The Lives of Others - A review
March 14th 2007 21:07
I’m still reeling from seeing this film on Monday night. I was thrust into a new week and world, a sphere of political oppression, deceit, left verses right and perilous decisions.
The Lives of Others takes place in a world of systematic terror and freezing paranoia, an informer's society of secret police and betrayers in Communist East Germany. Set in 1989, five years before the Berlin Wall fell, The Lives of Others (original title in German: Das Leben der Anderen) is an Academy Award-winning German movie, marking the feature film debut of director/screenwriter 33-year-old Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film's young writer-director grew up in West Berlin (after spending some childhood years in East Berlin), but his portrayal of life in the East has a atmosphere of meticulous accuracy and dramatic truth. He creates a world almost drained of colour and richness, a realm of cold grey offices, sparely furnished apartments, empty streets and secret alliances with an almost science-fiction feel in its sparseness.
The 'others' are author/playwright Dreyman and his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria. Dreyman is suspected of being a West Germany supporter and is the target of the Stasi's investigation comprising of twenty-four surveillance in his apartment. The scrutiny is thorough without any respect for the suspect's life and privacy. Microphones are installed in the wall sockets, and cables in the walls, which connect the microphones to a nearby room, where Stasi (State Security) Captain Gerd Wiesler and an assistant take turns in listening 24 hours a day, and typing a report with anything they hear that might be relevant in a bare attic room at the top of the apartment block. Wiesler’s job is to protect the German Democratic Republic by investigating and exposing subversives. The position includes perks: prestige, admiration from higher-ups and fear from those below, as well as access to his own private soap operas.
When Wiesler discovers that the real reason why Dreyman is being spied on is that a minister and member of the Party's Central Committee is attracted to Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria; if Dreyman is arrested, the minister will have free rein. This information demotivates Wiesler. As he spends more time on the case, he becomes increasingly empathetic towards Dreyman and his girlfriend to the extent where he compromises his own career and safety.
Wiesler (Muehe) is at the centre of the film, giving an unforgettable performance, whose face rarely betrays his thoughts, except to us, as he empathises with the people on whom he spies. As viewers, we can see the functionary mask he presents to the world, as well as his simmering umbrage at being subordinate to his shallow opportunist superiors. As he sits huddled, peeping on the lives of the 'others',we almost feel him softening as he sits riveted to his recorder.
Donnersmarck succeeds in evoking both a vanished world and the people trapped in it. His is a world of mounting dread, institutionalised terror and people who reveal themselves, sometimes surprisingly, as human beings. Again, this is a film of no clear black and whites, as a viewer I felt oscillating empathy for characters that I did not expect to empathise with at all. This is an inside look at how a surveillance society, set up to discover and prey upon human weakness, has the ability to make everyone a potential suspect and obliterate all it touches.
The Lives of Others takes place in a world of systematic terror and freezing paranoia, an informer's society of secret police and betrayers in Communist East Germany. Set in 1989, five years before the Berlin Wall fell, The Lives of Others (original title in German: Das Leben der Anderen) is an Academy Award-winning German movie, marking the feature film debut of director/screenwriter 33-year-old Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. The film's young writer-director grew up in West Berlin (after spending some childhood years in East Berlin), but his portrayal of life in the East has a atmosphere of meticulous accuracy and dramatic truth. He creates a world almost drained of colour and richness, a realm of cold grey offices, sparely furnished apartments, empty streets and secret alliances with an almost science-fiction feel in its sparseness.
The 'others' are author/playwright Dreyman and his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria. Dreyman is suspected of being a West Germany supporter and is the target of the Stasi's investigation comprising of twenty-four surveillance in his apartment. The scrutiny is thorough without any respect for the suspect's life and privacy. Microphones are installed in the wall sockets, and cables in the walls, which connect the microphones to a nearby room, where Stasi (State Security) Captain Gerd Wiesler and an assistant take turns in listening 24 hours a day, and typing a report with anything they hear that might be relevant in a bare attic room at the top of the apartment block. Wiesler’s job is to protect the German Democratic Republic by investigating and exposing subversives. The position includes perks: prestige, admiration from higher-ups and fear from those below, as well as access to his own private soap operas.
When Wiesler discovers that the real reason why Dreyman is being spied on is that a minister and member of the Party's Central Committee is attracted to Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria; if Dreyman is arrested, the minister will have free rein. This information demotivates Wiesler. As he spends more time on the case, he becomes increasingly empathetic towards Dreyman and his girlfriend to the extent where he compromises his own career and safety.
Wiesler (Muehe) is at the centre of the film, giving an unforgettable performance, whose face rarely betrays his thoughts, except to us, as he empathises with the people on whom he spies. As viewers, we can see the functionary mask he presents to the world, as well as his simmering umbrage at being subordinate to his shallow opportunist superiors. As he sits huddled, peeping on the lives of the 'others',we almost feel him softening as he sits riveted to his recorder.
Donnersmarck succeeds in evoking both a vanished world and the people trapped in it. His is a world of mounting dread, institutionalised terror and people who reveal themselves, sometimes surprisingly, as human beings. Again, this is a film of no clear black and whites, as a viewer I felt oscillating empathy for characters that I did not expect to empathise with at all. This is an inside look at how a surveillance society, set up to discover and prey upon human weakness, has the ability to make everyone a potential suspect and obliterate all it touches.
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Comment by David
I popped over expecting you and Dusk to be having a convo ... What's going on? ...
David ...
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I thought I should do some proper (of sorts) work.....
