A double review: The Lives of Others
In A&E
Dan Clarendon
The Lives of Others is a narrative of politics, subversion, culture, and espionage within the confines of the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany. Most of the action takes place at the end of the 1980s. (In fact, it isn't until the epilogue of the film that the Berlin Wall is torn down.) The focus of the film is the conflict between those loyal to the state and those who have, as some characters say, "Western leanings."
The film opens withon Gerd Wiesler, an officer for East Germany's State Security (also known as the Stasi), teaching a class of college students the intricacies of interrogation. These scenes are interspersedcut with scenes of him practicing what he preaches on a suspected conspirator. He explains to his class that by hour 40 of an interrogation, the truth will always be revealed. (And, sure enough, the truth is revealed by the fortieth hour of the parallel interrogation.)
Wiesler is a quiet man-always observing, never emoting. When his superior officer invites him to a play by celebrated writer Georg Dreyman, Wiesler watches Dreyman through his opera glasses instead of the play. He tells his superior afterwards that he's suspicious of Dreyman, and he's subsequently assigned to monitor the writer and his actress girlfriend, Christa. Wiesler and his team bug the house with hidden microphones, and Wiesler sets up his listening equipment in a nearby room. At first, he listens to and records every action meticulously (including, humorously, when Dreyman and Christa "apparently have intercourse"). Soon, however, Wiesler begins to sympathize with the couple, and climactic events ensue.
Ulrich Muhe, who plays Wiesler, has very few lines for the amount of time he is onscreen. But he is impressive nevertheless because of the way he can convey volumes with slight variations on his character's expressionless face. Another notable performance is that of Martina Gedeck, who plays Christa, the actress and girlfriend. Christa has to come to terms with her boyfriend's Western persuasions and subversive writings, and Gedeck portrays a women coming apart at the seams convincingly.
The film presents its events slowly but methodically-gradually accelerating to a climax. The cinematography and set design depict a drab, lifeless East Germany with muted colors and scant decor. Additionally, the camerawork is graceful, the editing is crisp, and the music enhances each requisite mood deftly. (Gabriel Yared, known for his scores for films like The English Patient and Cold Mountain, co-wrote this film's soundtrack.)
My only criticism is that I found myself checking my watch at times-some parts were slow, and I feel that the movie could stand to be a bit shorter. But generally, the film was engaging and entertaining. I also valued it as a sort of history lesson-it was a revealing look at the world of Germany during the late 80s and early 90s, a time period in which few movies are set.
So, all told, I'd give The Lives of Others a satisfied thumbs-up. I haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth yet, so I can't say whether The Lives of Others deserved the Oscar for best foreign language film, but I can certainly understand its nomination.
Julie Evans
When the German film The Lives of Others won at this year's Academy Awards ceremony for Best Foreign Language film, I think everyone was pretty surprised. It was up against Pan's Labyrinth, and even though I hadn't seen either at the time of the awards, I, along with many others, suspected that Pan's Labyrinth would win. When Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's name was called (and what a great name it is) announcing that The Lives of Others or, in German, Das Leben der Anderen, I knew then that it must have been pretty good to beat out a much more main stream foreign film. So, when I saw that the film was coming to the newly opened Amherst Cinema I thought I would go see it. Going to see a complicated German subtitled film at 10:30 in the morning seemed at first to be pretty hard, but once I got into the story and the characters, I woke up and really enjoyed it.
The Lives of Others stars Ulrich Muhe (who looks a lot like Kevin Spacey) playing a police officer who sets up camp listening into the conversations of a dramatist couple, played by Sebastian Koch and Martina Gedeck, who are also members of the Socialist party. The eavesdropping job starts out as purely business, but slowly over the course of the film becomes somewhat of an obsession.
The one thing that really struck me about this film was the use of color. Or rather, the lack of color. Throughout the entire film, jackets, houses, wallpaper, cars, everything, is a gray-blue color. The kind of light that makes everything look really cold and dreary. Really the only place in the film that actually had some different shades was in the apartment of the couple being spied on. This of course, in relating it back to the police officer (the one who looks like Kevin Spacey), meaning for him that it was really the highlight of his life. He had no family, no real social life, so in listening to these people throw parties, have sex, eat dinner, etc, it was like he was living their life with them. And for him, this was making his life more colorful.
The other thing making the film certainly more colorful was the gorgeous music, composed by Gabriel Yared (Cold Mountain, The English Patient). Beautiful orchestrations added so much depth and complexity to each scene it was accompanying.
Overall, a really well done, enjoyable film. I'd definitely recommend that you check it out when it hits the Amherst Cinema this month.
WAY-COOL MOVIE TRAILER TO WATCH: Penelope. Christina Ricci is a cursed, disfigured girl who, in order to break the curse, needs to find someone of "her own kind" to love her. Apparently, "her kind" is Scottish actor James McAvoy. Hey, that's weird; he's totally my kind too! I bet he's also your kind. Go check it out at: http://www.apple.com/trailers.