The Criterion Collection recently announced its grand entrance into the world of 3D Home Entertainment with the release of Wim Wenders’ Pina. The documentary, an Academy Award nominee, took Werner Herzog’s approach of non-fiction as technologically advanced art to another level. Displaying dance in a way that was close enough to touch, Wenders renders the nuanced details of one of the world’s greatest choreographers.

Pina’s a deeply respectful film that uses the approach of showing us the
art of dance rather than simply reciting the facts of the creator’s life. Where most documentaries would have given us snippets of performance around sound bites, performance here becomes a spiritual anchor that draws us into Pina Bausch’s world through her creations. Even the bites that do exist are voiceover played over the speakers’ nuanced faces. The looks of her performers were just as crucial to the presentations as the movements of their bodies.

This disc will likely be the first 3D blu-ray I will ever own. I feel the advances of this film, along with Scorsese’s use of 3D in Hugo, are the two brightest lights yet for an oft-maligned innovation.