Comment by David
How long will this focus on proper work last for either of you?
Hmmm ... I wonder ... (I don't trust either of you now ... you're both too naughty ...
David ...
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Comment by MelissaA
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Comment by Wendi
I'm not much of a movie-goer, I guess. We watch movies from time to time that we order from Netflix, but they're usually not memorable for me. Most recent on our list was Shaggy Dog - cute, but not "moving" in any way, and Dragon Heart. Again, cute, but nothing powerful.
I think the best movie I've seen in a long time was Lake House with Sandra Bullock, and that was back on the 4th of July!
Comment by Lilla
From The Home Front
Enviro Warrior
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
With parents (and my bloodlines) coming from the former eastern European block, as well as having stood at the Berlin Wall when it came down... I can imagine that this will have a powerful impact on me, whichever way it goes.
I will hunt it down... with fervour..
Thanks again, for finding the more obscure films that often get missed by the mainstream "fascinations."
Lilla~
Comment by Hope
Gifted Parenting
Freelance For Life
Excellent review, I'm not into serious, political movies but your write-up makes me want to look it up at the video store.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by DuskDevi
Rugby World Cup 2007
....sounds like Big Brother...
Kidding!
Sort of...
Excellent review Tracy.
...and David darlin'...I spent yesterday being busy doing nothing...
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
It's a growing sort of intensity...it starts off with a confronting scene and then slows down and subtly grows again as the story delves deeper into the regime and the characters....hope that makes sense!!
Byeee
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
It did have that Big Brother feeling...not the Adults Only episode though....just the daily show,
Byeee
PS Good to hear you had the day doing nothing yesterday, 'tis good for the soul isn't it?
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
I know what you mean about generally finding this kind of film hard to get into...I had my doubts when the beginning subtitles were whipped on and off the screen so quickly I thought I was going to be frustrated throughout the film (that has happened many times). Once I got past that hurdle and figured out what was happening, I was involved.
I think the difference for me was that it was strongly character-based where most of them were not polarised into being good or bad, they were shown from all angles, they were humanised....that might sound like a silly statement, but showing the Stasi as being humane was different to a lot of other films in this vein, I think that's what made the difference to me. I'm not in a very eloquent mood, I think I just burbled on, but you probably get my drift...hopefully anyway.
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Wow, your family were there when the Wall came down? That gives me goose-bumps. I spent a few years in Germany as a child but that was in Western Germany, but it did bring back memories of the German culture. My husband and I went to Berlin in the early 90s and it was an experience I won't forget.
I think that's one of the aspects of seeing foreign films that appeals to me so much, getting a snippety glimpse into another society. This film really affected me and my friends (sorry about that bad grammar), we came out wondering what it would've been like to see the change in Germany before and after the Wall came down. The film really showed how such regimes affect everyone and not always in the same way. It made me grateful for my liberation, that we are free to have political views and can express them in a (fairly) democratic way (to an extent).
Thanks for your comments,
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Thanks for popping in, I'm glad you liked the review. It's definitely quite a film,
Byee
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Thanks for your comments (as always). I hadn't heard much about the film before I saw it (I won the tickets), so I was open to whatever was dealt...and I liked that....my mind was empty (not unusual) and ready to relish a gritty film. I'd definitely recommend a look.
Byee
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Good to see you. When I go to the cinemas I usually see the foreign gritty films that make me think. And this one definitely did that. But I am partial to some dodginess when it's cheapie day at the video (or should that be DVD) shop. Like anything, it's about mood and sometimes I want fluffy escapism that doesn't have to leave an imprint.
Byeee
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Good to see you as always. When I go to the cinema I usually see the foreign gritty films that make me think. And this one definitely did that. But I am partial to some dodginess when it's cheapie day at the video (or should that be DVD) shop. Like anything, it's about mood and sometimes I want fluffy escapism that doesn't have to leave an imprint.
Byeee
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Good review too.
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Comment by Bhumika
Political Minds
Comment by yoda76
The Tube Blog
Keep up the good work!
Comment by Ash
Flashes of memories
Sounds like an interesting one to look out for.... you must have a great video store.. I can never seem to find these sorts of movies unless I scratch my way to the bottom of the DVD sales piles (all the good ones seem to end up in here...people don`t know what they are missing!)
Thanks for the review Tracy...sounds intriguing...
ash
Comment by MelissaA
Fun Facts
Just kidding, it took me a second or 2 to work it out. ; )
Comment by Candice
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Movies and Life
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Byee
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Yes, it's another non-black and white film....that seems to be my logo these days.....
Thanks for dropping in,
Tracy
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Has there been much mention of it there in the U.S? I hadn't heard that much about it here, but maybe I just missed it,
Byee
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Hope it's not too hot up there, looks like it's going to storm here soon.
Hope you have some luck finding it, it might be on at the Dendy soon if that's anywhere near you?
Thanks as always
Byee
Comment by KylieW
Celebrity Obsession
Sounds very interesting. Not usually the sort of movie I go for, but sounds worth a look. Great review!
Kylie
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Thanks for your comments. I also wasn't sure about the film in the beginning, wondering if it was going to be so political it would be hard to become involved in it....but because the focus is on the people and how they affected by the Stasi's control, it's extremely involving and affecting.
Nighty night
Comment by Ash
Flashes of memories
I didn`t even know about The Dendy until you mentioned it! I live a little while outside the city but close enough for the odd trip...this film starts on the 29th so may warrant such an occassion!
thanks again hope your weekend was good
cheers
ash
Comment by Tracy
Movies and Life
Byee