Modular cinema – A film-response from Chantal Akerman to Pina Bausch

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate how the film Un jour Pina a demandé (1983), by Chantal Akerman, more than belonging to the lineage of documentaries and television pieces about the artistic figure of Pina Bausch, can (and should) be thought of as a response-film (a creative response of sorts) to the German choreographer’s praxis. Un jour Pina a demandé acts as co-creator in relation to the artistic material (images and sounds of the performances, and/or rehearsals by Bausch and the dancers of her Company – Tanztheater Wuppertal) which she proposes to modulate cinematically. In this approach, we will identify a series of cinematographic operations that match Pina Bausch’s own method of creation (i.e., her artistic vision). Finally, we will argue that Akerman’s film serves as a model for a definition of modular cinema, according to which cinematic praxes can be thought of as affective responses to other works of art (scenic, plastic, visual or audio), revealing their intrinsically cinematic aspects and, possibly, originating another work from this revelation.