Pina

Movie Review: Pina

Director: Wim Wenders

Reviewed: 25 January 2012

jamesintexas rating--**** (4 Stars = Highest Rating)

Simply astonishing. My first Wim Wenders film, and my first foray into a 3-D documentary about dancing. Lush and filled with juxtaposed images of dancers on monorails floating over rivers in presumably German cities, Pina is a stunning achievement of form. A tribute of sorts from a dance company to their beloved and departed director Pina Bausch, Wenders embraces the dancing in a variety of contexts: sets, stages with audience members visible, gigantic cliffs, alongside busy streets.

It was stunning. Colorful, passionate, driven by the dancing and the dancers, Wenders nevertheless adds layers upon layers to each shot with sometimes 2 or 3 other lines of movement competing, complementing, or contrasting with the action. A dancer moves alongside a busy street where cars, buses, and monorail trains all float by, dancing in their own inimical ways. A film that reminds me of the beauty and intensity of what the human body can do as well as the endless creativity of self-expression and movement.

I loved this movie.

Currently nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars.

Should be up for Best Picture.