The movie is loosely based on the life of Gerhard Richter. It begins before the Second World War, when his aunt, Saskia Rosendahl, is diagnosed as schizophrenic. She is consigned by Sebastian Koch, to be sterilized and sent to a hospital for the useless, and eventually killed. Meanwhile her nephew grows up in a life of incidents, until he is played by Tom Schilling. He gets a scholarship to the local art institute (in the Communist zone),where he is forced to create Soviet Realistic art and meets Paula Beer and they fall madly in love. She is coincidentally the daughter of Herr Professor Koch, who is doing just fine, thank you; he operates on his daughter to abort a baby, thinking this will wreck the romance. It does no such thing of course, and when Koch has to flee to the West, eventually his daughter and son-in-law follow. Schilling lies about his age and enrolls in an art school there, but he cannot find a style or subject that satisfies him.

It satisfies most criteria for a Best Foreign Movie Oscar. It's more than three hours long, spans almost thirty years and has many striking images, thanks to the Best-Cinematography-nominated camerawork of Caleb Deschanel. Looking at it coolly, it's self-indulgent in its length. With an eye to making this a work that won't strain the audience's bladders, however, I think that what can best be left out are several sequences of Deschanel's "beauty shots": the bombing of Dresden, with the preliminary bombardment of tin foil; the sequences where Schilling runs through a wheat field to tell his father that he doesn't have to be an artist; and others like those. Yet, even though they do not connect to the story in any meaningful way, I find it unlikely the movie would have achieved both nominations without them. Likewise, we are treated to three major exhibitions of art: a lecture on banned art, which do not serve the purpose of the German volk, exhortations at the first school that art must serve the cause of Socialism, and a long tour through the second school that tells Schilling and the audience about the state of Modern Art in the 1960s, which raised many a chuckle in the audience. In the end, Schilling's successful art anticipates "Art as Curation."

The only villain in the show is Koch, a Vicar-of-Bray character who coldly does whatever he must to succeed, and causes his own eventual failures. Always the nasty Nazi, he's a character whose woes we can take pleasure in. He provides -- along with the cynical art commentary -- a constant sour comedy that brightens this tale of frustration and eventual triumph. That and the fine performances and Deschanel's brilliant camerawork.

"Werk ohne Autor" or "Never Look Away" is a new German 2018 movie and the most recent filmmaking effort by writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. He is of course still most known for the Oscar-winning "Lives of Others", but this one we got here is only his second film after the latter, which really isn't much. After a not particularly successful journey to Hollywood (Depp/Jolie),it took almost a decade for him to make another movie. Was this one worth the wait? Probably not. It's all weaker than "The Lives of Others" here, the lead performance, the script, the direction, the emotional impact etc. But this doesn't mean it is a bad film or anything. Not at all. I still enjoyed the watch for the most part and these three hours flew by relatively quickly. It is a fairly long film yep, actually unusually long for a German movie these days if we don't count miniseries. I think there was a film by Oscar Roehler five years ago or so that was also around three hours long, one that was even longer by Reitz, but these are the only ones coming to mind. Now back to this one here, story-wise there is very much in here as the film spans over several decades. Early on, the main character is still a child living during the days of Nazi Germany and we find out about his close connection to Saskia Rosendahl's character, seemingly closer than the one to his own parents. Rosendahl (stunning young woman!) gives the epitome of a memorable supporting performance really in the first half hour, maybe more. Very good and I can see why she is considered among the actresses with the most potential here in Germany. This film can only further boost her career. Also let's mention Lars Eidinger, who plays a very small and not particularly significant role in the first five minutes, but he is an absolute scene stealer. I am saying "not particularly significant" because eventually his character's approach to art and how he tells it to the young boy does not result in the boy giving up on the subject, even if he says he has a tendency to. Now I mentioned already two fairly known actors, at least here in Germany, and there are more big names attached to this project, even if most of them only appear in it for a little while with the big jumps in time. One would be Oliver Masucci playing an art professor and he does a pretty fine job as well and his final monologue before he leaves the scene by lifting his head was among the very best the film had to offer. Who else? Oh yeah, Ben Becker has a cameo, but he is really gone so quickly that you almost don't recognize him. Rainer Bock sadly doesn't have too much screen time either, even if he appears (or people talk about him let's say) on several occasions throughout the film.

