Art and life beautifully, cleverly, sadly explored in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's Oscar-nominated NEVER LOOK AWAY

German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has made only three full-length movies over the past dozen years, but two of these -- The Lives of Others and the current NEVER LOOK AWAY are keepers. (His third, The Tourist, was a mostly flashy-crap remake of a better, shorter film.) His two good films have their flaws, and I don't think they are as profound as the filmmaker might imagine. But I also don't think that matters much because they are plenty good as is: rich in theme and ideas, well-written and directed, and performed to a "t" by actors that could hardly be improved upon.

Herr von Donnersmarck (shown at left) has also done something of a service to art in his approach to this film because he actually offers us an artist/hero who cares about art more than he does about money or prestige -- and thus spends his life (and the movie) trying to produce art that's worthwhile.

If this sounds pompous and tiresome, the result proves anything but, as the filmmaker has surrounded his themes with a crackerjack melodrama that fascinates, troubles, and -- finally -- quite beautifully adheres.

The film begins in the Nazi era in a German art gallery, during which a rather nasty and pompous tour guide (above) takes his group around an art show made up of the kind of "decadent" modern art that Adolf Hitler so loathed.

Within that little tour group is a very pretty young women named Elizabeth May (Saskia Rosendahl, above, right) and her small nephew, a bright and open little boy, Kurt (Cai  Cohrs, above and below) who will grow into our artist hero. Both aunt and child seem to possess an understanding of and love for this so-called decadent art.

Although Elizabeth departs the film early and very sadly, it is her spirit that most hangs over the remaining movie. It is she who tells our hero the titular words, Never look away! The reason why resonates throughout this very long (three hours and nine minutes) movie,

which tracks both our hero's career and his love life (he is now played by the very skillful Tom Schilling, above) as well as the constant repression of art by dictatorships both fascist (the Nazis) and communist (the post-war German Democratic Republic), together with the eugenics and euthanasia practiced by the Nazis during World War II.

Regarding the latter, we have the character of Professor Carl Seeband (played by the fine Sebastian Koch, above), who is the man responsible for the murderous action that sets so much into play here.

After the many recent jibes at art and artists and the marketing of both, seen in everything from last year's fabulous The Square to the current and quite entertaining Velvet Buzzsaw on Netflix, what a joy it is to find a movie that not only takes art seriously but tries to genuinely show us the constant struggle involved in producing meaningful art. Sure, even in this film we see plenty of would-be artists trying to come up with the "new idea." But what counts is something else. (That's Paula Beer, below and above, right, as our hero's one true love -- other than art.)

Yes, the movie is a little long (TrustMovies thinks 15 minutes so could have easily been shorn with no great loss), yet it strong enough in theme and execution to withstand this. It also refuses to easily tie up certain loose ends regarding justice and punishment. (How many ex-Nazis were allowed by the Allies to work for them, go free, or emigrate elsewhere in the world?)

There is not always -- nor, I am afraid, need there be -- a connection between morality and art. "Never look away, Kurt," Elizabeth tells her charge, "because everything that's true is beautiful." Which helps explain the conception of a lot of very strange art. That's an opinion with which artist/revolutionary Joseph Beuys might agree. Beuys is clearly the model for the art teacher (played by Oliver Masucci, above) who most affects our troubled hero.

All told, a grand combination of melodrama and ideas, Never Look Away has been nominated for two Oscars, as Best Foreign Language Film and for its cinematography (by Caleb Deschanel). Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, it opened on the coasts at the end of last year and will finally hit South Florida this Friday, February 15, at Miami's Tower Theater and Fort Lauderdale's Classic Gateway.  On February 22, it opens in Palm Beach County at the Living Room Theaters and Regal Shadowood in Boca Raton, and at the Movies of Delray and Movies of Lake Worth. Wherever you reside around the country, click here then click on WATCH NOW to find the theaters nearest you.

Sebastián Lelio's A FANTASTIC WOMAN opens -- it's the transgender movie that's a keeper

If the name Sebastián Lelio (the filmmaker is shown below) rings a bell, it may be due to his excellent film of a few years back entitled Gloria, all about an "older" woman who was as thrilling, memorable and alive as any female character we'd seen in a long while. Señor Lelio returns now with a movie that has already garnered a nomination for this year's Best Foreign Language Film, and although my vote, had I one, would go to The Insult, I wouldn't mind at all if A FANTASTIC WOMAN took the prize. Nor would I if the award goes to The Square. All three are top-notch examples of international movie-making at its best. (I have not yet seen the other two nominees: Loveless, On Body and Soul.)

