An interesting character study with excellent performances.

Rating: 9/10 (13 November 2012)

West German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck crafted an engaging drama in The Lives Of Others, his first feature film. At the center of this film is the impressive performance by Ulrich Muhe as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, an officer of the Stasi. Wiesler is an efficient and loyal employee who goes through changes he didn't expect. After listening in on Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) and Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), two fine artists whose lifestyle is different from his he begins to doubt his work. In addition to the excellent performances from the cast and Donnersmarck's effective direction the film is aided by Hagen Bogdanski's expert cinematography. Some reviewers stressed the feeling of paranoia in The Lives Of Others but my opinion is that instead the film amplifies the relationships that all people have every day. By picking these characters Donnersmarck stresses humanity. This approach leads to a satisfying emotional ending. While The Lives Of Others is a very good piece of filmmaking it's certainly not a history lesson. The German Democratic Republic was perhaps the state with the most surveillance in the Eastern Bloc but even there there were only a few Wieslers and personal or even erotic motifs played a somewhat subordinate role in the musty atmosphere of East German socialism. The film is not an accurate presentation of life in the Eastern Bloc, and it was intentionally made to look gray. Another factor is the film's Best Picture win at the 2006 Academy Awards, which by the way is a tentacle of American propaganda. The film that should have won was Pan's Labyrinth, but instead The Lives Of Others was picked for ideological reasons. Despite these obvious flaws and problems The Lives Of Others is still one of the best German films of recent years, and internationally it grossed an impressive $77 million.