Review of Gerhard Richter Painting

"Gerhard Richter - Painting" is a documentary from 2011, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. It is a German production, which is also why the language is predominantly German except some English here and there. Gerhard Richter is a German painter who was in his late 70s when this was made and is now in his early 80s. He is considered among the painting elite right now and this also tells you that the great era of painters may be over as everybody has heard of Michelangelo, Picasso and many other famous painters, but in terms of the ones alive, hardly anybody is known I guess. But this should not discredit Richter's work. I think he has had a great career to this date and his talent has made him a fortune. So he probably deserves his own movie. The writer and director here is Corinna Belz and I recently got curious about her as I watched her very recent film about Peter Handke in a theater. But back to this one here, Belz actually worked on the topic of Gerhard Richter on several occasions ("Das Richter Fenster") also before this movie, which runs for slightly under 100 minutes. It focuses on Richter's work as an artist and the emphasis here is clearly more on his professional life than on his personal life. We see him on opening, on discussions with exhibitors or just find out about his general take on life and art as we see him (for example in the final shot) during his craft. The thing I liked most about the film is how very unpretentious the man is. He seems like a normal neighbor really and this is such a contrast to Handke for example. There was one scene when the filmmaker asks Richter to explain one particular quote or statement because it sounds really difficult and he basically responds by saying that it is too difficult to explain actually. A really likable man. But I still guess with the approach Belz gave the subject here, you need to have a solid interest at least in the subject before and with subject I mean the work of (modern) art. This is unfortunately not a movie that will get you interested in the subject if you haven't a previous interest already. And this makes it worth seeing for a not that huge group of people really, which is pretty disappointing and the reason why I give this film a thumbs-down. Not recommended to general audiences.