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The Lives of Others

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The Lives of Others
File:The Lives of Others (poster).gif
Directed byFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Written byFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Produced byMax Wiedemann
Quirin Berg
StarringUlrich Mühe
Martina Gedeck
Sebastian Koch
Ulrich Tukur
CinematographyHagen Bogdanski
Edited byPatricia Rommel
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics (USA)
Buena Vista International (German-speaking areas)
Lions Gate Films (UK)
Release dates
 Germany March 23,2006
 United States February 9, 2007
 Australia March 29, 2007
 United Kingdom April 11, 2007
Running time
137 min.
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

The Lives of Others (original German: Das Leben der Anderen) is a German film, marking the feature film debut of writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

With The Lives of Others, Donnersmarck won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film had earlier won seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards – including best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor, and best supporting actor – after having set a new record with 11 nominations. It was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Golden Globe Awards.

Overview

The thriller/drama involves the monitoring of the cultural scene of East Berlin by agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi Captain Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as Dreyman's lover, a prominent actress named Christa-Maria Sieland.

The film was released in Germany on March 23, 2006. At the same time, the screenplay was published by Suhrkamp Verlag. Donnersmarck and Ulrich Mühe were successfully sued for libel for the book, in which Mühe asserted that his former wife informed on him while they were East German citizens[1] through the six years of their marriage.[2] In the film's publicity material, Donnersmarck says that Mühe's former wife denied the claims, although 254 pages' worth of government records detailed her activities.[3]

The organizers of the Berlin Film Festival refused to accept it as an official entry in 2006.[1] The film succeeded in Germany despite a widespread contemporary reluctance in the country, particularly in its films,[1] to confront the totalitarian excesses of the East German state.[2]

The Lives of Others cost US$2 million[1] and grossed more than $74 million worldwide as of November 2007.[4] A possible Hollywood remake is said to be in the works, with Sydney Pollack directing.[5] However, with the passing away of Mr. Pollack, the project's future seems uncertain.

Plot

In the East Germany (GDR) of 1984, Stasi Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler (code name: HGW XX/7), a keenly idealistic supporter of the socialist regime, is shown interrogating a prisoner who is suspected to know who helped another person defect to the West. In the film, this is juxtaposed with his playing a recording of the interrogation while lecturing a class on Stasi methods. One of the students in the class expresses his view, saying that the sleep depriving interrogation procedure is "inhumane", but Wiesler replies that it is necessary (he also marks the student's name on his notes, presumably considering to be potentially unreliable). He claims that an innocent man will become enraged at the injustice, while the guilty will know he is there for a reason and will become quiet then cry. Then the prisoner is shown crying. Wiesler then points out that the prisoner has said the same thing in exactly the same words, which Wiesler claims shows that he is a liar who has rehearsed this line; someone telling the truth would say it in different ways. Eventually the prisoner provides a name.

Wiesler's old classmate, now a Lt. Colonel, assigns him to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman, who, Wiesler is told, is suspected of Western sympathies. Stasi agents secretly enter Dreyman's apartment in order to install small microphones in the light switches and electric sockets. Wiesler and his assistant Udo monitor the activity in the attic space above the apartment, typing a summary of activities for the record after each shift.

Wiesler soon finds out that the real reason why Dreyman is being spied on is that a minister named Hempf, a member of the Party's Central Committee, is attracted to Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland. If Dreyman is arrested, the minister will have free rein. This destroys Wiesler's motivation, as the job is not seriously investigating crimes against the Socialist state.

Christa-Maria Sieland lives with Dreyman but secretly sees Hempf. Presumably, the actress relies on Hempf to get illegal drugs. Wiesler secretly intervenes so that Dreyman will discover the relationship between Christa-Maria and the party member. A week later, when she is about to go to another meeting with Hempf, Dreyman confronts her with knowledge of her liaisons. Although they argue, Christa-Maria still leaves. Wiesler later sees her at a bar, and insinuates to her that her talent does not require her to give herself to Hempf. Although at first it seems that Christa-Maria carries out her rendez-vous with Hempf, Wiesler later learns through his underling Udo that this rendezvous in fact didn't happen and Christa-Maria went home to Dreyman after her encounter with Wiesler, although Udo is unaware of the implications of this information.

