Never Look Away, 2018.
Written and Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
Starring Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl, Oliver Masucci, Lars Eidinger, Florian Bartholomäi, Hanno Koffler, Rainer Bock, Ulrike C. Tscharre, Pit Bukowski, Ben Becker, Ina Weisse, Evgeniy Sidikhin, Johanna Gastdorf, Johannes Allmayer, Jörg Schüttauf, Stefan Mehren, Mark Zak, Bastian Trost, Hans-Uwe Bauer, Jeanette Hain, Hinnerk Schönemann, Martin Bruchman, David Schütter, Andreas Nickl, Cai Cohrs, Franz Pätzold, and Jonas Dassler.
SYNOPSIS:
German artist Kurt Barnert has escaped East Germany and now lives in West Germany, but is tormented by his childhood under the Nazis and the GDR-regime.
Despite the title Never Look Away, the 3+ hour running time of this sprawling and ambitious semi-biographical story of famed German artist Gerhard Richter (renamed here Kurt Barnert) might send inpatient viewers running for the hills. That sentiment even applies for moviegoers that might have a slight passing interest in the general synopsis. However, it’s important to note that while the film starts off in late 1930s/Nazi control Germany and ends up somewhere in the 60s (one of the film’s greatest strengths is depicting cultural shifts and historical progressions, especially during the most transitional decades of the 20th century), the massive scope of the narrative (noticeably committed to showing off major moments for supporting characters simply to increase the emotional gravitas of the grander picture at play) ensures the experience remains engaging.
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (the Oscar-winning filmmaker for The Lives of Others here returning to World War II-related material after a brief stint making an English language movie that will not be discussed even if it did secure some rather surprising Golden Globe nominations), Never Look Away follows Kurt from young child all the way to middle-aged adulthood, starting off with encouragement from his artistically talented but schizophrenic Aunt Elizabeth to pursue painting regardless of the fact that the Nazis do not approve (the opening sequence takes place at an art exhibit where the guide breaks down the degeneracy of such craft). Following a bizarre and unsettling lapse in mental clarity, Elizabeth is taken to a psychiatric ward, leaving Kurt with the wisdom to “never look away” from anything, and that beauty comes from anything that is true; the former of which plays into the performance from Tom Schilling and occasionally the cinematography. It’s always rewarding to focus on the things Kurt’s eyes doesn’t shy away from, which are usually things too much to bear for other, despicable, characters.
It goes without saying that the Nazis were quick to dispose of anyone that, to them, offered little to society. With that said, the remaining two acts of the film deal with Kurt repressing feelings of his aunt and, as a result, unable to create any personally meaningful art despite his success practicing under the limitations of post-World War II divided Germany, specifically the east side. Even as the story takes him into the West and a more avant-garde University in Düsseldorf, he struggles to craft a truly remarkable piece. Throughout all of this, he enters a relationship with the equally artsy Ellie (Paula Beer in a role that feels underwritten and streamlined until you remember that the movie is over three hours long and belongs to how every event affects Kurt more than themselves), who just so happens to be the daughter of the doctor that ordered the his aunt to be euthanized.
From there, it would be hard to fault anyone for jumping to conclusions and feeling as if they know exactly where Never Look Away is headed, but the final hour performs a reversal of the tone and mood (also equipped with a lighter coler palette) from the first two. Whereas the first two hours are more direct and littered with exciting beats and broader storytelling, the final hour transitions into a reflective piece on the past and how such musings inform art. There is no explosive confrontation, but rather something quieter and more character driven. That’s good and bad; I don’t imagine many people start three-hour films anticipating a muted and divisive payoff.
At least von Donnersmark is interested in making the proceedings feel as artistic as a painting, framing Kurt and Ellie rolling around during sex pressed against each other as if they are a single unit with their individual bodies standing in as clay being molded together. The steady pace at which he experiments creating art based on his troubled past also come together fascinatingly, aided by a hip teacher that always wears a hat for a reason I won’t reveal. Sebastian Kock also delivers fine work as Ellie’s nefarious former Nazi father, but he’s about as characterized as the majority of Kurt’s family which are introduced and die all within five minutes.
Never Look Away is probably exclusively for historians and World War II aficionados only due to its epic running length, but that’s not to say anyone who turns it on will be bored out of their mind. There’s an implication that repressing emotional pain is not good for the soul and that once a person can come to terms with such things, they can liberate themselves and even use those experiences to create something positive. If there is one reason the three hour running time works, it’s that when all of the emotional heft is finally lifted off of Kurt’s shoulders, the audience also feels it. Furthermore, it’s always nice to have expectations subverted for an entire hour after two previous hours seemingly set up a surefire ending. You might need a bathroom break, but you actually won’t find much reason to look away from this ambitious exploration regarding the correlation between post-World War II emotional suffering and expressionist art.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, friend me on Facebook, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, check out my personal non-Flickering Myth affiliated Patreon, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
