Interesting that a film about a painter who's so formally unconstrained is so formally constrained; by eschewing talking heads and voiceover and remaining locked into her observational style, Belz winds up feeding us basic narrative information in belated and confusing manners. On the other hand, I'm not here for "the story of Richter": I'm here to see him work, and in lengthy sequences, we get to see just that, as he tackles multiple abstract paintings, repainting them again and again. Not remotely a definitive work, but for someone like me kind of essential regardless.