Review: PINA - Wim Wenders' 3D Art Film/Documentary

rating: 5

(Rob's review from the Berlin film festival re-posted) For a few months now I have harboured the suspicion that 2011 would be a decisive year for 3D cinema. Not in terms of box office - arguably Avatar, Alice and Toy Story 3 have heralded that particular coming of age - but in terms of artistry. Critics routinely turn their noses up at the format dismissing it variously as a fad or a gimmick and many suggest that it is completely pointless and refuse to take it seriously, with Roger Ebert and Mark Kermode being among the most vocal and high-profile critics who take this position. Personally I've been on the fence: unwilling to write it off (not least because of the money that's being invested in the technology) but hardly a convert either. Well, as of today I think 3D has truly arrived. Ok, so this could in all likelihood represent a false dawn for the format - much in the same way that every major footballer who has moved to the US over the last half century was supposed to mark a new era for American soccer. But if you look at the 3D movie slate for 2011 it makes for undeniably impressive reading. Scorsese, Spielberg, Peter Jackson, Gondry, Herzog and Michel Ocelot are not the sort of names people would readily associate with the tacky cash cow that is 3D: the amusement park ride with the plastic glasses designed to herd swathes of Joe-normals back into struggling cinemas. All of them are acclaimed, respected artists. And yet all of them have 3D films coming out this year - the latter two with films on show at this Berlin Film Festival. Yet it wasn't one of these filmmakers who ended up convincing me of the format's artistic possibilities. Instead it was another revered name of the international cinema, German auteur Wim Wenders, whose performance art film/documentary Pina came from out of nowhere (for me at least) and left a huge impression. Wenders is no stranger to the technology, having made two 3D shorts in as many years, and it shows that he has experience with it as Pina is a technical masterclass and a potential game changer. It doesn't do anything flashy as, like the most tasteful 3D films such as Pixar's Up, it goes for creating depth rather than throwing axes in your eyes. Instead the reason why Pina is so remarkable is that, unlike Up or Avatar or Tales of the Night, Pina needs to be seen in 3D in order to work. I went to a ballet recently and was unexpectedly blown away by it. When you're watching dance live, I suppose like theatre or music, you appreciate it more. In the case of live ballet, you can actually see how ridiculously incredible what is going on is from a physical standpoint - the footwork required, the dexterity, the balance, the spatial awareness and the stamina. Watching a ballet on TV or - in some places - broadcast live on a cinema screen is just nowhere close as an experience. By contrast Pina, which celebrates the life and work of late German modern dance choreographer Pina Bausch, really puts you in a theatre watching the dancers move in a three dimensional space. Wenders himself has said that "only by including this dimension of space did I feel confident (rather than presumptuous) that here was a suitable way of transporting Pina's Tanztheater to the screen." The result of this decision (apparently inspired by a viewing of U2-3D) is tremendous. The German director's use of space, the way he stages the action, is just incredible and wholly new, whilst the cinematography and camerawork is beautiful to behold. Pina is a technical masterpiece and a bold piece of work all ways around. Watching it I was struck by how conceivably any film characterised by incredible blocking and interesting use of space would not only work in this format but would in fact be enhanced by it. I imagined Lars Von Trier's Dogville in 3D and it suddenly all made sense. Previously I would never have entertained such an idea but Pina proves there is a place for 3D in the arthouse and in the hands of auteurs. It should never fully replace 2D film as not every film would necessarily gain anything from it - in the same way that directors are still free to choose to make movies in black and white - but it's now a viable creative option for more than just James Cameron and the makers of CGI animation. I know very little about Pina herself and so my connection with the film was, as I've made apparent, mostly to do with the technical virtuosity of its making. Yet I will say that the experimental dance shown is really entertaining in its own right and often times quite witty. Pina's pieces, as performed here by her own company of dancers, are dirty, anarchic, sweaty and satirical. They seem to be a reaction against more sanitised, formalised dance and as a result you can understand why Wenders sought such a bold way of capturing them for the cinema. If 3D doesn't take off in "legitimate" cinema after 2011 it will only prove that too few have the imagination and confidence of Wim Wenders. Pina is on limited U.K. release from today.