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The Lives of Others (2006)

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Critics' rating

Average user rating

14 reviews

Synopsis

A potentially troublesome couple are put under surveillance by the Stasi in 1980s East Berlin.

Movie review

From Time Out New York

Set on the cusp of the Cold War’s thaw-out, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature revisits an East Germany whose surveillance system would make the NSA emerald green with envy. These were the glory days of the Stasi, the German Democratic Republic’s secret police force composed of men like Captain Wiesler (Mühe)—dangerously efficient, emotionally detached and able to spot subversives before they’ve uttered a single word. Assigned to keep tabs on a popular playwright (Koch), the officer wiretaps the author’s apartment. The more Wiesler hears, however, the more the eavesdropper develops an empathy for both his prey and the writer’s actor girlfriend (Gedeck). Like his cinematic ancestor, The Conversation’s Harry Caul, this pathological professional is doomed to get personally involved, and that’s when the Scheisse hits the fan.

You can pick out the works of others in Von Donnersmarck’s drama—America’s paranoid ’70s thrillers, British espionage flicks and various dour nail-biters featuring overcoated spies coming in from the cold. But it’s the performances (especially Mühe’s compartmentalized spook) and the film’s sharklike forward momentum that make The Lives of Others a compelling look at the psychic toll incurred by a society obsessed with security. The relentless pace resembles a noose tightening; like the claustrophobic Army of Shadows, the movie frames its compositions for maximum constriction. It’s too soon to tell whether this young German filmmaker is our generation’s Jean-Pierre Melville, but judging from how he sustains a piano-wire tautness down to the final freeze-framed shot, the director has undeniably perfected the art of turning the screw.

Author: David Fear

Time Out New York Issue 593: February 8–14, 2007

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User reviews of this film

Nick, Guildford said...

Posted on Sep 05 2008 10:01 Caroline makes certain interesting observations about the characterization of protagonists of this film, in particular the sudden conversion of Wiesler, the Stasi spy, but I feel she has missed one of the central tenets of the film, namely the triumph of the individual over the tyranny of the state. The reasons for Wiesler’s sudden epiphany were not spelt out directly for the viewer, but were entirely compelling and credible nonetheless. His conversion from brainwashed communist apparatchik into free thinking and empathetic human being were brought about by his very intrusion into the lives of others he was sent to spy on. His moral and emotional senses were awakened by witnessing a human relationship founded on a shared love of the intellectual, cultural and sensual. It was this that triggered his epiphany from heartless enforcer to sympathetic collaborator and to me it was abundantly clear.

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NIck H, London said...

Posted on Jul 12 2008 11:36 I loved the movie, accepting that the conclusion (which reduced me to tears although I'm hungover so susceptible). Anyway my take on Wiesler's miraculous conversion is more cynical - by not reporting the fictitious plan to smuggle a dissident across the border, a single reckless moment of largesse, Wiesler found himself complicit in a very different (and real) conspiracy. From this moment there was no escape, as the gold mercedes ruse would surely have been eventually discovered under interrogation had he reported what he subsequently heard. I didn't see the Sieland character as shallow for the same reason - just in a position which was, to me, the result of a spiral of small decisions leading to the situation at the start of the movie. Dreyman himself I found most chilling of all - the "artist" who for me epitomises the difference between a dissident and a conformist, and illustrates completely plausibly how easy it would be for dissidents in any such regime not to choose the path they do. Compelling.

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Diane Laws said...

Posted on May 26 2008 04:35 It was a stunningly beautiful film and Caroline's synopsis simply missed the point of it. The events in the film unfold because all 3 men are in love with Christa; that she may, in fact, be unworthy of their love, is not the point. In the end, Wiseler is the true 'good man' - his integrity intact just like 'The Good Soldier' or 'The Great Gatsby' before him. I did wonder why the film wasn't called that in the first place -but then I suppose, it would have given Wiseler's position away too early in the film.

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FJW said...

Posted on May 17 2008 05:33 A magnificent film. I watched it yesterday at 4pm. Then again at midnight. About to make a cup of tea and watch it again.

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Tony Rocco said...

