“Never Look Away,” working on a grander scale in muddier genre territory — not quite a biopic, it hovers between psychological drama and period romance — tries to achieve a similar blend. In NEVER LOOK AWAY, we go on a very long journey to see if Kurt can dig deep, look at his life head on, and find that spark. It's a gorgeous thing to witness and makes the last third of this film.
Contents.Plot As a small child during the era, protagonist Kurt Barnert (inspired by ) visits the traveling exhibition 'Entartete Kunst' (') in with his beautiful and eccentric young aunt Elisabeth. Kurt is especially mesmerized by the Girl with Blue Hair, a sculpture. Elisabeth later plays the piano in the nude and tells Kurt to 'never look away' because 'everything that is true holds beauty in it'. He will keep this advice close to his heart for the rest of his life, even when his aunt is ' by the Nazis because she is suspected to be. The doctor who orders her and sends her to her death is professor Carl Seeband, the director of the Dresden women's clinic and a high-ranking member of the medical corps.After the war, Seeband is arrested by the Russians and placed in a prison camp.
While there, he volunteers to assist a Russian officer's wife during a complicated birth and saves the child's life. The grateful Russian officer protects Seeband and releases him, destroying the records of his crimes against humanity.Meanwhile, Kurt Barnert begins to study painting at the Dresden art school where he falls in love with a young fashion design student Elisabeth (Ellie) Seeband partly because she reminds him of his aunt. To preserve her reputation after sleeping with her, he escapes through her bedroom window and is caught by her mother, who does not disclose their activity to Ellie's father.
What Kurt does not know is that Ellie is the daughter of the very Nazi doctor responsible for his aunt's murder.He successfully continues his studies, but is forced to complete paintings that reflect, an ideology and field of art that he cannot come to terms with. Although he is very good at it, he knows that he can never find his own voice through this kind of art.Eventually, Kurt meets Elisabeth's father, who has left his Nazi past behind and now follows the socialist ideology of. Kurt still does not know that Carl Seeband is responsible for his aunt's death. Seeband does not approve of his daughter's relationship with Kurt, whom he sees as genetically inferior. He goes to great lengths in his attempts to destroy the relationship, even sabotaging his daughter's womb to keep her 'pure'.
However, Kurt and Elizabeth's love grows even stronger and eventually the two get married.Fearing prosecution after the Russian officer who protected him is transferred to, Seeband flees East Germany for. Shortly afterwards, Kurt and Elisabeth, too, flee to West Germany. He does not know what kind of art he wants to make, but he knows that socialist realism is not it.Since Kurt is already 30 years old, he has to lie about his age to be admitted to the famous. Here he can study and practice art more freely than in socialist Eastern Germany. His teacher (based on ) recognizes Kurt's deep personal experience, but also sees that he is struggling to find his own voice, having been trained only in figurative painting, a medium considered outdated and 'bourgeois' by the standards of the school.Only when Kurt finds a newspaper article about a captured Nazi doctor, Seeband's boss, does he have his artistic breakthrough. He starts using his figurative painting skills to copy black-and-white photographs onto the canvas, adding a mysterious blur.
He also paints Seeband's passport photographs and photographs of his aunt from his own family album. When Seeband sees a collage painting of Kurt's aunt, the Nazi-doctor and himself, he flees, destroyed, not understanding how his despised son-in-law of all people was able to uncover his greatest secret. However, Kurt may not have understood what he was doing, at least not on a conscious level. He realizes that when you are true to your artistic instinct, you can reach a truth your intellect could never hope to attain.After years of infertility, Elisabeth becomes pregnant, and Kurt celebrates the moment she told him by painting her nude. Kurt gets his first art show where his art impresses the critics even though they completely misunderstand and misinterpret it.
But he can look his past in the eye without fear and has finally found his voice. And that is all that matters to him.Cast. Final Professional Audience Poll for all films in Official Competition at the 75th Venice Film Festival.At its very first screening, in Competition at the, Never Look Away received a 13-minute standing ovation and came in first place.
Never Look Away also won audience awards at various festivals, mostly in competition with the same films it was up against in Venice. Professional reaction The San Francisco Chronicle quotes The Exorcist director stating: 'One of the finest films I have ever seen is Never Look Away – a masterpiece.' Producer and feminist critic site Cherrypicks founder Miranda Bailey in an interview with called Never Look Away 'the best movie I've ever seen, in my entire life – ever – in my whole life.'
Critical reaction Never Look Away holds a 76% fresh rating on review aggregator, the critics consensus stating: ' Never Look Away fills its protracted running time with the absorbing story of an incredible life - and its impact on the singular artist who lived it.' Writing in wrote: 'The title of 'Never Look Away' is deliciously ironic: This is one of the most mesmerizing, compulsively watchable films in theaters right now.'
Leonard Maltin who taught the film at his master class at USC Film School writes: 'I urge you to see Never Look Away. It is a rich and rewarding experience, and the three hours fly by.' In magazine, in an article called 'The Greatness of Never Look Away – Triumphant', editor-in-chief, compares Never Look Away favorably to 's and calls it 'the rare movie you actually wish were longer because it is so involving, heart-wrenching, and beautiful.” The novelist, critic-at-large for the, writes in an article titled 'A New Cinematic Masterpiece': 'The German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck already has one of the best films of the century to his credit: 2007’s The Lives of Others. His new one is, I think, even better. It may be the best German film I’ve ever seen. Never Look Awayis the title.' He goes on to state: 'It’s about the biggest themes (art, war, love, death), it’s emotionally overwhelming, its dialogue is lapidary, its musical score transporting.
It’s one of the best films of the decade.' Dissenting voices include critic for the and, writing for. Box office Never Look Away reached a lifetime gross of US$1,303,747 and became the 15th German-language feature film to pass the million-dollar box-office mark. Awards and nominations. Winner – Leoncino d'Oro – Best Picture –. Winner – – Best International Film – Venice Film FestivalSee also.References.