Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives Of Others (DVD))

Member Name: jane08

Product:	The Lives Of Others (DVD)
Date:	18/11/08 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great characterisation

Disadvantages: Sometimes the pacing is a little slow

The Lives of Others is a German, and therefore subtitled, movie released in 2006. It gained critical praise, being nominated and winning the academy award for best foreign picture although personally I'd have given it to Pan's Labyrinth.

Set in East Berlin before the fall of the wall the story follows the lives of playwright George Dreyman and his girlfriend who are being monitored by a member of the Stasi, Gerd Wiesler. During his surveillance Wiesler's opinions on the 'radical' playwright begin to change along with his faith in the Stasi. It sounds fairly dull doesn't it? Honestly it's not. We're talking about a time of suspicion, oppression and corruption, characteristics which exhibit themselves in the multidimensional characters we're introduced to. None of the characters are wholly good or evil; each has their sins and faults as well as their virtues.

This movie is both wonderfully insightful and incredibly moving. I'll confess I don't know a great deal about the politics of East Germany prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, I was only one when it fell, however this movie really doesn't require a lot of historical knowledge, although I'm sure it helps. It's just as easy to watch the movie and imagine any situation where people are passively living out their lives under a regime they secretly oppose. The thing that's great about this movie is watching how that situation affects people's lives.


Being a foreign film it's fair to say that most people won't recognise most of the main cast in this movie however that doesn't mean that their performances aren't equal to those we'd expect of the best Hollywood actors. Ulrich Muhe, who has an uncanny resemblance to Kevin Spacey (I had to check at one point to make sure it wasn't him), has a challenging role as Wiesler but manages brilliantly. However in my opinion the actors that completely captured their roles were Martina Gedeck as Christa-Marta (Dreyman's girlfriend) and more particularly Sebastian Kock as Dreyman himself. I found both incredibly convincing and moving in their scenes and really cared about their characters.

If I have one problem with the movie it would be the occasional pacing issue. For the most part I was completely into the movie, the plot was progressing nicely and then suddenly it would noticeably slow. However it's certainly not reason enough to not watch. This is definitely a must see.

Summary: A must see!