Polina, danser sa vie

Few films offer an authentic look at ballet or modern dance. This is one of those few. Unlike Black Swan, which was totally absurd, we get to see real dancers engaged in real dancing -- as in such great films as The Red Shoes (1948) and The Turning Point (1977). The makers of Polina understood that dancing isn't about faces -- it's about bodies moving through time and space -- so they present long takes that show the dancers from head to toe.

For me the high point of this movie was the long scene with Sergio's improvisation group -- the skinny guy with arms & legs like noodles, and then Polina's wonderful solo.

Unfortunately, the story falls apart not long afterward, and then, after a rushed montage that leaves too much unresolved, it ends abruptly. The disintegration of the narrative is the reason why I rated this movie six stars instead of seven or eight.

Thanks to the movie, I was able to realize I don't like modern (contemporary?) French ballet at all. I don't enjoy watching it, I don't get it.

I basically see the Russian main character as a silly reckless girl who ditched everything she worked for (Bolshoi) for her French boyfriend and ran off with him to France to follow her "passions", despite her family's sacrifice which enabled her to dance in the first place. So the story lost me by then. I didn't care about the characters, the plot, or the French dance (I found it too weirdly carnal with strange movements. )

I like the first part of the movie about Russian ballet though.

The problem with contemporary dance is that it can end up as a parody of itself. This film is a band apart, however. Polina resonates with true passion for movement and creativity that is young, fluid and beautiful. It may look like an art film but it's actually more real than that. The struggle to find true expression of herself, the exhausting work to get there are laid out as Polina finds her way from classical to interpretive dance via improv and hip hop. Every time this film comes up on SBS World Movies, I have to dip into it again and I find something new. Europe takes dance to extraordinary heights and this film ends with Polina dancing in a duet of her own exceptional, poetic choreography that will blow you away.

A modern dance piece like Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly used to do in the 1940s and 1950s. Instead of the magical musical and dance acts, Polina is grounded in contemporary realism , but the magic comes from the process of perfecting one's art and pursing one's passions. I walked in this movie by accident and stayed by curiosity, sitting next to a kind movie-goer who was there for a purpose - and on purpose. I asked her briefly what this was about and she seemed to know what she was in for, and it intrigued me enough to give it a try. She also happen to ended up enjoying it immensely as we spoke more after the experience,

Not a particular dance aficionado myself, having seen a mere dozen of ballets and modern dance performances, I was impressed with Wim Wenders'homage to Pina Bausch in his beautiful daring documentary of modern dance. In Polina, neither dancer nor choreographer is at the centre, but rather dance itself, the collective dancers and their lively creations. This fiction grounds you first in the characters and their passion for life, themselves and art, namely dance in various forms, and thus amplify the artistic achievements that is stellar in its own right with emotions, conflict and conviction. Polina is because of this much better than Pina (2011) can ever be, as good as the dance choreography, venues and performances are in Wenders Academy Award nominated film.

Polina starts in Russia with what may seem a typical ballet banality, but quickly evolves into a change from Eastern to Western Europe, but an internal change, brought by challenges and exploration of one's love, limits, power, purpose and potential. The journey is unexpected and worthwhile, where failures or dead ends are seen as progress and positive understanding of a beautiful world of creators where this is no right or wrong. Beauty emerges from these discovery and Valérie Müller films the process with powerful scenes and engaging visual organic ordinary beauty.

The last dance is the ultimate gateway into the gorgeous world of dance and is much simpler but more powerful and beautiful than for example the famed American in Paris ballet at the end of American in Paris (1951) The editing and emotional tie-in to Polina's past and possible future elevates the deciding audition dance into a euphoric endeavour of love and possibilities.

I found the scenes where we're watching ballet practice (the Bolshoi, or in Aix) to be very interesting. As an American, I found the European settings and atmosphere pretty compelling. But otherwise, this movie was unsatisfying and even boring at times for me. I honestly felt after watching that this was a niche film that would appeal primarily to students or aficionados of ballet, or folks employed in the field of dance.

In between the scenes of Polina rehearsing and taking dance classes, we see her becoming disillusioned, disappointed, lost. She spends the film wandering from one unsatisfying dance experience to the next. Ultimately she does seem to find a dance style that she enjoys, but by then I did not really care. I was just happy this tedious and unfulfilling journey was over.

If you read the IMDB user review by Teyss, that review does a good job of describing the movie. Some of the things Teyss admires, though, I found to be weaknesses in the film.

As far as the more unexplained or baffling incidents and scenes, well, I felt that I was supposed to understand something important about Polina from those moments, but I guess the importance eluded me.