Dreyman is a supporter of the regime, but dislikes the way dissidents are treated. He publicly stands up for his friends if he feels that they have been unfairly treated. One friend, Jerska, is a director who has lost his reason to live due to being blacklisted. At Dreyman's 40th birthday party, Jerska gives Dreyman a gift of sheet music entitled "Sonata for A Good Man" (German: Sonate vom guten Menschen). J Shortly afterward, Jerska commits suicide; this finally spurs Dreyman into speaking out against the regime. Dreyman arranges with West Germany's weekly magazine Der Spiegel to anonymously publish an article on suicide rates in the GDR. While the GDR publishes detailed statistics on many things, it has not published any information on suicide rates since the 1970s, presumably because they are embarrassingly high. Because all typewriters are registered, Dreyman uses a typewriter smuggled from the west with a red ribbon to write the article, which he hides under the floor in his apartment. Before Dreyman and his friends discuss sensitive issues in Dreyman's apartment they test whether it is bugged: they pretend that someone will be smuggled in a relative's car over to the West. Later they conclude that the apartment is not bugged, because the car is not searched. Unknown to them, that is only because Wiesler had decided not to tell the border guards that there was a man being smuggled to the west in the car and had not understood that the discussion was in fact a test.

Wiesler listens in on Dreyman and Christa-Maria's conversations.

Wiseler finds grief in that not even a hired prostitute, played by Kiva Dykstra, has time for him as she merely moves on to her next "appointment."

As Wiesler's empathy for the writer and his girlfriend has grown over time, he lies in his reports to protect Dreyman. Also, at his proposal, the hours of surveillance are reduced, so that it is no longer continuous and he no longer has to share the work with his more objective assistant. Eventually, Dreyman and his friends finish the article and it is published, upsetting the East German government.

Meanwhile, the minister, angered that Christa-Maria had chosen to no longer see him, orders Wiesler's superior, Anton Grubitz, to find some way to destroy her and tells him that she has been illegally buying prescription drugs. Grubitz and his men manage to catch her red-handed in the act of purchasing these drugs and she is arrested. Terrified, she turns Dreyman in, although she does not reveal the location of the typewriter. The house is searched for contraband by security officials, but by chance they miss the typewriter (it is hidden under the floorboards). Wiesler is called in to interrogate Christa-Maria. At this point, Grubitz begins to suspect Wiesler's newly found pity and implies that, even though they are longtime friends, a failure to perform his work will be very costly. Wiesler interrogates Christa-Maria (with his boss watching through the two-way mirror) with the same flawlessness and objectivity that characterized him for years. She breaks down and tells him where the typewriter is hidden. Wiesler, however, still determined to protect a couple he has come to care for, travels to their apartment in advance of the Stasi search team, removes the typewriter from Dreyman's hiding place and hides it in his office.

During a second search, in the presence of Christa-Maria, when the hiding place of the typewriter is about to be opened, Christa-Maria leaves in shame and runs into the street and deliberately throws herself in front of a truck. The secret hiding place is opened, but is found empty as she does this. A helpless Wiesler, who is watching the events just outside the apartment, tries to tell Christa that he has the typewriter, but can't complete his words. Dreyman arrives at the scene and Christa-Maria dies in his arms. As a result the surveillance operation becomes pointless: Wiesler's superior calls it off but, distrusting Wiesler, lives up to his words and demotes him. The newspaper lying in the front seat of Wiesler's car announces that Gorbachev is the new Party Secretary of the Soviet Union. Wiesler is demoted to Department M, to tediously steam-open letters all day with no chance for promotion until he retires. Four years and seven months later, Wiesler is in the middle of opening letters when a co-worker with a radio notifies him of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Upon hearing the news, Wiesler and his co-workers leave.

