Never Look Away

Inspired by the life of the painter Gerhard Richter, this three-hour-plus German film was a surprise nominee for this year's Oscars for Foreign Language Film and Cinematography. Americans unfamiliar with Richter — fictionalized here as Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) — will be at something of a loss in following this detailed account of an artist's path from the atrocities of World War II, through reconstruction in the confines of East Germany, to the discovery of his signature style. The writer-director is Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who directed Germany's last Oscar winner, The Lives of Others (2006).

Grade: B-minus. Rated R. Starts Feb. 22 at the Fine Arts Theatre

(Photo: Sony Pictures Classics)