Monday, January 16, 2012

Urbanized in Toronto



Wim Wenders' ode to choreographer Pina Bausch, "Pina" Image via Mubi.com


I missed the documentary "Urbanized". Got there too late! It was sold out, so I went to Pina, a 3D dance movie, instead. 
"Pina" has all the pretension of modern dance and is fairly straight forward, fixed camera filming of dance pieces. An example of the odd (maybe just Germanic) obtuseness would be as follows: a dancer enters into view, yells, "Dieses ist Kalbfleisch!" - "This is veal!" then puts two pieces of raw veal in her dance slippers as she ties them up. Yet it is full of incredible physicality and beauty – said woman with the veal in her heels then proceeds to dance for several minutes entirely "on pointe". It also has some pretty great music which you can hear a sample of below:

PINA - Original Soundtrack - "Lillies Of The Valley" - Music by Jun Miyake by www.cinema-rock.com
Urbanized is playing again on Tuesday but I doubt I'll be able to see it, so I'll probably just have to rent it like everyone else. 
I will say this. It is fun to see a movie at the TIFF Lightbox. Most of the theatres are great, spacious with gorgeous red velvet curtains though there is one really small "multi-purpose room" with temporary bleachers. Very uncomfortable. You can linger in the gift shop, see an exhibit or just get a drink at the bar before going in. I think the Varsity at Bay-Bloor tried this grown-up approach to going to the movies but didn't quite succeed the way the Lightbox does. I don't really like the building which is just a typical glass box and the circulation and ticketing are a little messy but the quality of the theatres, café and bar are better than any movie house in town.

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