At the end of the film, after German reunification, Dreyman encounters the former minister at the playhouse and asks why his apartment was never bugged. The minister, now a successful businessman, ironically details the scope of Dreyman's extensive surveillance, telling him where to look for the equipment. Dreyman finds the wires and becomes perplexed why he was never caught. The Stasi's archives are now open to the public; he goes there and reads his own file (or the massive pile of files the Stasi had of him), and learns the truth. While agent "HGW XX/7" (Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler 20/7) must have heard Dreyman and his friends conducting anti-regime activities (such as the writing of the suicide article), he did not report those things in his voluminous typed notes, and falsely wrote instead that Dreyman was writing a play on the 40th anniversary of the GDR, a topic the regime would have approved. Next to the final page of notes is a smudge from the secret typewriter's red ink, proving that it was HGW who removed the typewriter. Dreyman now asks for the identity of "HGW XX/7" and is shown his name and photo. He takes a taxi and watches Wiesler for a few moments, working at his new job delivering newspapers.

Two years later, Dreyman publishes a novel "Sonata for A Good Man" (the name of the sonata given to him by Jerska shortly before Jerska's suicide). Wiesler sees the book advertised in a bookstore, and finds that it is dedicated "To HGW XX/7, with gratitude". He goes to buy the book and, when asked if he wants it gift wrapped, he responds quietly with a double entendre, "No, it's for me..."

The Lives Of Others is the best example of turning the spying game on its head, i.e., the spy developing a sympathy with his subject.

Awards and nominations

Festival screenings

Critical reaction

The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 94% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 138 reviews.[7] On Metacritic, another review aggregator, the film received an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 39 reviews.[8]

In a review, American neoconservative commentator John Podhoretz called the film "one of the greatest movies ever made, and certainly the best film of this decade."[9] William F. Buckley Jr., wrote in his syndicated column that, after the film was over, "I turned to my companion and said, 'I think that this is the best movie I ever saw."[10]

A review in Daily Variety by Derek Elley noted the "slightly stylized look" of the movie created by "playing up grays and dour greens, even when using actual locations like the Stasi's onetime HQ in Normannenstrasse."[11]

Time magazine's Richard Corliss named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #2. Corliss praised the film as a “poignant, unsettling thriller.”[12][13]

Subtle treatment

Several critics pointed to the film's subtle building up of details as one of its prime strengths.

The film is built "on layers of emotional texture", wrote Stephanie Zacharek in Salon online magazine. "Von Donnersmarck seizes upon telling details: In one sequence, as Minister Hempf paws at a female conquest, we get a flash of his giant white underpants, a touch that would be funny if it weren't so subliminally horrific."[3]

At another point in the movie, the main character, Wiesler, becomes enchanted by and sympathetic to the couple he is listening in on. "Wiesler's response to those feelings [...] move in on him imperceptibly, with very little telegraphing, making them that much more convincing," Zacharek writes.[3] Podhoretz, reviewing the movie in The Weekly Standard, ascribes the subtleness of Wiesler's response to Mühe, the actor playing him: "That scene [...] is limned with extraordinary stillness and compressed emotion by Ulrich Mühe, an actor heretofore unknown outside Germany who gives a performance so perfect in this, and every other moment in the film, that it's almost beyond words."[14] Josh Rosenblatt, writing in the Austin Chronicle made the same point: "Like all great screen performances, Mühe’s magic comes out most in its tiniest moments: a raised eyebrow here, a slight upturn of the lips there. It’s a triumph of muted grandeur [...]"[15]

Lisa Schwarzbaum, writing in Entertainment Weekly pointed out that some of the subtlety in the movie comes from the audience watching as characters are shown not taking action so much as being confronted by the action around them: "Some of the movie's tensest moments take place with the most minimal of action — Wiesler simply listening through headphones, Dreyman simply lying on his bed, a neighbor simply looking through a door peephole, her whole life contingent on what she does about what she sees. In those nerve-racking pauses (handled by a strong, understated cast), von Donnersmarck conveys everything he wants us to know about choice, fear, doubt, cowardice, and heroism."[16]

An article[17] in First Things makes a more philosophical argument in defense of Wiesler's transformation.

