Film Review: Never Look Away Dir: Florian Henchel von Donnersmarck

Starring: Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendahl

Award-winning German film, Never Look Away makes its New Zealand premiere this week. The 13^th Floor’s Marty Duda has seen it, and is impressed.

It’s already been nominated for two Academy Awards and received a 13-minute standing ovation at its first screening…the Venice International Film Festival. And, in America, it’s become only the 15^th German language film to break a million dollars at the box office.

Never Look Away is an epic film that strives to address the meaning of the big issues in life…love, death, art, beauty and war. With a running time exceeding three hours and subtitles throughout, this may seem like a daunting view for some film-goers. But those who make the effort will be richly rewarded.

Director Florian Henchel von Donnersmarck has been making a huge impact in the film world ever since his first feature, The Lives Of Others, was released in 2006, to near-universal acclaim, snagging an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film along the way.

Although Donnersmarck claims that Never Look Away is fiction, it is not-so-loosely based on the life of acclaimed German visual artist Gerhard Richter.

The film begins in pre-WWII Nazi Germany where a young boy, Kurt Barnert is taken to an art exhibition by his eccentric Aunt Elisabeth. The exhibition is titled, “Degenerate Art” and features modern Dadaist and Surreal painting and sculptures with a Nazi “tour guide” on hand to explain how decadent and depraved these works are. Of course the young Kurt is completely transfixed by what he sees and makes up his mind to become an artist himself.

But war breaks out and Dresden is not a good place to be. Along with the Allied bombing, the residents have to put up with internal problems. Young Elisabeth is showing signs of mental illness and when her well-meaning family take her to the hospital, the director of the women’s clinic, a cold, steely Nazi named Professor Carl Seeband (Sebastian Koch) has her “euthanized” because of her suspected schizophrenia.

The harrowing scene of Elizabeth’s (and her co-patients) extermination will test any audience member’s ability to “never look away”.

I’m tempted to leave the plot description here as there is so much that follows.

Donnersmarck’s style of storytelling tends to seem to take unlikely tangents and one is often found wondering exactly where the story is going.

But rest assured, you are in good hands.

The second half of the film eventually focuses on the young adult Kurt Barnert, played with incredible restraint and quiet intensity by Tom Schilling and his relationship with his girlfriend/wife played by Paula Beer.

The underlying story of Kurt’s wife’s family past would be enough plot for most films, but the real drama (and beauty) in Never Look Away is the way Donnersmarck presents Kurt’s struggle to find his own artistic voice.

I found the scenes of him having his “breakthrough” while painting to be the most moving and profound. And this is a film full of “moving and profound” scenes.

For those tired of the latest Hollywood blockbuster or superhero smash ‘em up, don’t give up! Great films are still being made and this one ranks among the best of them.

Marty Duda

Never Look Away opens in New Zealand on Thursday, June 6th.