| Author |
 Topic  |
|
|
BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
 Posted - 05/04/2007 : 20:35:25
|
You really do have to wait until the last section of this nearly 2� hour tale to understand its true nature. It's not that what comes before is in any way a mere set-up, nor that it's either misleading or is paid too much attention. von Donnersmarck is far too accomplished a film-maker for any of that. It's just that the story of deception and counter-deception unfolding as the East German Stasi carries out a thorough surveillance of one of the country's most celebrated playwrights holds in itself the seeds of a wider deception. And it's not until the end that the film's powerful message is clear in its extrapolation from the personal to the political and back again.
The story is right to remind us of the relentless intensity of Germany's post-war division. From an era of false pride, righteousness and misplaced hope of domination, a nation had to come to terms with its failures. In a rush to distance itself from Hitler's National Socialism, the Eastern sector, under the control of the Soviet Union, aspired to a rabid adoption of the trappings of what was probably a more rigid interpretation of Marxist Leninist Communism than those gentlemen had intended. By the time the film opens in the early 1980s, the country has become an uneasy hotbed of paranoia and suspicion. The machinations of the Stasi [secret service] are all too reminiscent of its Nazi predecessor.
Working in the cultural division is Captain Gerd Wiesler - a quietly volcanic performance by Ulrich M�he. Wiesler, as we're shown very early on, is an expert at securing confessions through a variety of interrogation techniques, brutal yet not primarily physical. He's the reliable underling of the highly ambitious Grubitz, his boss who was once a colleague. Both serve the whims of the Culture Minister Bruno Hempf, a self-obsessed slob who wouldn't be out of place running Auschwitz. All profess to being true servants of the state - part of its "sword and shield." That's the justification for every act of inhumanity they perform.
Hempf's latest obsession is to implicate the darling of the propagandist mainstream, dramatist Georg Dreyman. However it's not smuggled subversive messages in his plays that motivate Hempf, but lust for Christa, Dreyman's leading lady who stars on stage and in his bed. Both Dreyman and Christa are in their prime, passionate and sensual and adored. Artistically hers are easier choices since she can bring both technique and truth to her portrayals. He, though, has sacrificed any pretense at social critique and we're led to believe he's content with his role as establishment darling. What neither's been able to do, though, is cut off from old friends and artistic colleagues whose more overt rebellious stance has made them enemies of the state.
This continued acquaintance provides a cunning rationale for Hempf to authorize the surveillance. And the bulk of the film allows us to snoop on the couple's lives through the eyes of Wiesler. By keeping us somewhat at arm's length from the couple at the start von Donnersmarck cleverly makes us complicit in the spying. In fact, because we get to see more of them than Wiesler, we become the more accomplished spies.
I won't map out the different directions the plot takes when various secrets are revealed or kept hidden. Only to note that a lesser story-teller might have been content to resolve those elements with a startling yet somehow predicable ending. But von Donnersmarck gives us that ending and marches us forward several years; forward to a time when the old repressions are freed more powerfully by peace than they could ever be by war. And it's that more human conclusion which truly resolves the story and makes it intensely relevant to ourselves.
|
|
|
ChocolateLady 
"500 Chocolate Delights"
|
|
|
BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
|
|
Paddy C 
"Does not compute! Lame!"
|
Posted - 05/05/2007 : 11:37:22
|
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Wow, well said Bbabe! (and CL!) Can you recommend any of this guy's other movies?
I really enjoyed this one as well, here's my token effort
|
Edited by - Paddy C on 05/05/2007 11:39:22 |
 |
|
|
BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
|
Posted - 05/05/2007 : 11:53:24
|
quote:
Originally posted by Paddy C
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Wow, well said Bbabe! (and CL!) Can you recommend any of this guy's other movies?
I really enjoyed this one as well, here's my token effort
Good on ya, Paddy C! And great to hear your voice after your recent absence from da 4UM!
Astonishingly, this was the directors FIRST FEATURE,  as far as I've been able to discover. The bastard! 
|
|
|
|
ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
|
Posted - 05/05/2007 : 11:57:59
|
quote:
Originally posted by Paddy C
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Wow, well said Bbabe! (and CL!) Can you recommend any of this guy's other movies?
I really enjoyed this one as well, here's my token effort
Nicely done, Paddy! As for other movies of his, I doubt you'll find any on DVD since most of them are shorts. He's someone we should all keep an eye out for in the future - both as a director and as a writer.
|
|
|
|
Paddy C
"Does not compute! Lame!"
|
Posted - 05/05/2007 : 12:29:22
|
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
quote:
Originally posted by Paddy C
quote:
Originally posted by BaftaBabe
Wow, well said Bbabe! (and CL!) Can you recommend any of this guy's other movies?
I really enjoyed this one as well, here's my token effort
Good on ya, Paddy C! And great to hear your voice after your recent absence from da 4UM!
Astonishingly, this was the directors FIRST FEATURE, as far as I've been able to discover. The bastard!
Thanks! Have been pretty busy with college in recent weeks, exams in a fortnight, so haven't been watching too many movies lately!
Re von Donnersmarck, that's an unbelievable debut so.. one to watch for more in future!
|
|
|
|
randall
"I like to watch."
|
Posted - 08/26/2007 : 00:58:59
|
Let's go to the DVD!
Probably the best flick I've seen all year. We missed a preview last year because of a conflict, and it's taken this long for the film to filter thru the distribution channels.
So much grey in a world you would expect to be black or white. Ms. Randall was sobbing over the closing credits. FIRST FEATURE? Herr, I can't wait for your SECOND!!! |
|
|
|
Ali
"Those aren't pillows."
|
Posted - 08/27/2007 : 07:12:14
|
I agree. This was the best film of last year, if not the decade so far.
|
|
|
|
Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
|
Posted - 12/28/2010 : 20:54:31
|
| Here is the original thread, which B.B. had actually posted in before deciding to start a second one. |
|
|
| |
Topic |
|
The Lives of Others
