Inspired by the youth of a colossus of contemporary art, NEVER LOOK AWAY is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s fictional take on the early life of Gerhard Richter—who grew up under the Nazis (and in the GDR after the war), studied and practiced Socialist Realism at Dresden’s Art Academy, and escaped to the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf just before the Wall went up.
The film stars Tom Schilling, Paula Beer, Sebastian Koch—who was in Henckel von Donnersmarck’s remarkable debut feature The Lives of Others—and Oliver Masucci plays a character based on Joseph Beuys.
AFI Fest 2018 presents the Los Angeles premiere of NEVER LOOK AWAY this weekend at the Egyptian, with an encore screening on Wednesday at the Chinese. The director will be present on Sunday in Hollywood, as well as at LACMA for a January, 2019 screening.
Sunday, November 11, at 7:30 pm.
Egyptian Theatre
6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.
Wednesday, November 14, at 2:45 pm.
Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.
Friday, January 18, at 7:30 pm.
5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles.
See Dana Goodyear on the Richter-Donnersmarck dynamic, and Morgan Falconer, “Photo-Painting,” in Painting After Pollock (London: Phaidon, 2015), 232–247.
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, Never Look Away, from top: Tom Schilling (2); Shilling and Paula Beer. Images courtesy and © the filmmaker, the actors, and Sony Pictures Classics.