Pina Bausch and Café Müller on Screen: the mise-en-scène of co-presence of bodies and closed eyes

Abstract

This article addresses the issue of co-presence of dancing bodies in an excerpt of Café Müller by Pina Bausch through the cinematographic eye of Wim Wenders in Pina (2011). As a theoretical framework for this analysis, essayist and filmmaker Jean-Louis Comolli ‒ mise-en-scène, representation, co-presence ‒ and the film philosophy of difference as proposed by Gilles Deleuze are brought to scene. While shaping itself on relations with time, the empirical object of this analysis traces ruptures and refractions of images as power of representation. From the (im)perfection of the closed eyes in Café Müller to the (re)presentation in a faux raccord of a coalescent image: the eyes of a cinematographic montage as production of presence in dance.

Keywords

• Pina Bausch
• Café Müller
• Cinema
• Co-presence
• Representation