Pina. 2011. Germany. Directed by Wim Wenders. With Pina Bausch, Malou Airaudo, Regina Advento, Ruth Amarante, Pablo Aran Gimeno. 2D version in 35mm. In many languages, including German, Russian, French, Portuguese, Korean, Slovene; English subtitles. 103 min.
A German choreographer who revolutionized tanztheater (“dance theater”) with her brash, raw, and often absurdist stagings of human emotion and gesture, Pina Bausch died in 2009 shortly before she and Wenders were to collaborate on a film. All but ready to give up on the project, Wenders was instead persuaded by members of her Wuppertal Dance Theater to refashion the film into a tribute of dazzling variety and valence, interweaving archival footage of Bausch with live performances of some of her most legendary and intimate dance pieces. The resulting work captures the full range of Bausch’s elaborate somatic vocabulary while also venturing beyond the proscenium arch to film members of Bausch’s ensemble dancing on the banks of a river, in a factory, and with transit commuters in the company’s home town of Wuppertal.