Never Look Away (2019)

‘Never Look Away’ is like four films in one: It’s a historical film about the horrors of Germany’s past; it’s a film about the power and beauty of art; it’s a film about friendship; it’s a romance. It begins in the darkest of times: Germany in the 1930s and 40s. The Nazis are in power and have banned so-called ‘degenerate art’: Anything that fails to conform to their rigid definition of reality.

A young Kurt Barnert (endearingly played by Cai Cohrs) visits a ‘degenerate art’ exhibition with his aunt Elisabeth (a mesmerising Saskia Rosendahl), and they are both fascinated by the abstract art they see. Blonde-haired and white-skinned, Elisabeth fits the bill for an ideal Aryan woman, but in her core she detests the Nazis and everything they stand for. When it becomes apparent that she is suffering from a mental illness, she is locked up in an asylum, where her fate rests in the hands of Professor Seeband (Sebastian Koch), a ruthless Nazi gynaecologist and member of the SS.

Years later, an adult Kurt (Tom Schilling) adapts to life post-1945 in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Abstract art is again in the crosshairs: According to the ideology of the state, socialist realism is the only acceptable form of art. So, Kurt paints in the prescribed style, but fails to find any satisfaction in it. Then he meets the beautiful Ellie (Paula Beer), who happens to be the daughter of Professor Seeband…

Over the course of its more than three hours running time, ‘Never Look Away’ takes many twists and turns, but you are unable to look away throughout it all. What really surprised me is that, compared to writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s sombre, Oscar-winning 2006 film ‘The Lives of Others’, ‘Never Look Away’ is frequently hilarious, despite its often dark subject matter. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Cinematography at the 91^st Academy Awards, although it lost out in both categories to Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Roma’. Cinematographer Caleb Deschanel truly deserves credit, however, for this stunning work of art, as does Max Richter for his beautiful score.

‘Never Look Away’ contains moments of true profundity, without coming across as forced. Indeed, the film is conscious of the risk of seeming pretentious, and certain scenes mock its own seriousness: In art school, for instance, Kurt meets faux-wise artists who seek artistic truth in abstract splashes of paint or the spinning of a potato.

‘Never Look Away’ is certainly not without flaws, and its biggest failing is its gender dynamics. Whilst Ellie is initially presented as strong, independent and creative in her own right, she later becomes subservient to Kurt’s own narrative, that of the white, straight, cis male genius. It’s highly problematic, but the same can be said of most great artists: Take Picasso, for instance.

When a film is so well-polished, so convincingly acted and so captivatingly paced, however, such detractions don’t really matter. ‘Never Look Away’ is a towering, epic masterpiece.

Werk ohne Autor (original title)