Posted on Nov 14 2007 19:35 A thoroughly absorbing film set in the bleak backdrop of a nation divided not only by a wall but by a regime so obsessed with its self existence it had to rely on the efforts of its own people from every profession to 'spy' on the activities and movements of every individual, regardless of whether they posed any threat to a regime so immersed in its communist ideal. The real beauty of this film for me, above all else, is that it is so untypical German. I say this because it really packs an emotional punch and although we see the film begin with an examination of interrogation techniques so typically associated with the 'cold war era' the film moves tensely but patiently into a very normal group of actors, actresses, playwrights, poets and Directors doing very ordinary things. These were not Western Capitalists desperate to free themselves from a regime; these were just 'artists' wanting to express their art on an everyday level. So here I think lies the conflict for the authorities. How could or should they deal with this group of people? These were not an underground resistance, they were just artists with a passion for books, music and film and because they did not overtly conform to the 'normal' way of thinking they were deemed a dangerous appendage on German Society. As the film gathers momentum we begin to almost will the Stasi officer Wiesler played by Ulriche Muhe (who himself was spied on for many years) to tell Dreyman (played by Sebastian Koch) that he need not worry because he has an Angel literally over his head. Muhe seems to almost enjoy the cat and mouse confrontation with his superior who can only worry about his own promotional prospects by 'digging some dirt' on Dreyman, who happens to be living with a drug dependant girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland '(who is secretly conducting an affair with a party official in return for drugs and a long acting career). Muhe is torn between what he knows he should do but also with what he feels he should do and after being drawn in by the music of Beethoven he begins to embark on a dangerous and incredibly tense journey to do something, even if it is to his own detriment. I was so moved by this film that I watched the final 15 minutes again and again, to think that the Stasi files gathered on all the individuals over so many years, would, if stretched run for over 100 kilometres we begin to understand exactly how meticulous and paranoid the regime actually was. Regardless of all the underlying political message this film is a triumph on every level, beautifully crafted, intelligently written and set to the wonderful sounds of Gabriel Yareds musical score (better known for Talented Mr Ripley) I urge everyone to watch this film and enjoy it as much as I did. Vorsprungduch Technik as they say in Germany!

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David Flood said...

Posted on Sep 25 2007 06:30 The music sets the moving and melancholic mood of this film from the start, then the actors deliver and then the script delivers. Perfect, down the last scene. Probably the best film I have ever seen.

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Paulus said...

Posted on Sep 11 2007 06:17 I disagree with you, uhb129b, there were goods and bads in that regime as well, but showing the life of the good ones would not sell a movie. It was a horrible regime, led by the evil, uneducated loyal communists, who had no other chance in life to achieve something, but supporting a dictatorship and surpressing people with normal values. Of course, everyone tried to survive, but many remained ethical. We should not forger about them.

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uhb129b said...

Posted on Sep 08 2007 16:19 I have to disappoint you, Caroline. There were no Hollywood-like goods and bads in that regime, and the goods did not ultimately win. The whole point is that nothing was straightforward in that world. I even think the film over-simplified the reality in order to make it comprehensible for the mass-audience.

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philip koh said...

Posted on Sep 03 2007 03:08 A compelling Sonata for a Good man . Saw it on flight a SIA plane will see it again .

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Caroline said...

Posted on Aug 19 2007 04:52 Saw this last night with very high expectations. I am amazed that, in all the months since this movie has come out, nobody has commented on the things that both me and my movie companion observed. One: the Stasi spy's sudden shift is completely unexplained and not credible. Almost instantly, he goes from cold heartless enforcer to sympathetic collaborator. It’s not that such a thing couldn’t happen: it’s that absolutely no explanation is given. Two: you cannot empathize with any of the characters. The actress has a childish desire to lead a glamorous life, but is stereotypically weak, insecure and manipulable. You might be able to understand her actions, but you certainly can’t respect them. Even before she betrays the one she loves, I was fed up with her. You can’t warm to the Stasi guy either. He may be playing on the right team now (God knows why), but he was a helluva SOB three minutes ago. And the poet/playwright (the one being spied on), while quite likeable, is still flat. He is presented as 100% faithful to the system, but then decides to rebel. Either way you look at it, it doesn’t quite add up. Lastly, for me it was overlong...I was looking at my watch. Nonetheless, the movie is worthy, mainly for depicting a world that you can scarcely believe existed only twenty years ago in Europe. But, as much as I wanted to like it, I was glad when it was over, and I will never, ever need to see it again. Independently of its virtues or failings, I simply didn’t enjoy it very much.

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Paul Scholes said...

Posted on Aug 16 2007 11:56 For me this was what cinema is all about, I was spellbound.

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Henry Worsley said...

Posted on Aug 01 2007 13:07 The perfect film.

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Richard & Milana Chamberlain said...

Posted on Jul 29 2007 03:38 Quite exceptional, Beautifully crafted. Compelling.

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Jane Matthews said...

Posted on Jul 27 2007 00:10 The best film I've seen in years.

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