Passes the Bechdel test

Never Look Away

Name: Never Look Away
Released: 2018

2018. Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

The Bechdel test

Bechdel score

3 / 3

Passes

Yes 1. At least two women
7 women characters. 3 of them speak.
Yes 2. Who talk to each other
In 3 scenes out of 151.
Yes 3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.

Second opinion

Not rated bechdeltest.com readers haven't rated this film.

The film

Young artist Kurt Barnert (Tom Schilling) has fled to West Germany but continues to be tormented by the experiences of his childhood and youth in the Nazi years and during the GDR-regime. When he meets student Ellie (Paula Beer), he is convinced that he has met the love of his life and starts to create paintings that mirror not only his own fate, but also the traumas of an entire generation.

Released: 03 Oct 2018
Genres: Biography, Drama, Romance
Rated: R
IMDb: 7.7 / 10
Metascore: 68 / 100
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. 5 wins & 18 nominations total
Elsewhere: View on IMDb

Starring, by lines spoken

Women
Men
Not in the cast list
Bigger name, more lines

Kurt 141 lines, man
Seeband 112 lines, man
Ellie 56 lines, woman
Preusser 43 lines, man
Aunt Elisabeth 37 lines, woman
Van Verten 27 lines, man
Max 20 lines, man
Frau Seeband 19 lines, woman
Elisabeth 18 lines, woman
Professor Grimma 17 lines, man

Full cast, 39 people

Tom Schilling as Kurt Barnert
Sebastian Koch as Carl Seeband
Paula Beer as Ellie
Saskia Rosendahl as Elisabeth May
Oliver Masucci as Antonius van Verten
Cai Cohrs as Six-Year-Old Kurt Barnert
Ina Weisse as Martha Seeband
Evgeniy Sidikhin as Major Murawjow
Mark Zak as Murawjow Interpreter
Ulrike C. Tscharre as Miss Hellthaler
Bastian Trost as Franz Michaelis
Hans-Uwe Bauer as Horst Grimma
Hanno Koffler as Günther Preusser
David Schütter as Adrian Schimmel / Finck
Franz Pätzold as Max Seifert
Hinnerk Schönemann as Werner Blaschke
Jeanette Hain as Waltraut Barnert
Jörg Schüttauf as Johann Barnert
Johanna Gastdorf as Grandmother Malvine
Florian Bartholomäi as Günther May
Jonas Dassler as Ehrenfried May
Ben Becker as Otto
Lars Eidinger as Exhibition Guide
Rainer Bock as Burghart Kroll
Pit Bukowski as Andreas
Johannes Allmayer
Martin Bruchmann as Student
Andreas Nickl as Thorsten
Lutz Blochberger as Schon
Bruno F. Apitz as Eser
Michaela Caspar as Mrs. Rebernik
Luc Feit as Hermann Schreiber
Hannes Hellmann as Arthur Kastner
Jacob Matschenz as Arendt Ivo
Stefan Mehren as Jürgen Beier
Manfred Möck as Kleiber
Rainer Reiners as Mr. Rebernik
Anton Rubtsov as Mischa
Chris Theisinger as SS Doctor

Who talks, scene by scene

Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 10% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.

Women

Men

Scene 1 Scene 151

Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.

Show the numbers

Scenes	Women's lines	Men's lines
1 to 4	2	15
5 to 8	30	18
9 to 12	12	27
13 to 16	2	9
17 to 20	2	0
21 to 24	0	0
25 to 28	2	7
29 to 32	0	1
33 to 36	0	16
37 to 40	1	9
41 to 44	1	22
45 to 48	0	10
49 to 52	0	20
53 to 56	5	18
57 to 60	15	14
61 to 64	8	8
65 to 68	21	24
69 to 72	1	5
73 to 76	10	18
77 to 80	16	20
81 to 84	0	17
85 to 88	4	6
89 to 92	3	14
93 to 96	1	27
97 to 100	1	2
101 to 104	0	8
105 to 108	6	54
109 to 112	0	4
113 to 116	5	10
117 to 120	0	12
121 to 124	0	5
125 to 128	2	5
129 to 132	0	18
133 to 136	0	4
137 to 140	0	5
141 to 144	4	3
145 to 148	0	23
149 to 151	0	6

The evidence

Straight from the script
Counted from the script and the credits

Tap an exhibit to open it.

Exhibit A: the passing scenes

The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.

GRANDMOTHER MALVINE: Elisabeth, for God's sake, what are you doing?! AUNT ELISABETH: Playing a concert for the Führer!

GRANDMOTHER MALVINE: "Youthful delusion" – that makes it sound almost harmless. AUNT ELISABETH: Mild schizophrenia, youthful delusion! I can hear everything! Ha, ha, ha!

GRANDMOTHER MALVINE: We would really like to try giving her some rest at home first. She worked extremely hard for the school leaving exam. And then she went str… AUNT ELISABETH: Is this your wife? You hate her, am I right? I can see it, by the way you stand next to her. AUNT ELISABETH: You can ignore that. After all, I'm crazy.

FRAU HELLTHALER: Frau Seeband. Somebody has come about the room. FRAU SEEBAND: That was quick. FRAU SEEBAND: That really was quick.

Exhibit B: every 100 lines

Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 24 are women's.

154 lines from women, 484 from men.

Women
Men

Exhibit C: who's in it

7 women and 31 men in the cast. 3 women and 22 men from it get lines.

Characters

With lines

Women
Men

Exhibit D: who gets heard

The first woman speaks at line 13 of 709. The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 59 lines.

Every line of dialogue, first to last

First line by a woman
Longest stretch with no woman speaking

Words spoken

Women speak 20% of the words (1,761), men 80% (7,178). Women have 24% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.

Exhibit E: the test the other way

Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.

Conversations between two named characters

Two women

Two men

Exhibit F: behind the camera

6 of the 17 people in these jobs are women. Across the whole crew, 32% of the people whose gender is listed are women.

Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (man)
Written by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (man)
Produced by: Max Wiedemann (man), Piotr Strzelecki (man), Jacek Gaczkowski (gender not listed), Jan Mojto (man), Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (man), Quirin Berg (man) and 2 more
Shot by: Caleb Deschanel (man)
Edited by: Patricia Rommel (woman)
Music by: Max Richter (man)
Production design by: Silke Buhr (woman)
Costumes by: Gabriele Binder (woman)
Cast by: Simone Bär (woman), Alexandra Montag (woman)