Pina

Choreographer Pina Bausch could not have found a better cinematic champion than fellow German Wim Wenders. The filmmaker has tackled everything from engaging character studies ("Paris, Texas") to science fiction ("Until the End of the World") to the fairy tale (the masterpiece "Wings of Desire," for which he won best director at Cannes). Wenders is equally at home with nonfiction. His unconventional documentaries about the arts swing from filmmaking to fashion to music, most famously in the international hit "Buena Vista Social Club."

Now Wenders has tackled dance. Unlike Darren Aronofsky's dark "Black Swan," "Pina" is a love letter to what is beautiful and life-affirming about the art of movement. The film is a fully realized vision, detailing Bausch's intimate approach to choreography and displaying the power of her best work.

For those unfamiliar with Bausch, she made her reputation with Tanztheater (or "dance theater") in her hometown of Wuppertal, Germany. Like Wenders', Bausch's work was defined by its lack of convention: Her working method was to challenge her dancers to answer specific questions through movement, often exploring "the need for love, for closeness and security." Bausch once said, "I always know exactly what I am looking for, but I know it emotionally and not with my head." She held no preconceptions about tradition; onstage, dancers were as likely to laugh, sing, talk, or cry as move.

After seeing her company perform in 1984, Wenders was struck by the elegant and innovative nature of Bausch's work. "Even calling it modern dance is inappropriate," Wenders said recently. "What she does is plays where the acting is done by dancers."

Wenders had planned to collaborate with Bausch on a film since viewing that first performance but didn't feel he could capture the work's dynamism until digital 3-D technology became available. Bausch died in 2009 just as her collaboration with Wenders on this film was beginning. She was 68. The film evolved into a tribute to Bausch, working with her former and current dancers to capture her pieces onscreen.

Aside from brief interviews with collaborators, for most of the film we see some of the best dancers in the world perform Bausch's work, particularly her innovative experiments. In "Le Sacre du Printemps," dancers perform on a stage in ankle-deep peat. "Café Müller" is a minimalist piece in which performers trip awkwardly across a stage filled with tables and chairs. "Kontakthof" is performed by three separate casts, as it was during Bausch's career, of different age groups: teenagers, twentysomethings, and seniors over age 65.

Pieces are performed onstage as well as in diverse locations around Wuppertal: a mountainside, a factory, a traffic island, and even in a monorail. With the depth of field offered by digital 3-D, you feel like you are in the performance space. Using a specialized crane to fortify the effect, Wenders often brings viewers just a few feet away from the dancers. You can see the grace and the exertion of the performers at work.

The highlight of the film is one of Bausch's last works. Performed by 12 dancers on a huge stage on which they jump from a boulder or swim across a shallow moat across the center, often in a driving rain, 2006's "Vollmond" is an unrestrained expression of pure joy and physicality. Like the rest of the film, it gives you a glimpse of the incandescent spirit of the woman who created such beauty.

Genre: Documentary
Written by Wim Wenders
Directed by Wim Wenders
Featuring Pina Bausch and dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal