Never Look Away (2018)

Never Look Away is the English title of a historical and biographical drama about the life and work of a (fictional) German artist: a painter whose name is Kurt Barnert. Here is some basic information about this drama which premiered in 2018:

** Original German title: Werk ohne Autor

** Writer and director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

** Language: German – no English subtitles!

** Run time: 188 minutes

The cast includes the following:

** Tom Schilling as Kurt Barnert – an artist (born 1932)

** Paula Beer as Ellie Seeband – an artist – Kurt’s girlfriend (born 1932)

** Sebastian Koch as Professor Carl Seeband – Ellie’s father

** Ina Weisse as Martha Seeband – Ellie’s mother

** Saskia Rosendahl as Elizabeth May – Kurt’s aunt

** Cai Cohrs as young Kurt Barnert – age 5 in 1937

** Eugeniy Sidikhin as a Soviet military officer: Major Murawjow

** Hanno Koffler as Günther Preusser – an artist

** Oliver Masucci as Professor Antonius van Verten - director of an art academy in Düsseldorf (West Germany)

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck is the director of the Oscar-winning historical drama The Lives of Others which premiered in 2006. Sebastian Koch plays an important role in this drama.

This historical and biographical drama about the life and work of the fictional artist Kurt Barnert covers three decades. The story begins in 1937 and ends in 1967. It can be divided into three parts:

# 1. The years 1937-1945 - in Nazi Germany

# 2. The years 1945-1961 - in East Germany

# 3. The years 1961-1967 - in West Germany

While Kurt Barnert is a fictional character, the drama about his life and work is inspired by a real historical person: the German artist Gerhard Richter who was born in Dresden in 1932. However, it is not a traditional biography. It is a combination of fact and fiction.

If you look at Gerhard Richter’s life, you will see that his life – step by step – is very similar to the life of the fictional artist Kurt Barnert. But not everything in the drama is true. The director has added and altered some details here and there for dramatic purposes.

When the drama was released, Gerhard Richter issued a public statement where he said that he was not happy with this movie. He said the director had abused and distorted his life.

When we hear this, we will probably think the director has crossed the line with this drama. We will ask some questions:

** Did the director make this movie without consulting the artist on whose life the movie is based?

** Was the director only thinking about himself?

** Did the director fail to consider the feelings of other people?

It seems the answer to all these questions is no. The director contacted the artist by letter in 2015. The artist responded by letter. The director came to meet the artist. In fact, he visited him several times. And each time they talked for hours. The artist was positive when the director talked about his project.

But later it seems the artist changed his mind, and in 2018 when the movie was released, the artist said he was disappointed with the result. He issued the critical statement mentioned above, even though he had not seen the whole movie, only the trailer.

Oddly enough, something similar had happened ca ten years before when the German reporter Jürgen Schreiber contacted the artist.

The reporter said he wanted to write a biography about the artist. The artist was positive when the reporter talked about his project. The artist offered some information which the reporter could use in his manuscript. But later it seems the artist changed his mind, and in 2005 when the biography was published, the artist said he was disappointed with the result.

[Read the full story about the artist, the director, and the reporter in the following article: Dana Goodyear, “An Artist’s Life Refracted,” The New Yorker, 21 January 2019.]

Is it fair to blame the director Florian Henckel for going ahead with his project? I do not think so. He believed he had the blessing of the artist. Is it fair to blame the reporter Jürgen Schreiber for going ahead with his project? Again I do not think so. He too believed he had the blessing of the artist.

I do not wish to spoil the viewing for anyone. Therefore I am not going to reveal too much about what happens in this drama. If you want to know what happens to Kurt Barnert and the people around him, you will have to watch the drama all the way to the end. It is a long story. It runs for more than three hours, but if you ask me, it does not feel long at all.

What do reviewers say about this historical and biographical drama? Here are the results of three review aggregators:

69 per cent = Meta

77 per cent = IMDb

76 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)

88 per cent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)

On the German version of Amazon there are at the moment more than 135 reviews of this product. The average rating is 4.5 stars.

As you can see, the ratings are quite good. They correspond to something like four stars on Amazon. If you ask me, this is not good enough. I want to go all the way to the top with this product. I think it deserves a rating of five stars.

PS. You can google the names Gerhard Richter and Jürgen Schreiber to find some information about what happens in the drama. But if you want to be surprised, I suggest that you watch the drama first and google the names later!

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 The German artist Gerhard Richter

(born in Dresden in 1932)

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