In contrast to Hollywood’s fondness for ugly 3D cash-ins, Wim Wenders has approached the new medium as a chance to rethink cinema’s possibilities; using it to more effectively capture the pure physicality of dance, that most visceral of art forms.  The result is a glorious aesthetic breakthrough.

This is less a film “about” Pina Bausch, the celebrated German choreographer, who died in 2009 after helping the director plan the project, than it is a film (in his words) “for” her. Instead of being handed facts that could be more readily imparted by a literary biography, we are immersed in her startling dance work (including a lengthy, breathtaking opening sequence devoted to The Rite of Spring) and invited to examine her philosophy and work methods via brief interviews with members of her Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch. 

No one tells us that Bausch was one of the greatest choreographers of recent times.  The director’s high-grade 3D cameras make this obvious,...