NEVER LOOK AWAY
****
Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Principal cast:
Tom Schilling
Sebastian Koch
Paula Beer
Saskia Rosendahl
Oliver Masucci
Cai Cohrs
Country: Germany/Italy
Classification: M
Runtime: 189 mins.
Australian release date: 20 June 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 5 June 2019.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away is inspired by the life of one of the great German artists of the 20th century, Gerhard Richter, and spans three eras of his country’s history: the Nazi, the Communist and the Capitalist. It was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2018, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Achievement in Cinematography, and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival that same year. It is also in contention for the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival and is von Donnersmarck’s first German-language film since his Oscar-winning The Lives Of Others in 2006. Best not to mention The Tourist, the film he made in English in 2010 with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. We all make mistakes.
Beginning in Dresden in 1937, when Germany was controlled by Hitler’s National Socialist government, the opening scene shows a young woman, Elizabeth May (Saskia Rosendahl), and her young nephew, Kurt Barnert (Cai Cohrs), viewing an exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’, as the Nazis called it. While the tour guide is remonstrating against the value of modern artists like Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Klee, et al, Elizabeth whispers to her charge, “All that’s true is good”, an edict that will stay with Kurt all his life. We then follow him through the bombing of Dresden, his family’s move to Berlin (he’s now 13, played by Oscar Müller), the establishment of the German Democratic Republic, his marriage in 1957 to Ellie Seeband (Paula Beer; the adult Kurt is now portrayed by Tom Schilling), and their escape to West Germany in 1961, where he takes up the study and practice of (what else?) modern art in Düsseldorf in 1966. For much of this time, he and Ellie are haunted, almost stalked, by the insidious figure of Ellie’s father, Professor Carl Seeband (Sebastian Koch). A gynaecologist, he doesn’t approve of his daughter’s relationship with Kurt, regarding him as genetically inferior to Ellie, and determined that his family’s blood-line will remain pure - and he has the past to prove that he will go to any ends to get his way.
Never Look Away is an epic work, and a very interesting one, albeit overly long at three hours plus. Kurt is an intriguing character, a man of few words and von Donnersmarck’s script doesn’t reveal much about what motivates him. He seems to be sustained by his passion for art, although he doesn’t quite know how to express it, and his love and desire for his wife. Politics appear to be of little interest to him and yet, almost by osmosis, he understands what is happening to his country during the cataclysmic events taking place around him. And like his aunt, Kurt is almost unknowingly clairvoyant; it’s a sixth sense that will have dramatic consequences. Talking about why he was inspired to make a film based on the life of Richter, von Donnersmarck has said, “Gerhard Richter was asked about the power of art. The gist of what he said was that he believed this was the wrong word. For him art didn’t have any power; rather, it exists to give consolation. I reflected for a long time about what he meant. I believe it means that every great work of art is concrete evidence that trauma can be transformed into something positive.” In Never Look Away the director has attempted to do a similar thing with the traumatic history of Germany in the 20th century.
Screenwriter: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Principal cast:
Tom Schilling
Sebastian Koch
Paula Beer
Saskia Rosendahl
Oliver Masucci
Cai Cohrs
Country: Germany/Italy
Classification: M
Runtime: 189 mins.
Australian release date: 20 June 2019
Previewed at: Sony Pictures Theatrette, Sydney, on 5 June 2019.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away is inspired by the life of one of the great German artists of the 20th century, Gerhard Richter, and spans three eras of his country’s history: the Nazi, the Communist and the Capitalist. It was nominated for two Academy Awards in 2018, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Achievement in Cinematography, and won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival that same year. It is also in contention for the $60,000 Sydney Film Prize at the 2019 Sydney Film Festival and is von Donnersmarck’s first German-language film since his Oscar-winning The Lives Of Others in 2006. Best not to mention The Tourist, the film he made in English in 2010 with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. We all make mistakes.
Beginning in Dresden in 1937, when Germany was controlled by Hitler’s National Socialist government, the opening scene shows a young woman, Elizabeth May (Saskia Rosendahl), and her young nephew, Kurt Barnert (Cai Cohrs), viewing an exhibition of ‘Degenerate Art’, as the Nazis called it. While the tour guide is remonstrating against the value of modern artists like Picasso, Mondrian, Kandinsky, Klee, et al, Elizabeth whispers to her charge, “All that’s true is good”, an edict that will stay with Kurt all his life. We then follow him through the bombing of Dresden, his family’s move to Berlin (he’s now 13, played by Oscar Müller), the establishment of the German Democratic Republic, his marriage in 1957 to Ellie Seeband (Paula Beer; the adult Kurt is now portrayed by Tom Schilling), and their escape to West Germany in 1961, where he takes up the study and practice of (what else?) modern art in Düsseldorf in 1966. For much of this time, he and Ellie are haunted, almost stalked, by the insidious figure of Ellie’s father, Professor Carl Seeband (Sebastian Koch). A gynaecologist, he doesn’t approve of his daughter’s relationship with Kurt, regarding him as genetically inferior to Ellie, and determined that his family’s blood-line will remain pure - and he has the past to prove that he will go to any ends to get his way.
Never Look Away is an epic work, and a very interesting one, albeit overly long at three hours plus. Kurt is an intriguing character, a man of few words and von Donnersmarck’s script doesn’t reveal much about what motivates him. He seems to be sustained by his passion for art, although he doesn’t quite know how to express it, and his love and desire for his wife. Politics appear to be of little interest to him and yet, almost by osmosis, he understands what is happening to his country during the cataclysmic events taking place around him. And like his aunt, Kurt is almost unknowingly clairvoyant; it’s a sixth sense that will have dramatic consequences. Talking about why he was inspired to make a film based on the life of Richter, von Donnersmarck has said, “Gerhard Richter was asked about the power of art. The gist of what he said was that he believed this was the wrong word. For him art didn’t have any power; rather, it exists to give consolation. I reflected for a long time about what he meant. I believe it means that every great work of art is concrete evidence that trauma can be transformed into something positive.” In Never Look Away the director has attempted to do a similar thing with the traumatic history of Germany in the 20th century.