2018 German romantic drama film
Never Look Away
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Theatrical release poster
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German
| Werk ohne Autor
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Directed by
| Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
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Written by
| Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
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Produced by
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- Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
- Jan Mojto
- Quirin Berg
- Max Wiedemann
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Starring
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Cinematography
| Caleb Deschanel
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Edited by
| Patricia Rommel
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Music by
| Max Richter
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Production
company
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Distributed by
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Release dates
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- 4 September 2018
(
2018-09-04
)
(
Venice
)
- 3 October 2018
(
2018-10-03
)
(Germany)
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Running time
| 188 minutes
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Country
| Germany
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Languages
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Box office
| $9 million
[1]
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Never Look Away
(
German
:
Werk ohne Autor
,
lit.
'Work Without [an] Author') is a 2018 German
epic
coming-of-age
romantic drama film
written and directed by
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
. It was nominated for a
Golden Lion
at the
75th Venice International Film Festival
[2]
[3]
and for a
Golden Globe
by the
Hollywood Foreign Press Association
. It was nominated for two
Academy Awards
at the
91st Academy Awards
, in the
Best Foreign Language Film
and
Best Cinematography
categories.
[4]
This was only the second time that a German-language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in
multiple categories
, the other film being
Wolfgang Petersen
's
Das Boot
36 years previously.
Plot
[
edit
]
As a child during
Nazi-era Germany
, Kurt Barnert (inspired by
Gerhard Richter
) visits an exhibit of "
Degenerate Art
" in
Dresden
with his beautiful young aunt Elisabeth. While there, he is mesmerized by
Girl with Blue Hair
, a
modernist sculpture
by
Eugen Hoffmann
.
At a Nazi Party rally, Elisabeth - a member of the
National Socialist Women's League
- is given the honor of personally presenting a bouquet of flowers to
Adolf Hitler
, a task she takes to with great pride. Later that day at home, Kurt walks in on a nude Elisabeth playing
Bach's
music on the piano. She tells a startled Kurt to "never look away" because "everything that is true holds beauty in it." Elisabeth then begins hitting a single piano note repeatedly, rambling euphorically that she is "playing a concert for the Fuhrer", and then begins deliriously hitting herself on the head with a broken ashtray.
Elisabeth is diagnosed with
schizophrenia
and is
sterilized
and later murdered under the
Nazi euthanasia
program. The doctor who orders her sterilization and death is
gynecologist
Professor Carl Seeband, a high-ranking member of the
SS
medical corps. After the war, Seeband is arrested by the Soviets and placed in a prison camp, facing likely execution. While there, he volunteers to assist a
Red Army
officer's wife during a complicated birth and saves the lives of both wife and child. The grateful Soviet officer releases Seeband and thereafter helps to keep evidence of his Nazi past from catching up with him.
As an adult, Kurt studies painting at the
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts
, where he falls in love with a young fashion design student named Elisabeth (like his aunt), whom he calls Ellie. She is the daughter of Professor Seeband, though none of them are aware of their shared history and connection. Kurt excels in his studies, but is forced to complete paintings that reflect
socialist realism
, an ideology and school of art with which he does not identify. Eventually, he meets Ellie's father, who is now
toeing
the
East German
socialist
party line
. Seeband sees Kurt as genetically inferior to and therefore unsuitable for his daughter and goes to great lengths to sabotage the young couple's relationship, even performing an abortion on Elisabeth based on a made-up health concern when she becomes pregnant with Kurt's child. However, the young couple's love strengthens and eventually the two get married. Fearing prosecution after the Russian officer who had been protecting him is transferred to
Moscow
, Seeband flees East Germany for
West Germany
.
Kurt and Ellie flee to West Germany themselves several years later. Since Kurt is already 30 years old, he lies about his age to be admitted to the famous
Dusseldorf Art Academy
, where he is able to study and practice art more freely than he could in East Germany. His teacher, Professor Antonius van Verten (based on
Joseph Beuys
) recognizes Kurt's deep personal experience, but also sees that he is struggling to find his own voice, having been trained only in figurative painting, a medium considered outdated and "bourgeois" by the standards of the school. Kurt shares adjoining studio space with fellow student and confidant Harry Preusser (inspired by
Gunther Uecker
), who experiments with hammering nails into boards to produce large artworks.
Only when Kurt finds a newspaper article about a captured Nazi doctor who was Seeband's superior does he have his artistic breakthrough. He starts using his figurative painting skills to copy black-and-white photographs onto canvases, adding a mysterious
sfumato
blur. Among the sources for the new paintings are Seeband's passport photographs and photographs of Kurt with Aunt Elisabeth from his own family album. When Seeband sees a painting that is a collage of himself, the captured Nazi doctor, and Kurt with Elisabeth, he abruptly leaves the studio. It is unclear if he is simply overwhelmed at being reminded of his past, just realized Elisabeth was Kurt's relative, or believes his son-in-law has uncovered his secret, but Kurt, for his part, still seems to be unaware of the connection.
