Pina 3D

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It seems that the German arthouse faction have embraced 3D... but only in the documentary. Following Wener Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams comes Wim Wenders' Pina, a documentary on Pina Bausch, a modern dance choreographer. Pina looks beautiful, fully utilises the 3D aspect and may do for the modern dance documentary what Stop Making Sense did for the concert film, but there is little here for those outside the realm of modern dance.

Originally to be a documentary on Pina's most famous works (Café Muller, The Rite Of Spring, Kontakthof and Vollmund) as she prepares to take them on tour, that idea was scuppered when Bausch died in 2009. Encouraged by her dancers at Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch to continue with the idea, Wenders turns Pina into a celebration of her talent and seeks insight from those who worked with her. Insight isn't the word that could describe the God-like comparisons Bausch's dancers eulogise her with as pretentious musings abound with most saying that Bausch saw in them what they never saw in themselves.

Wenders resists the temptation to make Pina a series of talking heads: there are numerous one-on-ones but the little snippets of interviews are shot in silence with the interviewee looking pensive while their thoughts are heard in voiceover. It lends the interviews a certain intimacy missing from most documentaries. When the camera isn't sitting still, Wenders throws it about the stage as the dancers go through their routines. This is where Pina comes to life: the viewer at such a show is relegated to a static spot in the audience but Wenders gets in amongst the action on stage: against the backdrops of minimalist German Expressionism sets, Wenders uses POV shots and other inventive angles to charge the movements with electricity. That could have been enough for some directors but Wenders takes the action outside, to parks and various beautiful buildings, to shoot some scenes too. The 3D is gorgeous in these sequences.

Pina is indeed a visual spectacle but those looking for any insight into the woman and what made her tick will be sorely disappointed. This is basically a visual celebration of her plays.