There’s a common adage that beautiful works of art — important art — can only come from a place of real suffering. It’s an adage that set writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck on the path to his newest film, “Never Look Away,” which is based on the life of German painter Gerhard Richter.
“My favorite book about filmmaking is Elia Kazan’s autobiography ‘A Life.’ He talks about his work with artistic geniuses and he says their artistic talent was the scab that formed on the wounds life had dealt them,” von Donnersmarck said during the question and answer portion of TheWrap’s screening series Wednesday night.