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| WIM WENDERS, Photo by Nora Schaefer |
by Terry Keefe
Photography by Nora Schaefer
As more filmmakers of note test the waters of 3D non-fiction
features, the technology may prove to be even more of a revolution for
documentaries than it has been for the studio blockbuster, as the ability of digital 3D to immerse the viewer's senses in a non-fiction subject is astounding in the hands of a top director. Wim Wenders, the legendary
German director behind Wings of Desire and
Paris, Texas, hoped to make a
documentary about famed choreographer Pina Bausch for years, but never felt
that he could capture Bausch’s groundbreaking dance pieces properly on film or
video… until he saw U2’s concert documentary U2-3D at the Cannes Film Festival
and seized upon 3D as the key to translating the spatially complex work of
Bausch and her Ensemble of the Tanztheater Wuppertal to the movie screen.
Wenders and Bausch were in pre-production on the documentary
when Bausch died unexpectedly on June 30th, 2009. Although the director’s
first reaction was to shut down the project, he eventually soldiered on, after
conversations with members of the ensemble convinced him that the spirit of
Pina Bausch was still very much present in her work, and in her dancers, but
that the time to capture it for the documentary was fleeting.
The finished feature of Pina features performances of the
Bausch’s “Café Muller,” “Le Sacre du printemps,” “Vollmond,” and Kontakthof,”
which are occasionally shot before a live audience. Solo pieces by members of
the company are then performed in exterior locations, such as industrial areas
and road crossings. Interviews with Tanztheater dances and staff are also
interspersed with footage of Bausch herself at work.
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| WIM WENDERS, Photo by Nora Schaefer |
With his exquisitely photographed 3D, Wenders shies away from the studio blockbuster convention of having objects and people "flying" towards the audience, but instead uses the technology to create a living world which appears to exist right beyond the screen's borders, as if a live theater began at the screen's edge.
Pina is Germany’s official Oscar entry for Best Foreign
Language Film and is also on the Oscar shortlist for Best Documentary Feature.
It opens theatrically in the U.S. on December 24th. We spoke to Wim Wenders during a recent trip to Los Angeles.
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| Scene from PINA. |
When you shot the composed pieces, you were effectively
directing Pina Bausch’s existing choreography for the camera. As she was no
longer with us at that point, what ground rules did you put down for yourself
in terms of any changes?
Wim Wenders: Pina and I had discussed how to shoot her work.
Although she'd never seen 3D, she was very adamant about a couple of things… and
one was that her choreography be directed to the audience. The lighting and
everything had been towards the audience, and so, she really felt that when we
filmed it, I should respect that direction. And then, I could shoot from left
and right and center and high and low, but if possible, not any reverse angles.
So, I promised that to Pina.
Yet, in the finished film, for one scene, I did shoot one
reverse angle. I shot one close-up of the big guy in the center of the stage.
And that was strictly a reverse angle, and I asked Pina for forgiveness, but I
think she would have allowed it.
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| Scene from PINA |
While watching the ‘Café Muller’ piece in the film, and
specifically, the sequence where there is one individual awake while the others
appear to be sleepwalking, it occurred to this viewer how important the
selection of the right angles was in presenting the intentions of Pina’s work
properly to the film audience. How much of a challenge was that for you?
That was my main task, to be able to find the right angle at
any given moment. And I really had to learn these pieces by heart, to know what
was the best possible angle, and the best possible light, to shoot every moment
of that piece. And that piece (‘Café Muller’) has such a fantastic
architecture.
I've seen it often as an audience, so I thought I knew the
piece. In filming it in 3D and actually being onstage with my camera, I
realized a whole different structure. Every
day, I was more and more in awe of the fact that Pina had created this piece in
two weeks. I mean… it's perfect. It's one of the perfect pieces of art of the
twentieth century, in my book. And you could imagine somebody working on it for
years and saying, 'Well, this is it.' They did it in two weeks.
You’ve mentioned previously that you didn’t hear a single
complaint from the group the entire time you were shooting with Pina’s dancers
and team. How do you think Pina created that type of working atmosphere?
Pina’s main concern was truth, and not perfection. She
wanted to find the truth of each of the movements, of each of the gestures, of
every instant of the choreography. She wanted the dancers to be resting in
themselves, and by themselves, and not playing anything where they weren't
themselves. And they were, in the end, so sure of themselves that everybody
didn't have to prove himself, or herself, by outdoing each other. But, it's a
different kind of ensemble than I've ever witnessed.
Some of the early edited cuts of Pina had no dialogue, or
voice-over. Could the film have worked that way?
Well, good question, because we edited almost a year and a
half. It was the longest editing process I ever went through, because it was
difficult to find an easy, logical, sort of smooth way through it, because we
had so much material. And, of course, there was no story as such. I tried as
long as I could to just refrain from any words. And, in the end, I did refrain
from using narration or anything like that, let alone my own voice. But, I
eventually understood that the audience needed a little guidance into Pina's
universe, and, of course, that could only be the dancers themselves. So, I
remembered our conversations that we had. I found little pieces from each and
everybody's stories with Pina.
You shot some of the pieces before a live audience at the
Wuppertal Theater, utilizing a large crane, with a number of operators, to move
the 3D camera about. With so many variables, this sounds like a massive
production challenge.
Our crane was pretty flexible. But to shoot a stage
performance with a live audience, of course… we couldn't put anybody onstage,
so you had to stay out of people's view. I mean, we had some performances where
we blocked half the audience, where a crane occupied half the theater, and so,
only half the audience were sold, the other half we needed for technology. But,
even then, we couldn't go onstage with the stuff. So, we had, with each of the pieces, two or
three days where we had the dancers and the stage all by ourselves, and we
could also interrupt them.
When we shot the public performances, it was always one
take. The longest take we could do was one hour. It was sometimes extremely
physically exhausting to shoot for one hour at a time and hit about 500 marks
in the course of one hour. I had never done anything like that. It was sort of
much easier when finally we did have the stage for ourselves, and I could say
'cut' and then the dancers would also stop, and the music would stop. That felt
like paradise compared to the nerve-wracking process that once it started, the
curtain opened and there was nothing we can do. If we weren't ready, we weren't
ready… it was happening anyway.
You obviously made the decision not to utilize 3D in the
typical studio film manner, in which images are often flying at the viewer.
What were some of the other visual rules you laid down in terms of what the 3D
would, and would not be, used for?
The main rule was that our attraction is not our technology.
Our attraction is the dance. And that, we had to sometimes really remember
every day. Because there are lots of temptations as you shoot in 3D. There are
lots of things where you tell yourself, 'Oh, I could go for this and this, I
can stretch this space here, I could have him or her come closer with the
camera.' I mean, there are lots of things that constantly tempt you to sort of
go a little bit more for the attraction, and the excitement of the technology,
but we refrained from it as much as possible, because in order to have a really
natural viewing process, and in order for 3D to not become the center of
attention, but always play the second fiddle to Pina's art, you had to keep it
in its place.
Do you have any other 3D projects in the pipeline?
Oh, yes, yes. I definitely want to do another documentary in
3D, but it'll be a long-term project, it'll last a couple of years. And I'm
also really looking forward to my first fictional work in 3D. And it still
needs to be found out, how an intimate story, not one that is action-driven,
could be told in 3D. How an intimate story… could meet 3D as a necessary ally,
not just a gimmick, but as a part of the storytelling, and I think that code
needs to be cracked. I'm pretty sure that lots of writers and directors are
working on that right now. I'm looking forward to the kind of narrative films
that will use 3D in an intelligent and necessary and subtle way, and not just
hit you over the head with it.