Characterization

A.O. Scott, reviewing the film in the Washington Post, wrote that Lives is well-plotted, and added, "The suspense comes not only from the structure and pacing of the scenes, but also, more deeply, from the sense that even in an oppressive society, individuals are burdened with free will. You never know, from one moment to the next, what course any of the characters will choose."[18]

Los Angeles Times movie critic Kenneth Turan agreed that the dramatic tension of the film comes from being "meticulously plotted", and that " it places its key characters in high-stakes predicaments where what they are forced to wager is their talent, their very lives, even their souls." The movie "convincingly demonstrates that when done right, moral and political quandaries can be the most intensely dramatic dilemmas of all."[19]

Zacharek, Scott, Podhoretz and Turan all make the point that although the film gives a powerful, subtle depiction of the corruption at the core of the East German state, it is focused on how people can rise above the moral corruption in which they're sometimes placed. As Podhoretz puts it, the movie is "a character study in the guise of a stunning suspense thriller."[14]

Top ten lists

The film appeared on many critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2007.[20]

Criticism

Slavoj Zizek, reviewing the film for In These Times, wrote that it softpedals the oppressiveness of the German Democratic Republic, as when a dissident confronts the minister of culture and doesn't seem to face any consequences for it. Zizek also says the character of the playwright is simply too naive to be believable: "One cannot but recall here a witty formula of life under a hard Communist regime: Of the three features — personal honesty, sincere support of the regime and intelligence — it was possible to combine only two, never all three. [...] The problem with Dreyman is that he does combine all three features."[22]

Although the opening scene of the film is set in Hohenschönhausen prison, the movie could not be filmed there because Hubertus Knabe, the director of the memorial, refused to give von Donnersmarck permission. Knabe objected to "making the Stasi man into a hero" and tried to persuade von Donnersmarck to change the movie. Donnersmarck cited Schindler's List as an example of such a plot development being possible. Knabe's answer: "But that is exactly the difference. There was a Schindler. There was no Wiesler."[23] The East German dissident songwriter Wolf Biermann was guardedly enthusiastic about the film, writing in a March 2006 article in Die Welt: "The political tone is authentic, I was moved by the plot. But why? Perhaps I was just won over sentimentally, because of the seductive mass of details which look like they were lifted from my own past between the total ban of my work in 1965 and denaturalisation in 1976." [24]

Anna Funder, the author of a book about the Stasi (Stasiland), wrote in a review of the movie for The Guardian that it was not possible for a Stasi operative to have hidden much information from superiors because Stasi employees themselves were watched and operated in teams, seldom if ever working alone. She noted that in his "Director's statement", Donnersmarck wrote, "More than anything else, The Lives of Others is a human drama about the ability of human beings to do the right thing, no matter how far they have gone down the wrong path." Funder replied: "This is an uplifting thought. But what is more likely to save us from going down the wrong path again is recognising how human beings can be trained and forced into faceless systems of oppression, in which conscience is extinguished." Nevertheless, Funder said, the movie is a "superb film" despite not being true to reality.[23]


Clive Davis, writing in his blog at The Spectator magazine's Web site, said the film did not convincingly show how Wiesler would have decided to change his ways: "What we saw was a promising idea sabotaged by a muddled and undernourished script."[25] "There was simply no serious motivation provided for this transformation. It was almost as if the writer figured he didn't really need to bother."[26]

Production

Donnersmarck's parents were both from East Germany. He has said that, on visits there as a child before the Berlin Wall fell, he could sense the fear they had as subjects of the state.[27]

He said the idea for the movie came to him when he was trying to come up with a movie scenario for a film class. As he listened to a piece of music, he recalled Maxim Gorky's anecdote about Lenin listening to Beethoven's Appassionata.[1] Gorky wrote:

