Mike B This film did not really click with me. The dance style is like a pending apocalypse. It becomes very dreary sometimes. One wants to yell "Lighten up – have a drink!" Some excerpts brought to mind Monty Python – a woman dancing on a bench in a stream (And now for Something Completely....).There is hardly any exuberance and joy expressed in the dance sequences. Even when the music is bubbly, the dancers seem to have a forced smile.Perhaps it was too avant garde for my taste as well – in one arrangement a dancer is shoveling dirt unto another dancer, in another a dancer performing by a public pool. It all comes off as not only pretentious – but cold and icy. Many of the dancers expostulate rapturously on Pina – but I also got the feeling of someone who was not communicating effectively and hard to reach. Overall I was not impressed. Some of the musical pieces were interesting (The Rite of Spring by Stravinski), but the choreography overwhelmed the rigid dancing.

lui-samantha Those expecting a film similar to Step Up 3D will get something quite different.Directed by Wim Wenders comes Pina, a dance documentary celebrating the life of late choreographer Pina Bausch.Featuring Bausch's most noted dance pieces in the Tanztheater (dance theatre) style, the film consists of four pieces titled Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring), Cafe Mueller (a cafe in the German town Solingen, where Bausch grew up) ,Kontaktof and Vollmond. Along with these pieces, are short snippets of interviews with her dancers and further dance routines shot around Wuppertal, Germany.Wenders was originally set to make a documentary on the German choreographer. However, filming was cut short due to her unexpected death in 2009. While Wenders cancelled the production, Bausch's dancers convinced him to continue shooting anyway.While some of the routines are slow at times, shooting in 3D has certainly helped make them more appealing. Adding a whole new dimension to dance, the cinematography of the film is visually stunning.But don't expect the documentary to be like mainstream dance film Step Up 3D. Pina is a more artistic take on dance, encouraging the audience to interpret the story behind each routine.

zetes This is probably Wenders' best in years, although I admit I've skipped everything he's made since the terrible The End of Violence back in 1997. This is great, whatever the case. It's a very unconventional documentary about choreographer Pina Bausch. Well, not really. It's about her work. There's almost no biographical information throughout the film. All we really learn is that she was a choreographer, and that she's dead. I don't even think the film mentions her surname until the credits. This is all about her work, which Wenders stages with former members of her troupe. It's all about the dancing, and if you love dancing, well, this film is a real treat. The dancing is quite unconventional itself. Occasionally there would be dances with which I was not enamored, but the vast majority I loved. Apparently, this was made to be seen in 3D, but, as usual, I doubt it's worth the eye strain. It's perfectly spectacular in 2D.

pefrss I just spent a wonderful afternoon watching the movie in honor of Pina Bausch.In the 1970s I lived for a few years in Wuppertal and saw Pina Bausch's performances there. It formed my taste for dance for the rest of my life. I never saw her live again after that and though I love contemporary dance I never found any modern dance ensemble as moving as what I had seen from Pina Bausch. I saw the movie in 3D and in my opinion it did not add to the experience. I hope I will have a chance to see it again without 3D I found it rather distracting. So far I have not seen one movie I liked in 3D.But it was a small distraction. Wenders did a wonderful job to catch Pina's essence. For me the movie could have gone on for hours and hours. It was perfect. Dance as another sense. I loved Patrick Suesskind's book 'Perfume' because he made us experience the world through our nose.Pina makes us experience our feelings through dance. And Wenders succeeded in even making Wuppertal look beautiful (Quite an achievement!).Many of the dance scenes are filmed in the middle of Wuppertal or inside their famous Schwebebahn (sort of a monorail). The dances are so good that they do not need a stage, or make up or extravagant costumes. The dance movements say it all. It is simply breathtaking. I guess that this movie will not be seen by so many people because it will not get the promotion like for example "Black Swan" got. I hated Black Swan. It was not a dance movie, but a movie about a girl with problems, who was flapping her arms. Imagine one moment one of Pina's dancer would have danced that role. Well, of course they wouldn't because their dance is not limited to a scripted role. I will buy the DVD, I hope they will release it in region 1 soon and I hope it will come across on the TV screen. I bought Altman's "The Company" after I saw it on the big screen, but it was never the same on my considerable smaller TV screen.