This talented and highly empathetic director and co-writer (with Gonzalo Maza) first allows us to meet and spend just a short time with his two protagonists, Marina and Orlando, plated respectively by Daniela Vega (below, left) and Francisco Reyes (at right with Vega, in photo at bottom), before a sudden event occurs that leaves us (and the film) with only one -- with the life of that one pulled quickly and entirely from under her.

The how and why of all this is due to the fact that Marina is a male transgender on her way to becoming fully (or as fully as possible) female. This was clearly just fine for Orlando, but it is anything but that for his surviving family, including his ex-wife (Aline Küppenheim, shown at right, below) and son (Nicolás Saavedra, at right, two photos below).

Orlando's brother Gabo (Luis Gnecco, below, left) is kinder and more understanding yet still rather ineffectual, so Marina must somehow make her way through a society that rather shows some of our own red-state cretins as not too dissimilar.

These would include the local police (below, with Marina) and even a supposedly sympathetic female investigating officer (Amparo Noguera, at left, with doctor and Marina, two photos below), who seems to have made up her mind as to what happened and why due to her own history of aiding prostitutes and the transgendered rather than to the specifics of this particular case.

Ms Vega's performance as Marina has been rightly lauded. This actress possesses an innate understanding of this kind of situation, while playing her emotions so close to the vest that she could win Molly's Game ten times over. The actress brings such a strong sense of her own inviolability and strength to the film that despite some pretty awful situations, her dignity remains intact. This makes the fact of our rooting for her so strongly rise above some merely feel-good experience.

Leilo doesn't pile on the negativity, either. He rather seems to simply show a society in which this situation is so unusual and frightening to the "normal" crowd that citizens resort to the only kind of behavior they know and are comfortable with. How discomforting it is to Marina (and the viewer) is another matter.

That our girl gets through it all -- using focus, fantasy, determination and more -- makes for a pretty wondrous movie experience. Of all the films about transgenders I've so far seen (and some of these have been quite good), A Fantastic Woman is still the best. I think it will have a long life as both a breakthrough movie and as a fine example of its own special genre.

From Sony Pictures Classics, in Spanish with English subtitles and running 104 minutes, the film, opening in our larger cultural centers last week, hits South Florida this coming Friday, February 9, in the Miami area at the O Cinema Miami Beach, at the Coral Gables Art Cinema, and in Fort Lauderdale at the Classic Gateway 4. Click here then scroll down to see all upcoming playdates, cities and theaters. 

Best Foreign Language Film front runner, TONI ERDMANN, opens on Florida screens -- plus a word about this category's other nominees

So much has already been written -- much of it quite compelling -- about Maren Ade's latest, most ambitious and successful work, TONI ERDMANN, that TrustMovies will keep his coverage relatively succinct. For those of us who were blown quietly away by Ms Ade's first full-length film, The Forest for the Trees, and then found ourselves even more impressed by her second one, Everyone Else, her new achievement will not be seen as all that surprising.

We would have given this unique filmmaker placement in Variety's annual 10 Directors to Watch with the advent of her first film back in 2003, rather than only this year, with the success of her newest film. But then, that famous show-biz bible is not particularly known for its predictive abilities. (Better to wait until a director has garnered immense praise and won a bunch of awards before taking a chance on her.)

Ms Ade, shown at right with what will probably be the most talked about "costume" of the new millennium, has made a movie that many people are calling a comedy. Indeed, there are some wonderful, even amazing, laughs to be had during this long but increasingly meaningful and attention-grabbing film. Yet it takes perhaps a full hour before the comedy aspect of Toni Erdmann thoroughly sets in.

Even then, the immense drama that has built up between a father and daughter in their struggle to come to terms with each other, with their relationship and with their respective understandings of what it means to "do the right thing" -- this is what keeps the movie growing and churning with life and surprise.

The comedy, hilarious as it is, seems almost incidental. This has been true of all three of Ade's films. In The Forest for the Trees, we initially chuckle at the main character's attempt to "fit in" to the world; by the finale we're knocked for a loop by what all this leads to. Everyone Else has us alternately laughing and wincing at the hypocrisy of its characters, yet we never once lose contact with their humanity, strengths and weaknesses.

