Never Look Away

One of the nominees for Best Foreign Language Film at the most recent Oscars, Never Look Away is a film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (who surely has the longest name of any film director) that deals with the artistic imagination, as well as buried secrets.

Von Donnersmarck made a terrific film that won an Oscar, The Lives Of Others, but then succumbed to the lure of Hollywood and made The Tourist, which bombed, so the man has gone back to Germany where I think he is more comfortable. Never Look Away is a smashing film, and though over three hours long, is never dull.

Though the names are changed, Never Look Away is ostensibly the life of German painter Gerhard Richter. It begins in Dresden in 1936, when the stand-in for Richter, Kurt Barnert, is about five years old. His loving aunt (Saskia Rosendahl) takes him to an exhibition of "decadent" art, as the Nazis don't cater to modern art, ridiculing the works of Kandinsky and the like. Kurt has artistic talent, which his aunt wants to nurture.

But Rosendahl is schizophrenic, and the Nazis also don't like the mentally ill. She is committed, and then ordered to be sterilized. The head of the sterilization program is Sebastian Koch, a brilliant gynecologist but he plays ball with the Nazis, liking the way he looks in his uniform. After a troubled interview with Rosendahl, he not only has her sterilized but marks her for euthanization.

We flash forward to Kurt, now played by Tom Schilling, at art school. He meets and falls in love with a young woman who shares his aunt's name (Paula Beer). It turns out she is the daughter of Koch, but of course neither man is aware of any connection to the aunt. Koch had been arrested by the Soviets after the war, but he does the commanding officer a good turn and is protected, but how long will it be before he is exposed as a man who ordered the deaths of thousands of the infirm?

In East Germany, where Schilling and Beer live, modern art is also eschewed, instead "socialist realism," such as bold paintings of workers, is favored. The pair escape to the West, which before the Berlin Wall was built just took a simple train ride. Schilling goes to Dusseldorf, where the avant-garde has taken hold and painting is old hat. He gains entry to an art school where the professor (Oliver Masucci) doesn't even look at the students' work. Schilling struggles to find his true artistic outlet, and eventually stumbles upon the idea of painting replicas of photographs, and then blurring them, which makes him a sensation.

I found the second half of the film, which deals with Schilling in the West, much more interesting, as it's one of the best representations of artistic inspiration that I've seen (and it inspired me to think about trying my hand at drawing or painting--I'm not that good, but it might be fun). In this way he is reconnecting to his aunt, as the head of the Nazi's medical program is arrested. Koch, once learning this, is sweating bullets because he is afraid of being revealed. Schilling doesn't know of the true connection, but suspects it, as he makes a painting combining the images of the captured Nazi, Koch, and his aunt.

Never Look Away (the title comes from Rosendahl's advice to young Kurt, to never look away from anything, no matter how disturbing) is a provocative film that has great poignancy. It has some fun with the avant-garde, as many of the students are possessed with coming up with "ideas"--Schilling's best friend seems to be enamored with pounding nails into things. But the art he creates, which is what Richter also did, is compelling.

Koch, one of Germany's finest actors, makes a great villain. He stoops so low as to give his daughter an abortion to try to break the couple up, lying to her about health risks. None of the Nazis in this film are "fine people."

Never Look Away also garnered an Oscar nomination for Caleb Deschanel for Best Cinematography. He has been nominated six times without winning, so perhaps an honorary Oscar is due him.