Cunningham's reviews
Media reviews
Variety
Kovgan?s ode to choreography master Merce Cunningham is sensational in every sense of the word. Renewing one?s appreciation of the many wonders of the human body and the space in which it fills and drifts, Cunningham celebrates all the things our joints and flexed muscles are capable of, as seen through the mind and poetic dances of an iconic creator.
Roger Ebert
"2019 has seen many great documentaries, across the various styles in which to tell a true story. But there?s been nothing quite like Alla Kovgan?s 'Cunningham', an exhilarating testament to documentaries as a boundless form of art".
Screen Daily
Never making an obvious move, like its subject, the end result veers close to avant-garde. That?s a term that Cunningham himself famously and continually shunned; however Kovgan clearly doesn?t share the same concern.
What the film doesn?t give is an accurate sense of Cunningham time. In a Cunningham dance, the mind can wander, experience different rates of change, be baffled, engrossed, astonished, bored. The price of Kovgan?s efficiency is impatience, always cutting away and moving on.
In Cunningham, the presentation is riveting.
The Wrap
Cunningham is valuable as an introduction to the work of this major artist, who is sometimes seen dancing himself in archival footage, unfurling his long legs and arms and exploring the most eccentric movements without fear or physical roadblocks of any kind.
While some individuals are inevitably more compelling than others, as a whole the entire series, and ?63 Up? in particular, is completely enveloping as it draws us into the latest happenings of these people we?ve followed for so long.
The Washington Post
When it comes to exploring the man behind the art, the film?s execution feels out of step with its ambition.
The Washington Post
"In a new documentary about Merce Cunningham, filmmaker Alla Kovgan attempts a delicate dance. On the one hand, 'Cunningham' stages many of the pioneering choreographer?s abstract works superbly, capturing the vision of an idiosyncratic artist. On the other hand, when it comes to exploring the man behind the art, the film?s execution feels out of step with its ambition".
Los Angeles Times
"By using all manner of visual pizzazz to creatively include archival material, including photographs, home movies and excerpts from letters and books, ?Cunningham? makes good on its stated goal of doing justice to the man?s spirit of inventiveness".
The Hollywood Reporter
"What Kovgan's utterly transporting film does, through a thoughtful and dynamic combination of curated material and new performances, is radiate the rapturous power of dance. It embodies the daring of a man who, though he eschewed the "avant-garde" label, was nonetheless a peerless innovator who took an art form to places it had never before gone".
Festival Internacional de Cine de Lanzarote