Toni Erdmann hands us the increasingly oft-told tale of a society in which appearance is all, soulless corporations rule, and the fight of one man against the many can make real change. And yet, as old-hat and obvious as this may sound, Ade's great skills at both writing and directing turns her tale into a rich and wondrous concoction, the likes of which you will not have previously seen.

She breathes new life into everything from the requisite sex scene (a humdinger, and for all sorts of reasons you won't expect: Petit-Fours, anyone?) to the lets-all-get-nude scene (an utter delight) to the moment in which our heroine is suddenly coaxed into singing a song and turns the scene into something special in, again, ways you just won't expect.

The two lead performances are award-worthy all on their own: Sandra Hüller (above) as that corporate-striving daughter and Peter Simonischek (below, left) as her crazy-like-a-fox dad, whose bizarre methods have their own wonderful logic and lead finally to making this film one of the most joyous and surprising adventures in growth and change that you will have seen for... well, a very long while.

After opening in December in New York and Los Angeles, Toni Erdmann -- from Sony Pictures Classics, in German with English subtitles and running two hours and 42 minutes -- will soon be seen around the entire country. Here in South Florida it opened last weekend at the Tower Theater, Miami, and will open this Friday, February 10, in Boca Raton at both the Living Room Theaters and the Regal Shadowood. To find the city and theater nearest you, simply click here and scroll down.

****************

Even though Toni Erdmann has become the darling of the critical set (myself included, unlike my mixed feelings about that other critical darling La La Land), I must admit to being a tad surprised that the film made it, not just to the Oscar shortlist, but to becoming an actual nominee for BFLF. I'd vote for it, for sure, but it seems to me to demand -- via its considerable length and unusual "indirection" (its genre-jumping tendencies) -- too much of the usual Academy voter, who might prefer a movie such as The Salesman, which I also loved and which is far easier to follow along with and understand.

That a film such as A Man Called Ove has been included among the nominees points to the Academy's ever-continuing love of the feel-good and obvious. If Ove should win, it will set back the BFLF category by a good decade or more. I have not yet seen either Land of Mine or Tanna, so cannot comment on their worthiness -- except to say that, of late, the Academy seems to include a war-themed film (last year's A War) and an "indigenous/primitive people" movie (last year's Embrace of the Serpent), so, yes, they're doing it again this time.

Another BFLF nominee better than the winner: Estonia's spare but rewarding TANGERINES

In the exalted tradition of fine anti-war films, TANGERINES, from filmmaker Zaza Urushadze, proves a major winner. Short (only 87 minutes), crisp, economical yet enormously affecting, the movie details what takes place in and around a tangerine grove in the Apkhazeti region of Georgia, back in 1990, as hostilities break out. Soldiers and the few remaining townspeople come and go, while the movie concentrates on a quartet of characters: the grandfather who owns a small factory in which the titular tangerines are crated, his friend who owns the grove in which they grow, and two soldiers -- from opposing sides.

How these four men come together and dance around each other in an increasingly fraught situation turns into a beautifully acted film of distinction and honor -- both directed and written by Mr. Urushadze, shown at left. It is by turns funny, thoughtful, surprising and extremely moving.

Of the two soldiers, one is a mercenary, which would normally change things from the usual my side/your side conflict -- except that in this case the mercenary has a personal stake in things, as his comrade-in-arms has just been killed by the "other side."

Via a series of plot machinations that seem easily believable given the circumstances, the four men end up together in grandpa's house, where a promise of non-violence is wrested from the mercenary by his host.

The dialog is aces, as are the performances of the four actors involved, the character of each emerging via incidents as much as from words. The musical score is simple and lovely, the direction fluid and smart, and the cinematography good enough to make you want to visit this place (in peacetime, at least).

Amidst the bucolic scenery of the area in which the film was shot, we see the stupid waste of war -- to both the landscape and its occupants. Nothing is baldly stated; it is simply shown. How these men bond, and how, even then, war insists on having its destruction is shown us with immeasurable force and sadness.

With all our best intentions, life -- and chance -- keep intruding, and Urushadze brings this home with poignancy, strength and affection for all. Burying the dead has rarely arrived with such an encompassing sense of waste. Tangerines, like Timbuktu, was one of the five nominees for this past year's Best Foreign Language Film, and both are better than the beautifully photographed but baldly predetermined movie, Ida, that actually won the prize.

From Samuel Goldwyn Films, Tangerines opens this Friday, April 17, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema, and on the Friday, April 24 in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Royal, Playhouse 7 and Town Center 5.

