Aurevoiretmerci

”Aurevoiretmerci”  (2001) is a short film by Arnold Pasquier. The images were shot on June 21st, 2001 at the Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), during Pina Bausch’s solo, taken from the show “Danzón”.  

Remark by Arnold Pasquier in 2019 :  

“The title of this short film refers to Mary Wigman’s choreographic piece “Abschied und Dank / Au revoir et merci” of 1942. It is a founding dance of German expressionism, the model for Pina Bausch’s master, Kurt Jooss. This title refers both to this choreographer and to the farewell gesture that ends Pina Bausch’s solo.  

The history behind the shooting of this film is closely linked to a documentary project on the dancer Dominique Mercy, which I nurtured over four years, accompanied by the INA producer, Cati Couteau. My desire to produce a film following on from the creation of a show by the Tanztheater company, focusing on one of its most distinguished interpreters, was “tossed about” at length, and finally it was in Le Mistral, the bistrot next to the Théâtre de la Ville, that Dominique Mercy informed me, while eating his spaghetti, that the film wouldn’t be made. Meanwhile, he had accepted Régis Obadia’s documentary (“Dominique Mercy danse Pina Bausch”, 2003), more classic and certainly less overwhelming for the company. Both relieved to have found an “outcome” to this undertaking, and disappointed, I borrowed a friend’s video camera and, sacrilege, filmed Pina Bausch’s solo “aux poissons” in the show “Danzón” that was billed that year (and that I knew as I had seen it in 1996). The cameras at that time were not very sensitive to low light and I improvised during the dress rehearsal, attempting to capture something of the dance by choosing the “candlelight” mode on the Sony camera that increased grain and produced a stroboscopic effect owing to a slow shutter speed. At last, during a second performance, that of June 21st, I once again filmed the solo, more confident, and then edited this sequence shot, a gesture of affirmation and affection.”