Review of Pina (2011) by Johnrovi — 09 Mar 2012

This film is an event, a piece of performance art, transcending film itself, in part through its creative and lovely use of 3D (which I generally think is a waste of time) and in part through its loving treatment of the film's subject, which is not Pina Bausch, but, in my view, the dancers who worked with her for decades and became co-choreographers with her. They explode across the screen in great excursions of ecstasy which have sent me home in wonder, yet again, at the beauty of being human.

But, please be forwarned, the film starts in more difficult territory with an early work of hers resetting Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, and it takes quite a while for the jovial heart of the film to be revealed. It is worth the wait, every bit, and while I was first completely lost and untouched by the work at the beginning, over the span of the film I came to feel a real understanding of what Bausch was reaching for, and how beautifully her work was realized in these wonderful, vulnerable, liberated human beings and their amazing dancing machines. Run, don't walk, to see Pina.