Pina Review

Wim Wenders’ film about the legendary choreographer Pina Bausch — whose best-known work, the haunting Café Müller, opens Almodovar’s Talk To Her — was nearly derailed by its subject’s sudden death, creating a seemingly unfillable void at the centre of his documentary. Instead of abandoning the idea of making a film about Bausch, Wenders has made a worthy tribute to her, inviting members of her ensemble to express their feelings about their mentor, partly through words, but mostly through achingly heartfelt performances, using 3D technology’s enhanced depth of field to capture the depth of feeling ever-present in Bausch’s work. It may not win any converts to the art form, but ‘mere’ movement has seldom been so moving.