'NEVER LOOK AWAY' which I saw this week is a 2018 German drama film Directed, Written and Co-Produced by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose previous works include the highly acclaimed 2006 Oscar and BAFTA winner 'The Lives of Others' and the three time Golden Globe nominated 2010 romantic thriller 'The Tourist' with Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. 'Never Look Away' was nominated for a Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival where it saw its World Premier screening in September last year, and for a Golden Globe by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It was also nominated for two Academy Awards earlier this year in the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography categories amongst its total haul of four award wins and another thirteen nominations from around the festival and awards circuit. With a running time of just over three hours, the film has been lauded by audiences and Critics alike with some stating that it is the best movie they have ever seen! The film saw its Australian release just last week.
And so to the story, which is based only partially on the early life of famed German artist Gerhard Richter (and without his authority or approval apparently), here portrayed as Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling as the adult Kurt) whom we are first introduced to at the tender age of six (with Cai Cohrs as the young Kurt). As a young lad in Nazi era Germany, Kurt visits the travelling exhibition titled 'Entartete Kunst' ('Degenerate Art') in Dresden with his attractive and at times eccentric young aunt Elisabeth (Saskia Rosendhal). During the guided tour of the exhibition Kurt is especially taken in by the sculpture 'Girl with Blue Hair', by Eugen Hoffmann. When they get home, Kurt sees Elisabeth playing the piano in the nude and tells the young boy to 'never look away' because 'everything that is true holds beauty in it'. This advice will resonate with him for the rest of his life, even when his aunt is 'euthanised' by the Nazis because she is suspected of being a low level schizophrenic, and therefore not worthy to exist when more needy healthier patients are in need of medical treatment and valuable hospital bed space.
The doctor who orders her forced sterilisation in the first instance and then promptly signs her death warrant to a concentration camp is gynaecology Professor Carl Seeband (Sebastian Koch), the Director of the Dresden Women's Clinic and considered the country's foremost expert in women's health, and also a high-ranking member of the SS medical corps. Following the war with Dresden almost completely bombed out, Seeband is arrested by the Russians and placed in a prison camp for his crimes in systematically wiping out so many innocents. While there, he volunteers to help a Russian officer's very distressed wife during a complicated birth and ultimately saves the child's life. The grateful Russian officer, Major Murawjow (Evgeniy Sidikhin) protects Seeband affording him a new set of clothes, his own personal sleeping quarters and effectively releases him under supervision, destroying the records of his crimes against humanity.
As the years progress, Kurt enrols at the Dresden Art School. There he meets and falls in love with a young fashion design student Elizabeth 'Ellie' Seeband (Paula Beer) who bears a not too dissimilar resemblance to his aunt and shares similar personality traits. In order to safeguard Ellie's reputation after sleeping with her for the first time, he escapes through her bedroom window when her mother and father return home unexpectedly late one evening. Kurt is caught stark naked clambering down a tree outside Ellie's bedroom by her mother Martha (Ina Weisse), who does not disclose their activity to her father knowing that he would disapprove in an instant. What Kurt does not know is that Ellie is the daughter of the same Nazi doctor who sanctioned his aunt's murder all those years ago.
Kurt continues with his art studies, but is forced to undertake paintings that depict socialist realism, a notion and field of his chosen art form that he cannot reconcile with. Even though he excels at it, he knows that he can never find his own true voice through this kind of art. Eventually, his growing relationship with Ellie means that Kurt must meet with her father. Carl Seeband has left his Nazi past behind him and now treads the socialist path of East Germany. Seeband does not approve of his daughter's relationship with Kurt, whom he regards as being genetically inferior and a no hope painter. He goes to great lengths in his attempts to destroy the relationship, to the point where he conducts an at home abortion on his daughter when she announces that she is three months pregnant with Kurt's child, and in the process sabotages her womb to keep her 'pure' and to prevent her from ever bearing children again. Despite her fathers best efforts, Kurt and Elizabeth's love grows ever stronger and eventually the two get married.
When the Russian KGB officer who protected him is transferred back to Moscow, Carl Seeband, fearing capture and prosecution, flees East Germany for West Germany with his wife Martha. Sometime thereafter, Kurt and Elizabeth also flee to West Germany with nothing but their clothes on their backs and what they can carry in their pockets. Still unsure of what kind of art he wants to make, he does know however, that socialist realism is not it.
One evening after a disjointed private dinner in a restaurant with Carl, Kurt comes across a newspaper article about a captured Nazi doctor, Werner Blaschke (Hinnerk Schonemann) Seeband's former SS boss. From this he come to realise his artistic awakening. He starts using his figurative painting skills to copy black-and-white photographs onto canvas, starting off with the newspaper photograph of Blaschke, adding a mysterious smoke like blur to achieve a more believable image. He also paints Seeband's passport photographs, and photographs of his aunt from his own family album.
Late one afternoon, Carl arrives unannounced at Kurt's studio and sees a collage painting of Kurt's aunt Elisabeth, the Nazi-doctor Blaschke and himself. He flees hurriedly, distraught, not being able to grasp how his despised son-in-law was able to discover his greatest secret. However, Kurt may not have understood what he was painting or the hidden significance in his art, at least not on a conscious level. He does realise however, that when you are true to your artistic talents, you can attain a truth that perhaps your intellect could never hope to reach.
Despite its three hours+ running time, 'Never Look Away' never drags, or skips a beat, instead captivating the interest and holding the attention for the duration. von Donnersmarck here has crafted a story spanning four decades of pre-WWII Germany, the bombing and near flattening of Dresden, the Nazi SS euthanasia campaign, the rise of Communism and the repression in East Germany, through to the free thinking and liberal lifestyle of West Germany in the 1960's, and all largely seen through the eyes of a struggling young artist trying to come to terms with the purpose behind his chosen art form. The performances especially from Tom Schilling and Sebastian Koch are top rate and when they occupy the screen either together or separately, the result is compelling. The cinematography is also top notch, the musical accompaniment isn't half bad either and the remainder of the cast also pull their weight to all add up to the complete package that is compulsive viewing for a film that intertwines war, love, loss, art, history, freedom and hope for new beginnings, and it doesn't disappoint on any of these fronts. Catch it on the big screen while you can - you'll be glad you did.'Never Look Away' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a possible five.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
