Leben der Anderen, das/The Lives of Others
It may have taken me two years to finally watch The Lives of Others, but it certainly won’t take me another two to watch it a second time — This was the first thing I thought of while finishing the film — I must see it again.
Leben der Anderen, Das chronicles East Germany in 1984, prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. During this period, many German citizens were called upon to watch their comrades and report supsicious activity. It was typical of dictatorships, authoritarian regimes, etc. In a sense, more recent acts of national security against terrorists are not very different — Arrest anyone whose loyalty is uncertain. In the film, one man strays from his path to professional success by withholding information from the “Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, better known as the Stasi—the state security service, which, by the mid-nineteen-eighties, employed more than ninety thousand personnel.”*
I don’t want to give away too much of the story — One of my personal pet peeves is spoiling a film with the review. The movie is quiet, yet haunting. It captures a piece of history that is easily forgotten, yet just as easily repeated.
[Editorial Note: ...the almost right word is experimenting with capitalization. Please be patient and, if you have any opinions on the matter, let me know!]
* Anthony Lane of The New Yorker: “Guilty Parties“
12 responses so far
Such a good movie!!
Hey!
Just like you - I bought this on DVD and it stayed on my shelf for 6 months. One day I was dead bored and decided to watch it; I have watched it atleast a dozen times now - it is such a good movie!
T
You have brilliant taste, my dear. This was a fantastic movie– and made me realize how much I didn’t know about that bit of history!!
MMMM! Yes, the ARW, you DO have suspiciously good taste.
Have you heard that they are remaking it? American production, American actors (presumably), same story, bigger budget. Scheduled to come out in 2010.
okay. firstly, i guess i have to admit that “s” up there is the one who had originally recommended this movie to me. he gets all the credit. damn.
and an american production?? uh oh. could be good, could be terrible!
Hello? Netflix…it’s Narm again…
I TOTALLY need to look into that. I went to East Germany shortly after the wall came down and I have to admit… the differences were startlingly visible.. even at my young age.
deutlich…sounds like an awesome experience. you would definitely appreciate the film.
i freakin love this movie… i rep. it regularly in my blog
What I’d love to see is an American version of “the lives of others” remade to take place in America.
We often dismiss the secret police as being an Un-American, suspiciously foreign, “that couldn’t possibly happen here” phenomenon. But we must remember, the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, have a long history of spying on U.S. citizens. Sacco and Vanzetti, Alien and Sedition Acts (part 1 and 2), Hoover’s FBI, Watergate, the post 9-11 circumvention of FISA. In each instance, civilians spied on civilians with little oversight or accountability.
for example:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10454316/
We know of the East German stasi because, in the end, we won and they lost. We recoil in horror as the stories leak out. As the tales are told, we find that culture fascinating. We ask ourselves: “How did they put up with this wanton intrusion into their lives, this infringement on their civil liberties?” We pat ourselves on the back, and thank God, Allah, Jewish God, or Tom Cruise that we don’t live in that kind of culture. But our government authorized culture of spying is almost more pervasive. Granted, it happens on a much lower scale than what was happening in East Germany, the difference is, to people in Berlin, the stasi were an open secret. People accepted it, rebelled against it, ignored it, whatever, but it was a readily available fact that the government could be watching.
Here, most of us deny it’s happening, or, induced by the conceit of “protecting us from terror”, we welcome it.
As long as it doesn’t happen to us. And, it would never happen, right?
…..upon reflection, this post appears to reveal my not-so-latent conspiracy theorist, anti-military, grumpy-old-man side (that’s alotta dashes). And perhaps I should simply call a spade a spade and say that I am all of those things.
Have you heard that they are remaking it? American production, American actors (presumably), same story, bigger budget. Scheduled to come out in 2010.
Oh my God, how horrifying.
Inevitably with Kevin Spacey as Ulrich Mühe’s character? Which will be Clever, but will also NOT WORK because that movie fucking *belongs* to Mühe–he grabs it, he tucks it firmly under his arm, he runs away with it, he crouches in an alleyway with it and he EATS it. He inhabits it, he walks it around and he makes it talk. It would be (and apparently will) nonexistent without him, a mere Stasi soap opera.
S. may be a grumpy old man (in the Brujo, that to which I refer as his “Get offa my yard!” aspect); but apparently I am a grumpy old man too, like James Page in October Light, because I find myself applauding everything s/he says. The federal agencies have been out of control for decades and decades, and interestingly films never get made about this. Silkwood, maybe…Arlington Road, maybe…but not really. And I’m sure none of the big four studios is that eager to see if blacklisting still exists.