Chilling depiction of life in East Germany before the wall fell

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2006)

I saw this film last night at the Denver film festival. The small theater was standing room only-the director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck remained standing in the back throughout the entire film! He introduced the film at the beginning and then took questions afterward. One interesting comment he made was that this film is enjoying success outside of Germany similar to that of "Run Lola Run," but where that film was most enjoyable, "Lives of Others" leaves people feeling very sad."
Indeed, this is a "heavy" movie and at 137 minutes, it is not for the "short attention span crowd! The attention to detail is incredible. The director explained how the prop master for the film was extremely careful with accuracy down to the finest detail of life at that time in East Germany. Viewers who stick it out are richly rewarded with a film that, according to Henckel von Donnersmarck, accurately depicts the sort of experience many artists of the time endured when their lives were invaded by "Stasi" (Secret Police)spies, hundreds of thousands of shadow characters who did not really live their own lives but in a perverse way, lived vicariously through those of their victims.
The acting is excellent. Some may remember Martina Gedeck from her role as "Martha" in "Mostly Martha," a German release from a few years ago. She is beautiful in a subtle performance as Christa-Marie, an East German stage actress who performs the lead role in Dreyman's play about a factory worker who has visions. We see her perform near the beginning of the film and soon learn she and Dreyman are lovers. Sebastian Koch is believable as the talented and handsome writer Dreyman who seems to actually be in the favor of the Stasi. Ulrich Muhe at first appears as a Stasi interrogator, cold and unfeeling. He soon comes to learn perhaps more than he wants to know about the actress, the playwright and their circle of friends.
The director commented that although Muhe has garnered praise and awards for his characterization of the Stasi spy, he feels that Sebastian Koch also gives a great performance. Another interesting side note explained by von Donnersmarck is the fact that most of the former Stasi Spies have never been held to account for their crimes against the innocent people of the former East Germany. In fact, one of those people defended himself by saying that his volumes of detailed reports were all "made up" and now he makes a career as a sort of "ambulance chasing" lawyer helping these former spies sue anyone who accuses them of having spied on them! Huge sums of money are even now, being paid in reparations to these "victims" instead of to the actual victims of that totalitarian regime-incredible !