Never Look Away

"Never Look Away" is a film written and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. He also directed two previous and notable German films, one entitled "Black Book" and the second "The Lives of Others". The latter film won an Academy Award as the Best Foreign Language film in 2006 and both films received 4 stars from this reviewer because of their clarity. power and the wonderful theatrical experiences they created. One of the common threads in each of the two prior films and in this one as well is the presence of Sebastian Koch, a dominating figure on the screen. Here Mr. Koch co-stars with Tom Schilling and Paula Beer in this saga that begins in1940 under the reign of Adolph Hitler, moves forward through the era of the German Democratic Republic in the eastern part of Germany and then finally concludes its story in the west.

Loosely resembling the life of artist Gerhard Rickter, the film is filled with coincidences and drama that keep the viewer deeply involved as the young artist, portrayed by Mr. Schilling, looks for and attempts to find his own  reality amidst the politics and autocratic regimes of the Third Reich and the GDR. The film is 188 minutes in length but never has a 3 hour plus film been so easy to watch and that is due mainly to the superb writing, directing and acting of those in it and responsible for it. Kudos, too, to Caleb Deschanel whose camera work has earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinemaphotography. I give this film 4 stars and can easily understand why Germany made it its entry for Best Foreign Language film of 2018.

Velvet Buzzsaw

“Velvet Buzzsaw” stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo. Written and directed by Dan

Gilroy, this is a film that just can’t make up its mind nor can some of the characters in

it.  Mr. Gyllenhaal’s character struts throughout the film as a homosexual art dealer

but all of the sex scenes are between him and other women. Likewise, the film itself purports

to be a satire on the art scene yet it also tries to be a horror film never fully or committing

under either label.  Currently being exhibited on both Netflix and in local theaters,

the film doesn’t deserve to be seen in either venue. I give the film one star and suggest

that a blank tv or movie screen will be more entertaining than this poor attempt at

entertainment

Who Will Write Our History

"Who Will Write Our History" is a docudrama directed by Roberta Grossman

who co-wrote the film with Samuel Kassow based on his novel of the same

name.

The film tells the story of Emanuel Ringelblum and a group called the Oyneg Shabes, 

the secret archive he created and directed in the Warsaw Ghetto. With 30,000 pages of writing,

photographs, posters, and more, the Oyneg Shabes Archive contains eyewitness accounts

documenting not only how the Jews of the ghetto died, but how they

were forced to live. Most interesting is the fact that the actual films shown (obtained

through the British archives)  were taken by German soldiers so the audience sees

the torture and inhumane acts thrust upon these vulnerable and defenseless individuals

through the camera lenses of their captors.

This is a review of a film that will contain no rating for it is not entertainment in any

sense but, instead, a history of man's inhumanity to man and how those, faced

with almost certain death, attempted to guarantee that the outside world (from which

they were excluded) would some day learn the horrors they faced and the evils they

encountered. As with all such acts of intolerance and terror, one must ask "why", and

sadly it is a question that still remains unanswered even as of today.