Pina (film)

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Pina

tanzt, tanzt sonst sind wir verloren
(dance, dance otherwise we are lost)
Directed by Wim Wenders
Produced by Jeremy Thomas
Written by Wim Wenders
Starring Pina Bausch
Release dates
  • 13 February 2011 (2011-02-13) (Berlinale)
Running time 106 minutes
Country Germany
Language
  • German
  • English
  • French
  • Italian
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Croatian
  • Korean
  • Spanish
Box office $14,620,458[1]

Pina is a 2011 German 3D documentary film about the contemporary dance choreographer Pina Bausch.[2] It was directed by Wim Wenders.[3] The film premiered Out of Competition at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival.[4]

During the preparation of the documentary, Pina Bausch died unexpectedly. Wenders cancelled the film production, but the other dancers of Tanztheater Wuppertal convinced him to make the film anyway. It showcases these dancers, who talk about Pina and perform some of her best-known pieces, inside the Tanztheater Wuppertal and in various outdoor locations around the city of Wuppertal.

Plot

The film presents extracts from some of the most noted dance pieces by Pina Bausch in the Tanztheater ("dance theater") style of which Bausch was a leading exponent. The extracts are from four pieces: Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), Café Müller, Kontakthof, and Vollmond. These are complemented with interviews and further dance choreographies, which were shot in and around Wuppertal, Germany; the film includes scenes showing the Wuppertal Schwebebahn, an elevated railway, and some dance sequences take place inside its carriages.

In the first piece, Le sacre du printemps, (Frühlingsopfer, The Rite of Spring (1975)), the dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal, separated into male and female groups, move about a stage covered by a thick layer of peat.

The following section, Café Müller (1978), portrays a café Pina often visited when she was a child.[citation needed] In a simple setting consisting of some tables and chairs and doors, a small woman dressed in white is entering the café. Two more women, one of whom is obviously blind, appear. They hesitate to step further, as the tables and chairs are obstructing their way. Two men come around and try to remove these barriers. Eventually the blind woman and one of the men stand face to face. The second woman wraps her arms around the other men, but she slips. This part repeats and seems to remain in a loop.

The next piece, Kontakthof, (Kontakt "contact" + Hof "court, courtyard", hence "contact court, courtyard of contact") was performed multiple times for Wenders' cameras, with groups of different generations: teenagers, middle-aged dancers, and dancers over 65 (Bausch had choreographed these three variants, as Kontakthof – Mit Teenagern ab 14 (2008), Kontakthof (1978), and Kontakthof – Mit Damen und Herren ab 65 (2000)). The film edits these performances into one, cutting between different performers to highlight their different abilities.

In the final piece, Vollmond, (2006) (Vollmond, "full moon") the stage is flooded. The scenery consists of one large rock and some chairs. At the end of the film, the actors face the audience on a small path with a brown coal mining region in the background to an open end.

Reception

Critical response

Reviews of the film were overwhelmingly positive. It has received an 94% rating on Rotten Tomatoes (82 Fresh and 5 Rotten). The critical consensus called it "an immersive, gorgeously shot tribute to the people who express life through movement."[5] Kimberley Jones of the Austin Chronicle praised the "utterly transfixing, exhilarating spectacle of bodies in motion."[6]

Accolades

Pina was selected as the German entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 84th Academy Awards;[7][8] as well as being submitted for Best Documentary Feature. On November 18, 2011, the film was named as one of the 15 shortlisted entries for Best Documentary Feature.[9] On January 18, 2012, the film was also named as one of the nine shortlisted entries for Best Foreign Language Film.[10] On January 24, 2012 it was finally nominated for an Best Documentary Feature, but failed to be nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film Category. Had the film received Oscar nominations in both fields, it would have been the first film ever to do so.[11]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Pina (2011)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 8 May 2012. 
  2. ↑ Smith, Ian Hayden (2012). International Film Guide 2012. p. 124. ISBN 978-1908215017. 
  3. ↑ "First Berlin 2011 Contenders are Revealed". indiemoviesonline.com. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  4. ↑ "Berlinale 2011: First Competition Films". Berlinale. Retrieved 2011-01-03. 
  5. ↑ "Pina (2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2012-03-20. 
  6. ↑ http://www.austinchronicle.com/calendar/film/2012-02-10/pina/
  7. ↑ "Pina für Deutschland ins Oscar-Rennen". Bild.de. Retrieved 2011-09-08. 
  8. ↑ "63 Countries Vie for 2011 Foreign Language Film Oscar". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-10-14. 
  9. ↑ "15 Documentary Features Advance in 2011 Oscar Race". oscars.org. Retrieved 2012-01-20. 
  10. ↑ "9 Foreign Language Films Vie for Oscar". oscars.org. Retrieved 2012-01-20. 
  11. ↑ "'Pina' Aims for an Unprecedented Double-Play at Oscars". TheWrap.com. Retrieved 2012-01-20. 

External links

Films directed by Wim Wenders
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