I know of nothing better than the Appassionata and could listen to it every day. What astonishing, superhuman music! It always makes me proud, perhaps naively so, to think that people can work such miracles!" Wrinkling up his eyes, Lenin smiled rather sadly, adding: "But I can't listen to music very often. It affects my nerves. I want to say sweet, silly things and pat the heads of people who, living in a filthy hell, can create such beauty. One can't pat anyone on the head nowadays, they might bite your hand off. They ought to be beaten on the head, beaten mercilessly, although ideally we are against doing any violence to people. Hm—– what a hellishly difficult job![14]

Donnersmarck told a New York Times reporter: "I suddenly had this image in my mind of a person sitting in a depressing room with earphones on his head and listening in to what he supposes is the enemy of the state and the enemy of his ideas, and what he is really hearing is beautiful music that touches him. I sat down and in a couple of hours had written the treatment."

Donnersmarck had difficulty getting financing for the $2 million film. Podhoretz speculated that the reason was a reluctance on the part of the film industry to confront the horrors of Communism, although he says it is rich with dramatic possibilities. That may also explain why the organizers of the Berlin Film Festival refused to accept it as an official entry for 2006, the critic wrote.[14]

Literature and music

  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-45786-1
  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Geschwärzte Ausgabe. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-518-45908-2
  • A piano sonata ("Sonata for a Good Man") is used as the main transformation point of the Stasi Agent Gerd Wiesler. In the film, the score doesn't carry the name of the composer, as it is original music written for the film by Gabriel Yared.
  • A text by Brecht, "Memory of Marie A", is quoted in the film.

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b c d e "Behind the Berlin Wall, Listening to Life". New York Times. January 7, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-27. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b Nickerson, Colin (May 29, 2006). "German film prompts open debate on Stasi: A forbidden topic captivates nation". The Boston Globe. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Zacharek, Stephanie (February 9, 2007). "The Lives of Others". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ "The Lives of Others (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  5. ^ "Lives of Others set for Hollywood remake". The Guardian. March 1, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "KPN Audience Award". filmfestivalrotterdam.com. Retrieved 4 Feb. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ "The Lives of Others - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  8. ^ "Lives of Others, The (2006): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-10-25.
  9. ^ Podhoretz, John (July 25, 2007). "Ulrich Muhe RIP". National Review Online. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ Buckley, Jr., William F. (May 23, 2007). "Great Lives". National Review Online. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Elley, Derek (June 11, 2006). "The Lives of Others". Daily Variety. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ Corliss, Richard; “The 10 Best Movies”; Time magazine; December 24, 2007; Page 40.
  13. ^ Corliss, Richard; “The 10 Best Movies”; time.com
  14. ^ a b c d Podhoretz, John (March 12, 2007). "Nightmare Come True". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  15. ^ Rosenblatt, Josh (March 2, 2007). "The Lives of Others". Austin Chronicle. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  16. ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa (February 2, 2007). "Movie Review: The Lives of Others (2007)". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ ""Why Dictators Fear Artists"(2007)". First Things. July 23, 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-24. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ Scott, A.O. (February 9, 2007). "A Fugue for Good German Men". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Turan, Kenneth (December 1, 2006). "The Lives of Others". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  20. ^ "Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  21. ^ David Germain (2007-12-27). "'No Country for Old Men' earns nod from AP critics". Associated Press, via Columbia Daily Tribune. Retrieved 2007-12-31. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Zizek, Slavoj (May 18, 2007). "The Dreams of Others". In These Times. Retrieved 2007-08-17. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ a b Fundler, Anna (May 5, 2007). "Tyranny of Terror". The Guardian. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  24. ^ http://www.signandsight.com/features/682.html
  25. ^ Davis (May 13, 2007). "Very Still Lives". The Spectator Blog at The Spectator Magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |firt= ignored (help)
  26. ^ Drum, Kevin (May 14, 2007). "Political Animal". The Washington Monthly. Retrieved 2007-07-28. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  27. ^ "Director's Statement". Sony. Retrieved 2007-08-17.

Reviews

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Preceded by Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
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