The Lives of Others

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) - 2006

Director: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Writer: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Players: Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch, and a guy who looks suspiciously like the principal in Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
IMDB #59 [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/]

The Gist:
The third film in my unintentional Communist film hat trick. This one is about East Germany during the cheery days of Soviet control where people kidnap subversives, ban questionable playwrights, and wire tap everyone under the sun. And unlike the last two movies, this film takes little liberty for exaggeration. You have a main character who in the beginning is extremely professional, an idealist surrounded by men who are more interested in power than sustaining the virtues of socialism. He very quickly becomes emotionally involved with his subjects and begins protecting them against the "Stasi". This change seems to happen over maybe 10 or 15 minutes in a 137 minute film. In lesser hands this would have lead to an abrupt character shift, but for seem reason it works well (thanks in no small part to Muhe's incredible empathy toward his character Wiesler). Through the careful effort to keep the young playwright from harm, Wiesler comes to life. He lives vicariously through the playwright's passion and at the end of the film the broad moral of freedom is only as important as Wiesler's private realizations.

Why This Movie Kills:
Because it's characters are well developed and stir in their own quiet ways, rattling the cage of East Germany. Because it moves like a sleek thriller and by the end of it you realize it was the perfect length but secretly want it to go on because you're so invested. Because its filled with astute human observations and does not rely on embellishment to make a point. This last bit is very rare, because the filmmaker often doesn't have that much respect for its audience. However, Donnersmarck makes his statements the good old fashion way, through film techniques. He shoots the majority of this film with a wide angle lens which has, among other traits, the impression of creating great distance between spatial objects. This creates a feeling of isolation that reflects the mind state of those left behind the Iron Curtain, those afraid to express individuality and descent. Communism's greatest mistake may have been to take the principles of socialism from a broad focus of the people to a specific focus of the individual (allegedly applying force to the latter would help attain the former). This way lies the path of Orwell's 1984, a work hard to ignore while watching this film.

My Nitpicking:
I can't help it, I always find ending on a freeze frame cheesy. It drives me crazy, so much so that I want to make a digital copy of this movie and use a fade before it goes to that freeze frame then convert it back to DVD format and live with the degradation of quality that the process would involve. Elaborate and extraneous I know. Other than that I'd have to watch it again. My initial impressions are pretty favorable.

[Does this guy look like the principal from Ferris Bueller? Is that just me?]