Voyeurs in the DDR.

Rating: 7/10 (20 October 2006)

To be taken back to the brown and greyish days of the German Democrat Republic is a fascinating trip, which I enjoyed in the same kind of voyeuristic way as how I imagine Stasi agents followed the lives of the citizens of the Workers State. After watching Das Leben des Anderen, I didn't just feel I had seen a movie about 1980's East Germans, I felt I was a 1980's East German, my blue Peugeout was a lightbrown Wartburg, my lovely wife was an undercover agent. In other words, the movie caught me with its accurate realism.
My few objections go on the ending, and how I feel the director doesn't have much faith in the historical insight of his audience. Not a few times we had to be reminded that Glasnost and die Wände was on its way, so I guess not even Paris Hilton would miss the point. The film was already on the wrong side of two hours, so a couple of the final scenes could easily have been cut out and a little more could have been up the viewer. I have felt this lack of subtility in other German movies and I think it's a shame.
Those are just minor flaws though and it's by far one of the best movies I've seen this year.