"You can't take your eyes off his eyes--blue and unblinking, as he confronts the world like a camera with the shutter left open, permitting the images to burn into his brain."
— Lane, Anthony (b. 1962)
Author
Work Title
Date
February 11, 2019
Metaphor
"You can't take your eyes off his eyes--blue and unblinking, as he confronts the world like a camera with the shutter left open, permitting the images to burn into his brain."
Metaphor in Context
The hero of "Never Look Away" is called Kurt Barnert, and, for the bulk of the narrative, which covers his early adult years and the start of his career as an artist, he is played by Tom Schilling. But the movie begins when Kurt is a boy of six, and the actor who takes the role, Cai Cohrs, exerts, I would say, a more powerful pull on your attention. You can't take your eyes off his eyes--blue and unblinking, as he confronts the world like a camera with the shutter left open, permitting the images to burn into his brain. The opening scene is set in Dresden, in 1937, and one thing Kurt stares at with particular care is a Kandinsky from 1921. It's a small abstract painting, one of a cluster of works that have been gathered, under Nazi auspices, to be jeered at for their decadence and their moral deformity. Kurt is viewing the collection in the company of his beloved aunt, Elisabeth (Saskia Rosendahl), and she quietly says to him, as they stand before the Kandinsky, "Don't tell anybody, but I like it."
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Anthony Lane, "Eyes Wide Open," The New Yorker (February 11, 2019). <Link to www.newyorker.com>
Date of Entry
02/13/2019
