Note New Time & Format
6:35 arrive
7:00 Film Starts
• No Food or Drink •
Please car pool if possible
Werk ohne Autor” or “Work Without Author”
Directed and written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
BACKGROUND-
-the film is a work of fiction but the point of inspiration was an article by a famed German investigative Jurgen Schreiber about the German painter Gerhard Richter
– Ritcher did not want the movie character to bear his name and suggested to Donnersmarck that the film’s protagonist might have another profession
– Donnersmarck stated “Maybe the film is for everybody except him” after talking to Ritcher and his inability to watch the film based loosely on his life
REACTIONS-
– at the very first screening in the 75th Venice International Film Festival, Never Look Away received a 13 minute standing ovation and came in first place.
-“One of the finest films I have ever seen is Never Look Away- a materpiece” – William Friedkin, director of the Exorcist
GERHARD RICHTER
German visual artist
He’s created photo-paintings, abstract work, color chart paintings, scupltures, drawings, exhibitions, and even has done stained glass windows for the Cologne Cathedral.
From Reichenau, Lower Silesia (what is now Poland)
LIFE CONNECTIONS TO THE MOVIE-
-Ritcher’s aunt has been murdered by the Nazis because she developed schizophrenia
-Ritcher immortalized her in a painting titled Aunt Mariane
– the painting depicts the aunt holding Gerhard Richter as a baby
-Gerhard Ritcher’s father-in-law was a high-ranking SS doctor and fervent Nazi who personally performed over 900 forced sterilisations on women whom the Nazis considered “unfit” to reproduce.
-while he did not personally perform the operation on Ritcher’s aunt, he was the director of the hospital
-He did not find this information out until he was 70 but looking at his body of work, he must have known something on a subconscious level
ART-
-nearly all of Ritcher’s work demonstrates both illusionistic space that seems natural while also displaying the physcial activity and material of painting
-he considers himself a Surrealist
-he was always focusing on what his art could be used for
-Richter sold his 1986 Abstraktes Bild for $46.3 million in 2015 (before the film premiered)
-this was one of most well-known and largest paintings, as well as one of his favorites.
-more recently, his 1963 “Jet Fighter” blurred painting sold for $20.3 million just this year.
FLORIAN HENCKEL VON DONNERSMARCK
Film Director
From Colonge, West Germany
A part of the noble family Henckel Von Donnermarck (Slovakia)
Married to Christine Asschenfeldt
MOVIES-
The Lives of Others (2006)
The Tourist (2010)
Never Look Away (2018)
The Europe List (the largest survey on European culture) named The Lives of Others second on a list of the best films in European culture
CAREER-
– won a directing apprenticeship with Richard Attenborough on In Love and War
– studied at the University of Television and Film Munich (classmates with Wim Wenders, Roland Emmerich, and Maren Ade)
– The Lives of Others took him three years to write, direct, and complete
– Won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2007 along with many other acalades
– The Tourist was nominated for three Golden Globes
– It featured Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp
– His third feature film Never Look Away was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 75th Venice International Film Festival and two Oscars
– This was the second time in history that a German language film by a German director was nominated for an Oscar in multiple categories
FUN FACTS-
– He is 6’9”
– Howard Davies named him as the artist he most admired
– The first film he ever saw was the German melodrama Variete