It is as if all these minor characters shine while Tom Schilling never really does and he is just there. Even compared to Hanno Koffler, he feels almost more forgettable, even if we hardly know anything about the latter and the character he plays. And don't even get me started on Paula Beer (wow she's gorgeous) who starts okay, but gets better and better the longer the film goes. Her father-daughter relationship story is among the very best the film has to offer. Said father is played by Sebastian Koch by the way (you know him from "The Lives of Others" where he played a man whose character could not be any more different compared to here) and he could very well be the best thing about the film. Early on, it is not entirely clear if he is really a bad guy or just an opportunist or may even turn into a good guy eventually when he saves the Russian woman's life (and her son's),but he is as rotten as they come. He constantly bullies the main character and even kills his own (unborn) grandchild because he does not approve of who the child's father is. And at the same time, he robs his daughter of the chance to ever give birth. There is a great irony if you see how he saves the enemy woman's life for his own sake (to get out of jail) compared to what he does to his own daughter. I also would not say he is a tragic character. His past, his cowardice and his affair show that he really seemingly never genuinely experienced the feeling of love. There is one moment I found particularly memorable. I am referring to when he calls himself a "gute Partie" that showed what a narcissist he is. But he gets his fair share in the end, even if he seemingly gets away without having to go to jail. Koch's character could very well be what stays most in the mind from this film. And it is among the biggest strengths. The weaknesses were minor and maybe those were most obvious when the film really focused on the main character. Such as the final bus horn scene that is a reference to early on, but I must say it did not make an impact for me at all unfortunately and was certainly not the greatest way to end the movie. But the moment he starts painting these pictures (based on photos) of the war criminal they are looking for was really good and I had some goosebumps there. I liked it. The music in that particular scene was amazing too. The title I am not a great fan of I must say. The reference at the end with the journalist saying these three words, to me, did not feel significant enough to call the movie like that. The English title is slightly better with a reference to Rosendahl's character's quote, but also not a winner. Overall, it is a good film that does a fine job in mixing German history over the years and decades of the 20th century with a very personal story. The proportion seems right to me. We will see how deep this one goes in the Oscars race this year as it was selected as Germany's official submission for the Foreign Language category. I don't think it is good enough to win FHvD a second trophy and I also don't think it will. But I'd be surprised if it doesn't make the list of final nine contenders and the top five are also a good option I believe. Also visually and stylistically, the movie is probably superior to the majority of other contenders. The final top five are certainly possible and I think it would be okay if the film gets there, even if my prediction is that it will be on the shortlist, but not make achieve the nomination. We will see. But yeah, if you care about German films, especially about history, then this one is close to a must-see. I loved it during certain scenes and I liked it from start to finish. Thumbs up!

I saw some of Gerhard Richter's works in an exhibit some years ago, and the pamphlet explained the significance of his works in the context of his upbringing. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Academy Award-nominated "Werk ohne Autor" ("Never Look Away" in English) is a fictionalized account of Richter's life, stretching from his childhood in Nazi Germany where he saw the government denounce "degenerate art" (and arrest his aunt for suspected schizophrenia) to his youth in East Germany where he had to contribute to socialist realism, to his eventual move to West Germany.

Don't let the three-hour runtime turn you away. This is one of the richest stories that there is to tell, showing how despite the fictionalized Richter's talent with socialist realism, it simply wasn't what he wanted to do. So then arises the question of how his works will get perceived in the west.

Basically, it's an outstanding movie. If there's another edition of "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", this has to be in it.