'Work Without [an] Author') is a 2018 German epic coming-of-age romantic drama film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.
As a child during Nazi-era Germany, Kurt Barnert (inspired by Gerhard Richter) visits an exhibit of "Degenerate Art" in Dresden with his beautiful young aunt Elisabeth.
At a Nazi Party rally, Elisabeth - a member of the National Socialist Women's League - is given the honor of personally presenting a bouquet of flowers to Adolf Hitler, a task she takes to with great pride.
The doctor who orders her sterilization and death is gynecologist Professor Carl Seeband, a high-ranking member of the SS medical corps.
As an adult, Kurt studies painting at the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, where he falls in love with a young fashion design student named Elisabeth (like his aunt), whom he calls Ellie.
His teacher, Professor Antonius van Verten (based on Joseph Beuys) 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sees that he is struggling to find his own voice, having been trained only in figurative painting, a medium considered outdated and "bourgeois" by the standards of the school.
Kurt shares adjoining studio space with fellow student and confidant Harry Preusser (inspired by Günther Uecker), who experiments with hammering nails into boards to produce large artworks.
The largest photo painting that Gerhard Richter produced before turning to abstract art was Ema, Nude on a Staircase (#134 in his official catalogue raisoné).
[6] Commenting on the material he had supplied to Donnersmarck in interviews, Richter told The New Yorker: "I gave him something in writing stating that he was explicitly not allowed to use or publish either my name or any of my paintings.
[8][9] The San Francisco Chronicle quoted William Friedkin (director of The French Connection and The Exorcist, among others) as stating: "One of the finest films I have ever seen is Never Look Away – a masterpiece.
The website's consensus reads: "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.
[13] Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post wrote: "The title of "Never Look Away" is deliciously ironic: This is one of the most mesmerizing, compulsively watchable films in theaters right now.
"[15] In Commentary magazine, in an article titled "The Greatness of Never Look Away – Triumphant", John Podhoretz compared Never Look Away favorably to David Lean's Doctor Zhivago and called it "the rare movie you actually wish were longer because it is so involving, heart-wrenching, and beautiful.
"[16] Kyle Smith, critic-at-large for the National Review, wrote 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.
He went 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.
[19] Boyd van Hoeij wrote in The Hollywood Reporter that "the work's considerations of the intimate connection among being, art and life finally feel quite superficial.