By KENNETH TURAN
Exceptional dance, of all things, has turned out to be a splendid subject for 3-D filmmaking. In 2011, Wim Wenders took on the work of dancer-choreographer Pina Bausch in the memorable “Pina” and now, from a very different filmmaker, comes “Cunningham,” a visual wonder that involves from start to finish.
The subject, as the title points out, is Merce Cunningham, the revolutionary American choreographer whose decades of work changed the very nature of dance before he died a decade ago at age 90.
Though two-thirds of the film is made up of 3-D excerpts from 14 of the 180 dances he created, “Cunningham” aims to be not only stunning, which it is, but also to serve as a kind of crash course in the man and his work.
More than that, by using all manner of visual pizzazz to creatively include archival material, including photographs, home movies and excerpts from letters and books, “Cunningham” makes good on its stated goal of doing justice to the man’s spirit of inventiveness.
Written, directed and edited by Russian-born Alla Kovgan, experienced in working with dance and cinema, this film was made with the collaboration of two longtime Cunningham associates — Robert Swinston and Jennifer Goggans — in choreography roles and was able to feature the last generation of dancers that Cunningham personally trained. Read more via Chicago Tribune
“Dance exercises over dancers an insidious attraction. It makes them work hours daily on perfecting an instrument which is really deteriorating from birth. To what end, this eternal daily struggle? Because inside of all that is an ecstasy. Brief, perhaps, not always released. But this can happen at any moment. And when it does for a dancer, he can smile without knowing it. There is no guarantee of this, but it does exist. We see it, and we know it.”