After years of infertility due to the abortion, Ellie becomes pregnant, and Kurt celebrates the moment she told him by painting her nude. Some time later, he gets his first art show, where his art impresses the critics, even though they completely misunderstand and misinterpret it. He rejoices in finally finding his voice and his place in the world.
Cast
[
edit
]
Historical background
[
edit
]
Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck explained that
Never Look Away
is a work of fiction, but that the inspiration had been an article by German investigative reporter
Jurgen Schreiber
about German painter
Gerhard Richter
. Richter's aunt
Marianne Schonfelder
had been murdered by the Nazis because she developed schizophrenia. Richter immortalized her in a painting titled
Aunt Marianne
, in which she is holding Gerhard Richter as a baby. This painting was originally released under the title
Mother and Child
because it was Richter's habit to obfuscate the connections his paintings had to his personal life. This led art historians to refer to his body of work as being "without author", as it purportedly had no connection to its author's life.
[5]
What Schreiber's investigative research uncovered in 2002 was that Gerhard Richter's father-in-law,
Heinrich Eufinger
, had been a high-ranking SS-doctor and fervent Nazi who himself performed over 900 forced sterilizations on women whom the Nazis considered unfit to reproduce. While he did not perform the operation on Marianne Schonfelder personally, he was the director of the hospital where it was performed.
Even though Gerhard Richter only found out about this connection between the families through the article at age 70, his body of work suggests that ? at least on a subconscious level ? he must have known. One of his earliest paintings is of the arrest of Eufinger's SS boss,
Werner Heyde
, from a newspaper photograph. Another one from the same series,
Family at the Seaside
, is a snapshot from his wife's photo album showing her father, Professor Eufinger, horse-playing with his family, a photograph that is unremarkable except for the fact that it was taken around the exact time Eufinger sent Richter's aunt to her death.
The largest photo painting that Gerhard Richter produced before turning to abstract art was
Ema, Nude on a Staircase
(#134 in his official catalogue raisone). Ema, short for "Marianne", was Gerhard Richter's wife and also shared her first name with his aunt. Unusually for Richter, this painting is dated very precisely to May 1966. His first child was born on 30 December 1966, and he explained that this photograph was staged by him when he had found out that Ema was three months pregnant.
[5]
In a
New Yorker
profile of writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who spent many weeks with Gerhard Richter during his research for the film, but had not revealed anything about the content of these conversations, the director is quoted as saying that Gerhard Richter said "Ema's father had been her gynecologist, and that there were mysteries and rumors around the treatment that he provided her".
[6]
Richter claimed he told Donnersmarck that he did not want the movie character to bear his name. He also claimed he suggested to Donnersmarck that the film's protagonist might have a different profession.
[6]
Donnersmarck read Richter the full screenplay when he was finished writing it so Richter could see for himself how much was fiction and where facts from his life were used. When the film was finished and Donnersmarck offered to arrange a screening, however, Richter said he did not feel up to it and did not feel he had the strength to see the film. Donnersmarck stated he understood this reaction, as few people would want to relive some version of the most traumatic chapters of their life on screen. He said it would probably be hurtful if it was too close to the facts and perhaps even more hurtful if it was not close enough, concluding that, "Maybe the film is for everybody except him".
[6]
When asked to comment on the film by the German press, Richter said he had not seen the film, but he found the trailer too "reißerisch", or thriller-like.
[6]
Commenting on the material he had supplied to Donnersmarck in interviews, Richter told
The New Yorker
: "I gave him something in writing stating that he was explicitly not allowed to use or publish either my name or any of my paintings. He reassured me to respect my wishes. But in reality, he has done everything to link my name to his movie, and the press was helping him to the best of its ability. Fortunately, the most important newspapers here reviewed his concoction very skeptically and critically. Nevertheless, he managed to abuse and grossly distort my biography!"
[6]
Reception
[
edit
]
Film festivals
[
edit
]
At the
75th Venice International Film Festival
, where
Never Look Away
had its very first public screening, it received a 13-minute standing ovation
[7]
and came in first place.
[8]
[
circular reference
]
It also won audience awards at various festivals, mostly in competition with the same films it was up against in Venice.
[9]
[10]
Reaction from filmmakers
[
edit
]
The
San Francisco Chronicle
quoted
William Friedkin
(director of
The French Connection
and
The Exorcist
, among others) as stating: "One of the finest films I have ever seen is
Never Look Away
? a masterpiece."
[11]
In an interview with
Mingle Media
, Miranda Bailey (producer, actress, and founder of the feminist critic website Cherrypicks) called
Never Look Away
"the best movie I've ever seen, in my entire life ?
ever
? in my
whole life
."
[12]
Critical reaction
[
edit
]
On the
review aggregator
website
Rotten Tomatoes
, 77% of 141 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.4/10. The website's consensus reads: "
Never Look Away
fills its protracted running time with the absorbing story of an incredible life -- and its impact on the singular artist who lived it."
[13]
On
Metacritic
, the film has a weighted average score of 68 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
[14]
Ann Hornaday
of
The Washington Post
wrote: "The title of "Never Look Away" is deliciously ironic: This is one of the most mesmerizing, compulsively watchable films in theaters right now."
