's Spring again.

BEAUTIFUL dance!


It is an ENORMOUSLY satisfying little dance -- reminds me of ee cummings' poem "Anyone lived in a pretty how town,' with its varying stanzas about Anybody's life, and the recurring/varying refrain, "Sun moon stars rain"

anyone lived in a pretty how town
(with up so floating many bells down)
spring summer autumn winter
he sang his didn't he danced his did

Women and men(both little and small)
cared for anyone not at all
they sowed their isn't they reaped their same
sun moon stars rain

children guessed(but only a few
and down they forgot as up they grew
autumn winter spring summer)
that noone loved him more by more

when by now and tree by leaf
she laughed his joy she cried his grief
bird by snow and stir by still
anyone's any was all to her

someones married their everyones
laughed their cryings and did their dance
(sleep wake hope and then)they
said their nevers they slept their dream

stars rain sun moon
(and only the snow can begin to explain
how children are apt to forget to remember
with up so floating many bells down)

one day anyone died i guess
(and noone stooped to kiss his face)
busy folk buried them side by side
little by little and was by was

all by all and deep by deep
and more by more they dream their sleep
noone and anyone earth by april
wish by spirit and if by yes.

Women and men(both dong and ding)
summer autumn winter spring
reaped their sowing and went their came
sun moon stars rain

[Natalia]

Thanks for this and for the lovely cummings poem, Paul. Now I have the counts down pat and I'm ready to teach it to my husband. (ha-ha)

[dirac]

Thank you, Paul and Natalia. I'm looking forward to seeing this.

[Kathleen O'Connell]

I saw the 3-D version of Wenders' "Pina" over the weekend, and couldn't get it out of my head for days. The 3-D experience is peculiar -- it's not quite like watching dance in a theater and it's not at all like watching dance on film -- but it definitely works. In some ways it seems more visceral than seeing these works in the theater -- perhaps because there's no proscenium. (There are a couple of spooke moments when elements of the set seem to be projected out into the movie theater.) And can I just say that it's a delight to watch dance filmed by someone who really knows how to use a camera to tell a story. There are no silly cross-cuts or pointless close-ups or "wow! look at that" showcasing of bravura effects; Wenders knows what we need to see when and from how far back or from how close up. And he just revels in the dancers' diversity in age, body type, and ethnicity; he uses their distinctiveness and individuality to great theatrical effect.

The film is comprised of extracts from "Le sacre du printemps," "Café Müller," "Kontakthof," and "Vollmond" interspersed with commentary from Bausch's dancers. Regarding the latter: rather than showing us talking heads, Wenders opted instead to show us the dancers sitting in front of the camera in silence while their previously recorded comments play as voice-over narration -- is if we're listening to their thoughts rather than watching them speak. I thought it was a really good choice -- these dancers are at least as eloquent with their faces and bodies as they are with words, if not more so -- but others have found it annoying. Wenders also pulls some of the extracts out of the theater and stages them in and around Wuppertal, where they look just wonderful. There's one genuine "coup de camera" -- Wenders shoots two of Bausch's dancers looking into a diorama of the "Cafe Müller" set, which magically comes to life as an actual performance of "Cafe Müller" while they talk. (The diorama is set up outdoors in a green and sunny park.)

I recommend that you try to catch this in 3-D even if you don't much care for Bausch. At the very least it's an example of how to film dance well and what 3-D is good for.

[Amy Reusch]

Isn't it wonderful when the camera helps you see the dance rather than distracting you from it?  Nothing is worse than wondering why the cameraman or director was so clueless when you would rather be thinking about the dancing.

I hope they win one of those Oscars it's up for.