Informative and dramatic, but cold

Rating: 8/10 (16 February 2008)

This is a film about the extent of the Stasi's activities and the climate of fear in the GDR, and as such it is a film that needed to be made. Wiesler is a Stasi operative who is asked to monitor the activities of a playwright, Dreyman, and his partner, Christa-Marie Sieland. And that's what he does in 12-hour shifts each day. Amidst the greys, browns, yellows and greens of the camera, we see the lives of all three intertwine, although the couple are unaware of the extent. Gradually Wiesler comes to take pity on them and his actions for them provide the dramatic content of the film.
It is a good film as many others have said, but I don't think it is exceptional. There is no real explanation of why such an imposing Stasi interrogator (we see Wiesler doing this at the start of the film) suddenly becomes such a softy. Other than that, it is not the kind of film that I could sit through again, not because it is powerful (it can be at moments) but because it is cold; we are spies watching an agent watching the couple. Still, the last line in the film was great.