[15]
Leonard Maltin
, who showed the film to students in his master class at
USC Film School
, wrote: "I urge you to see
Never Look Away.
It is a rich and rewarding experience, and the three hours fly by."
[16]
In
Commentary
magazine, in an article titled "The Greatness of Never Look Away ? Triumphant",
John Podhoretz
compared
Never Look Away
favorably to
David Lean
's
Doctor Zhivago
and called it "the rare movie you actually wish were longer because it is so involving, heart-wrenching, and beautiful."
[17]
Kyle Smith
, critic-at-large for the
National Review
, wrote in an article titled "A New Cinematic Masterpiece": "The German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck already has one of the best films of the century to his credit: 2007's
The Lives of Others
. His new one is, I think, even better. It may be the best German film I've ever seen.
Never Look Away
is the title." He went on to state: "It's about the biggest themes (art, war, love, death), it's emotionally overwhelming, its dialogue is lapidary, its musical score transporting. It's one of the best films of the decade."
[18]
Dissenting voices included
contrarian
critic
Armond White
of the
National Review
,
[19]
as well as
David Edelstein
of
Vulture
.
[20]
Boyd van Hoeij wrote in
The Hollywood Reporter
that "the work's considerations of the intimate connection among being, art and life finally feel quite superficial."
[21]
Box office
[
edit
]
Never Look Away
reached a lifetime theatrical gross in the United States of US$1,303,747.
[1]
Awards and nominations
[
edit
]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"Werk ohne Autor (2018)"
.
The Numbers
. Retrieved
24 June
2023
.
- ^
Anderson, Ariston (25 July 2018).
"Venice to Kick Off Awards Season With New Films From Coen Brothers, Luca Guadagnino and Alfonso Cuaron"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
25 July
2018
.
- ^
Vivarelli, Nick (25 July 2018).
"Venice Film Festival Lineup: Heavy on Award Hopefuls, Netflix and Star Power"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
25 July
2018
.
- ^
"Oscars 2019: The nominees in full"
.
BBC News
. 25 February 2019
. Retrieved
22 January
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Elger, Dietmar (2008).
Gerhard Richter, Maler
. Koln: DuMont Buchverlag.
ISBN
978-3-8321-9065-1
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
Goodyear, Dana (14 January 2019).
"An Artist's Life, Refracted in Film"
.
The New Yorker
. Retrieved
20 September
2019
.
- ^
"Filmpremiere "Werk ohne Autor": Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck ist der Lowe von Venedig"
.
bild.de
(in German). 5 September 2018
. Retrieved
9 April
2019
.
- ^
"Ciak Audience Poll 76th Venice Film Festival (image)"
.
Wikipedia
. Retrieved
9 April
2019
.
- ^
"Never Look Away - Awards & Festivals"
.
Mubi
. Retrieved
16 April
2024
.
- ^
"Academy Screenings 2018"
.
Aspen Film
. 1 December 2018
. Retrieved
9 April
2019
.
- ^
Johnson, G. Allen (12 February 2019).
"
'Never Look Away': a sweeping but flawed epic inspired by Gerhard Richter"
.
San Francisco Chronicle
. Retrieved
9 April
2019
.
- ^
"Miranda Bailey interviewed at the 44th Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards #LAFCA2019"
.
Red Carpet Report on Mingle
. 13 January 2019
. Retrieved
10 April
2019
.
- ^
"Never Look Away"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
. Retrieved
16 April
2024
.
- ^
"Never Look Away"
.
Metacritic
. 1 April 2019
. Retrieved
5 October
2020
.
- ^
Hornaday, Ann (14 February 2019).
"Review | 'Never Look Away' is one of the best ? and most beautiful ? films out now"
.
Washington Post
.
ISSN
0190-8286
. Retrieved
16 April
2024
.
- ^
Maltin, Leonard (1 February 2019).
"Never Look Away"
.
Leonard Maltin's Movie Crazy
. Retrieved
16 April
2024
.
- ^
Podhoretz, John (5 February 2019).
"The Greatness of 'Never Look Away'
"
.
Commentary Magazine
. Retrieved
16 April
2024
.
- ^
Smith, Kyle (17 January 2019).
"Never Look Away, A New Cinematic Masterpiece"
.
National Review
. Retrieved
10 April
2019
.
- ^
White, Armond (22 February 2019).
"
'Never Look Away' and 'Cold War' Worship Oscar's Sacred Cows"
.
National Review
. Retrieved
16 April
2024
.
- ^
Edelstein, David (1 February 2019).
"Look Away From
Never Look Away
"
.
Vulture
. Retrieved
10 April
2019
.
- ^
van Hoeij, Boyd (4 September 2018).
"
'Never Look Away' ('Werk ohne Auteur'): Film Review, Venice 2018"
.
The Hollywood Reporter
. Retrieved
20 September
2019
.
External links
[
edit
]
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West Germany
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East Germany
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Germany
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2001?present
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Paintings
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Collaborations
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