One Day Pina Asked... 1983 ‘Un jour Pina a demandé...’ Directed by Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman followed famous Choreographer Pina Bausch and her company of dancers, The Tanzteater Wuppertal, for five weeks while they were on tour in Germany, Italy and France. Her objective was to capture Pina Bausch's unparalleled art not only on stage by behind the scenes.
On Tour with Pina Bausch, One Day Pina Asked Me
forgot about letterboxd. watched this again. i like watching pina bausch dances. its not illegal to take a second look at this
[November marathon of Akerman movies leaving Criterion Channel that I hadn't seen before 1/5]
Though Pina Bausch's work is fascinating and undeniably impressive, Akerman's attempt to convey the impact it had on her through random selections and snippets undercuts much of the emotional power (as Akerman herself basically admits at the beginning). We are left with a collection of moments that don't entirely coalesce into a cohesive whole (either emotionally or intellectually). The snippets of performances are interesting more because they cause us to wonder why Akerman chose them than anything else. They are clearly special to her but I'm not certain their power is conveyed on a universal level.
To me the strength is in the quiet moments that…
Film #37 among my 52 Films by Women 2016
Best known for her hyper-realism and documentaries, Belgian director Chantal Akerman attaches herself to 40-year-old German choreographer Pina Bausch and her Wuppertal-based dance company, taking us on "a journey through her world, through her unwavering quest for love." Over the course of a five-week European tour, we get to see not only the expected rehearsals, performances and personal interviews with troupe members, but also private moments that cameras rarely glimpse.
Modern dance defies definition, of course. It is meant to be experienced, and Akerman does a good job of letting the dancers tell their story, not trying to narrate, explain or interpret. Instead, she shows us what's there and leaves the rest to be filled in by our own imaginations and emotions. I don't pretend to have understood a lot of the routines. I liked some better than others, and I suppose that will be true for all viewers.
Less peels away the layers of Pina Bausch's process than folds all those layers in, such that performance, rehearsal, and backstage prep are seen as part of one whole, the totality of Bausch's art. I'm almost tempted to say that if I had more context for Bausch's work I'd appreciate this more (seeing as how I know next to nothing about her), but I think that contextlessness is essential to what Akerman is doing here; she's searching for the work in its purest form, trying to find a congruent cinematic representation of it, without biographical detail, audience reaction, or critical thought to weigh it down. As Chantal herself says part way through the film: "When I watched one of Pina's…
This is a fitting subject for Akerman to dive into thanks to her avant-garde approach and non-narrative tendencies. We follow an experimental dance group under the guidance of Pina Bausch during their rehearsals and performances. Albeit couple interview-esque segments are implemented the documentary mostly consists of free-flowing snippets from different shows attempting to capture a mood that Akerman felt during them. In her own words doing a bad job at it but that's not true. Or it probably could be; I wasn't there, I don't know how she felt. To me, however, the unrestricted style allows you to simply experience the movements of these dancers in the weirdest or most beautiful choreographies. It's interpretative modern dance with no clear agenda…
Bausch and Akerman have both exalted the purity of repetition, the prose within form, distilling expression down to control. It’s renewing
Strength is the through line - seeking vigor and vitality in the elliptical choreography of Pina. Our voyeurism furthers the perverse, manifesting what, to me, appears as overheard whispers, eavesdropped secrets of sex and anger. Akerman’s only commentary here is her inability to fully process much of the emotion she bares witness to. Such a shock reverberates through her lens.
Akerman, like Bausch, turns every little movement into a dance. Bausch's work here is remarkable - hilarious and ridiculous, though that humor doesn't negate the very touching, tragic emotional appeals at the base of everything we see. Akerman both follows Bausch's lead and takes it further, creating a film that slowly reveals itself to be almost instructional: Bausch's greatest appeal, for Akerman, seems to be a re-orientation towards the world more broadly, ie offstage. By crafting observed movement into spectacle, Bausch, and Akerman, also show the possibility for finding dance, and beauty, and hilarity, in a man brushing his hair, in a cluster of people putting on makeup or sitting alongside each other quietly. How goddamn delightful this movie is.
I miss being in a studio with a bunch of other actors exploring ourselves and each other through movement!!!!!!
"There were moments during which I felt I had to defend myself from what was being expressed, moments when I had to close my eyes."
— Chantal Akerman
Akerman's style is well matched to her subject, but her subject in this case holds utterly no interest for me. Pina Bausch is evidently a very cerebral and thoughtful choreographer ... I find her style to be more grounded in gesture than in movement. But the alternation between catatonic and spastic, between violence suppressed and violence expressed, is tedious. Yes, it's all very thought-provoking and uncomfortable-making. And, yes, I was touched by her philosophy of selecting dancers as whole persons and not merely as athlete-artists, as explained by a narrator in the…
I so adored this- Ackerman elaborated on the theme in Bausch's work of the search for love and connection. The interviews with her dancers were so wonderful
A fascinating portrait of an artist at work, through her works, letting the dance troupe show the process in words and action.
Akerman has more on her mind than merely documenting a tour or capturing for posterity the unique choreographic mastery of Bausch--thrillingly evoked in extended scenes of performance, her camera gliding fluidly with the dancers--setting out to interrogate the relationship between Bausch and her troop through the process of creation, the experiences and emotions of her dancers informing the choreography and instilling the dance with a vital, intimate force.
i fell in love with how seemingly shy pina bausch is, hiding from the camera or omitted in the edit by ackerman until the very end. when she does finally speak its stuttering, hesitant. all her ideas used up in the choreography
While the choreography is rightfully mesmerizing and sublime—and while Akerman knows not to get in the way of her razor-sharp framing—the experimental stylings of Pina's troupe nevertheless insist that all tractable meaning be buried. Despite all the behind-the-scenes footage, this might as well be dancing about architecture.
two goats. when people get into circular arguments about timelessness i always think about pina...
Lotta good footage of people wearing short shorts and chain smoking in this, not necessarily at the same time
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