Agnieszka Holland's IN DARKNESS, Best Foreign-Language Film nominee, opens

There is a scene at the beginning of award-winning filmmaker Agnieszka Holland's new yet-another-look-at-the-Holocaust movie, IN DARKNESS, that has already stamped itself on my permanent memory: A group of women run naked in slow-motion through what seems like an open space in the middle of a forest. The time must be early morning, as the barely-daylight colors are muted blues and grays against  the dark green of the trees and the lighter green of the grass beneath them. Their pale white bodies are impressively voluptuous -- large hips and full breasts -- but we can't enjoy this because, from what we can see of their facial expressions, they are in terror. Then we see the German Nazis, guns at the ready, chasing them. We don't witness the massacre; we hear it, and then see the women's sprawled bodies on the grass. As I say: etched in memory for all time. This single scene, in its weird combination of beauty and horror -- Picnic on the Grass meets The Scream -- is all we need to place the film firmly in the realm of memorable Holocaust movies.

With this scene, Ms Holland (shown at right, and who has given us her share of fine films over the years) nails the awful "special-ness" of the Holocaust -- the horror, humanity and inhumanity all rolled into one -- so that we don't need our noses rubbed much further in atrocity. Not that this movie is any kind of lark. No, it tells a narrative tale based on a true event, of a Polish man who helped a small group of Jews survive the death of almost all their friends and families by hiding them in the sewers under the city of Lvov, where he worked in sewer maintenance.

This man, Leopold Socha, memorably played with a fine combination of Christian entitlement and greedy sleaze by Robert Wieckiewicz (above), only very slowly warms up to his hostages, who've agreed to pay him all they have. One of  the movie's arcs is that of a man changing enough to discover his humanity via that of the "other." His sweet, sometimes sassy wife seems more understanding than he early on, as she reminds him, to his surprise, that Jesus was a Jew. But even she, very well-played by Kinga Preis (below), has terrible misgivings when she learns what he is doing.

The movie's other arc belongs to those Jews, hidden in the dank, sloppy grime of the sewers, having to give up everything to hold on to what's left of life. In one devastating scene, a wife must watch and hear as her husband makes love to his mistress just inches away from where she and their daughter are/were sleeping. Just as Leopold becomes more human, these people seem in danger of completely losing their humanity. So much happens to these "refugees," in fact, that much of it would seem unbelievable had not Ms Holland and her fine cast (including Benno Fürmann and Maria Schrader) made it so immediate and involving.

Upstairs, meanwhile, Leopold, his wife and daughter entertain an old pal (who is now one of the prime Nazi helpers) as he orders a sewer search to find any remaining Jews. Other incidents pile up -- the most suspenseful of which involves that Nazi symp, Leopold and his too-talkative daughter -- making us tremble and fear that we can stand no more (this is the feeling that all genuine Holocaust movies ought to provoke).

If you know history, you'll know the outcome -- but not the specifics that Holland and her writer David F. Shamoon (from the book by Robert Marshall) have provided. These glue us to the screen so that when at last that literal light at the end of the tunnel appears, you'll know you've lived through something. What happens, who survives and who does not provides both the suspense and excitement of films like The Poseidon Adventure but also some important history and food for thought.

While I can sympathize with the belief of A.O.Scott in his NY Times review that the fact that the film "is touching, warm and dramatically satisfying" is -- given the subject matter -- exactly its problem. But no: In Darkness is much more than touching, warm and dramatically satisfying. It is also dark, ugly, horrifying and not always predictable. If it makes a couple of slightly more melodramatic choices than it might have, given all it does right, this is forgivable.

The friend who saw the screening with me found the movie well-done but said that he was tired of seeing countries such as Poland, from where the film comes, trying to co-opt the Holocaust. I understand what he means, but since Leopold Socha existed and did pretty much what the movie has him doing, we have to give that country credit for producing at least a few "heroes." Plus, what we learn from the end credits reduces some of Poland's good marks in the hero department.

Will In Darkness win Best Foreign-Language Film? Possibly. A Separation is more unusual and nuanced -- plus it's from Iran, so it would seem particularly gracious of the American Academy to bestow such an honor on that country at this particular time. We'll see. Meanwhile, view the movie and judge for yourself. After its one-week qualifying run in both cities toward the end of last year, the film opens, via Sony Pictures Classics, this Friday, February 10, in New York (at the Angelika Film Center and the Lincoln Plaza Cinema) and in Los Angeles on February 17 at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex, Town Center 5 and Playhouse 7.