NEVER LOOK AWAY
Germany, 2018, 189 minutes, Colour.
Tom Schilling, Sebastian Koch, Paula Beer, Saskia Rosendal, Oliver Masucci.
Directed by Florian Henkel von Donnesmarck.
Audiences were very impressed about a decade ago with the Oscar-winning film for the Best Foreign Language category, The Lives of Others. It was written by Florian Henkel von Donnesmarck and focused on the history of post-war divided Germany, especially life in the East, the Communist regime, its strictures, the Stasi.
Audiences will also be impressed with this film. It covers several decades of 20th century German history, pre-war, war and post-war, initially concentrating on the east, the city of Dresden, and then moving to the west just before the building of the Berlin Wall, and locations in Düsseldorf.
So, in one sense, this is a film of the history of Germany last century. But, with its focus on a young boy, Kurt, his growing up after the war in the East, his skills as an artist, this is also a story of art.
And, when Kurt, Tom Schilling, meets the love of his life when studying art, it is also a poignant love story – with complications and connections with the work of sterilisation by Nazi doctors.
With the film running over three hours, there is time to explore all these themes and develop the characters.
Kurt is a small boy in 1937, taken to an art exhibition in Dresden by his erratic aunt who has a breakdown and is interned, considered unfit to bear children in the Third Reich and sentenced to sterilisation surgery. The doctor in charge, Dr Seeband (Sebastian Koch), expert medically, is confident in his own abilities and his loyalty to the Reich, becoming an officer of the SS. He will play an important role in Kurt’s post-war life.
Kurt’s father was a teacher who refused to join the Nazi party but finally did so because his wife wanted him to be successful after the war. This did not happen, his father humiliated, taking his own life.
The film immerses the audience in the atmosphere of East Berlin in the 1950s, the socialist ideology transferring into socialist images, murals, the Stalinist style of government and police.
With the transition to the west and to Düsseldorf, the film explores the modernist trends in the 1960s, anti-painting, experimental and performance art, with Kurt trying to find his place and his talent in this different atmosphere. Eventually, he does find a medium, drawing on photos from the past and transforming them into black-and-white paintings. He has a happy life with his wife but there are continued threats from the past.
This is both a portrait of and a critique of 20th century Germany and absorbing storytelling.
1. German history in the mid 20th century? The portrait of an artist? Love story?
2. The settings, Dresden, 1937, the war, 1940, the end of the war, 1945, German life in the 1950s, East Germany, Berlin divided, into the 1960s? The overview?
3. The German settings, the city of Dresden before the war, the bombing of Dresden, the ruins? The portrait of East Germany after the war? The contrast with the West? Berlin? Düsseldorf?
4. The atmosphere, the world of art, galleries, work, the socialist emphasis on out? Was Germany and Modernism? The musical score?
5. Kurt and his story, the boy pre-war, the experience of the war? Growing up in the East, his early years as an artist, the transformation in going to the west?
6. With his aunt, going to the Gallery, the guide and the condemnation of decadent art, his commentary and people’s response? The examples of art on the wall? Kandinsky, the bond with Elizabeth, the comments? Getting the bus home, Elizabeth and her pose in front of the buses, the drivers and their horns? Kurt, his parents, his father as a teacher, not joining the Nazi party, the pressure from his wife, to be safe after the war – and the ironies of this failure? Elizabeth, her attitudes, sitting naked at the piano, telling Kurt he must never look away? The interviews with the doctors, the lies, the intern? The institution? The status of people with mental disorders? The Nazis considering them inferior? Euthanasia programs? Sterilisation programs? Dr Seeband and his decisions?
7. Dr Seeband, his role with the SS, the meetings, the euthanasia programs, his skill as a gynaecologist, specialty? Seeing him in the flashbacks, wearing the uniform and admiring himself in the mirror? The euthanasia decisions, sterilisation decisions, the confrontation by Elizabeth, his not sterilising her? The end of the war, the defeat, the Russian general interviewing him, slapping him, his wanting to be called Professor? In prison, hearing the general’s wife and the difficulties of the birth, his help, the Russian general protecting him, the passing of the years, his reputation, successful work? His relationship with his wife, the affair with the associate? His love for his daughter, suspicious of Kurt, discerning that she was pregnant, the compulsory abortion, the result? His final agreement to their marriage? His going to the west, his arrogance, his trip with his wife and the slides, getting Kurt the job of scrubbing the steps? The interest in art, getting Kurt to paint his portrait, hanging in the hall? The arrest of the associate, the aftermath for him, being exposed, his fears?
8. Kurt, teenager after the war, painting signs, graphics, the supervisor, going to art school, the professor and his support? His father scrubbing the steps? His father eventually hanging himself?
9. Training, posing, the jokes with the model, socialist perspective, painting the mural?
10. The encounter with Ellie, their talking, flirting, the walk, her home, the irony of her father being Dr Seeband? Her making the suit for Kurt, the growing relationship, the sexual encounter, the parents arriving home, Kurt leaping naked into the tree, the encounter with her mother, the talk? The suggestion that he occupy the room? The mother urging her husband for Kurt to have the room? Painting the portrait of Dr Seeband? The experience of the abortion, sadness, the bonding of the two, their marriage?
11. East Germany, the 1950s and 60s, people leaving, the decision to go, the train, the tension, arriving in the West, before the Wall? Getting advice, the art world? Düsseldorf?
12. The visit to Düsseldorf, the galleries, the tour, the range of modern art, eccentricities, painting as dead, experience art, the various theories, Harry and his guidance? The professor, his eccentricity, his performance, his lectures? Looking into Kurt’s eyes, giving him the studio? The experiences, Kurt experimenting with different styles? His theory about numbers being meaningless, but lottery numbers having meaning?
13. The professor, his work, the interviews with Kurt, his war story, capture, his explanation of the grease and the felt keeping him alive?
14. Kurt and Ellie, their love, her miscarriages, coping, scrubbing the stairs?
15. The paper, the picture of the SS euthanasia chief? Kurt his experience, beginning to paint, the photo of Elizabeth, naked woman descending the stairs? The father’s reaction? Kurt and developing the style of painting the photos, black and white, people’s response, his friend and the setting up of the Gallery and exhibition?
16. Ellie has pregnant, nude on the stairs, the birth of the boy?
17. Adrian, as Kurt’s agent, the importance of the press conference, the questions to Kurt, misinterpreting what he was doing in his art?
18. Kurt, love for Ellie, family, the end and is standing in front of the buses and the drivers tooting their horns?
