Taut and rather powerful German thriller focusing on the power struggle between a handful of people towards the end of a controlling era.

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2009)

The world in which The Lives of Others is set is a grey and frightening one; one that evokes fear, suspicion and tension. It takes place in a world and at a time that really existed; and amongst the vast, vast annuals of history - the period, or 'era', of mid 1980s East Germany is a fairly recent time and place as to which dramatic events should be observed as they play out. We may not be looking at a period in history that shaped how the world would turn out; nor indeed are we focusing on individual events or wars that formed new nations and beliefs - rather, the focus is on a handful of people and how their own lives are shaped by the state. The Lives of Others is more of a minute piece, it has that cold and intimate feel to it; that precise sensation of something being studied and etched out playing out amidst the Soviet controlled nation that was East Germany in the not so long ago late 20th Century.
The film is ten times the piece the recent Bourne sequels are. As a film exploring the practise of eavesdropping, spying and espionage; director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck opts for the polar opposite approach by painting a very grim and ominous backdrop of the time and setting via the cinematography, and constructs his film in a slow and very precise manner. Perhaps slow is the wrong word, I'm thinking more along the lines of 'calm' and 'patient', evoking a very visceral sensation for a lot of the time that reflects the action of spying and eavesdropping: a calm and patient approach to a task that takes time.
The film is the second of recent times from German film-makers exploring Germany's past and identifying past ideologies and beliefs. The other is Die Welle (The Wave), a film that explored the fanaticism and national interest behind politics and how seemingly easy it was to install a charismatic leader, garner attention and form minority factions amongst everyone else. The Lives of Others is a piece exploring Germany's past Communist driven areas, almost the whole of the East in particular, and how power; paranoia; gradual obsession and seemingly absurd political demands can lead to fear plus the actual eventual demise of people's lives.
The film is a series of exchanges between three primary individuals; a game of power play if you will. Sebastian Koch plays Georg Dreyman, a playwright living with a certain Christa-Maria Sieland (Gedeck) in East Germany, circa 1984. After attending one of his plays and observing the goings-on, Gerd Wiesler (Mühe) is adamant the above writer is suspicious enough to warrant a number of bugs be fitted to his apartment so that spying can be carried out, and observations made. When we are first introduced to Mühe's Wiesler, a lecture he is giving to budding students of the secret police are studying the arts of interrogation; an interrogation which is being revealed in tandem with the speech as the young learners watch on. The following scene sees Wiesler himself as an audience member, watching on from the confines of a balcony as a play gets underway. The notion of watching-on is made aware early on to us, that parallel between students observing a lecture and picking up on things followed by the teacher himself observing a performance and having his suspicions is apparent.
Mühe plays Wiesler to an absolute tee. His performance feels detached from the rest of the film, but in the nicest possible way - the manner in which he plays the character gives off an uncanny sense about him, as if he has stumbled in off another production. As everyone else around him performs to whatever degree they see fit, Mühe elevates his character onto another realm; echoing what other actors such as Hopkins and Bardem did in The Silence of the Lambs and No Country for Old Men, respectively. He comes across as colder than everyone else, as if he's been beamed in from another far off place. Wiesler is extremely robotic in his actions and movement, constantly clad in grey and neutral colours and nary giving much away by way of facial expressions. The man is creepy and mechanical in movement and professionalism; he speaks in short and to-the-point sentences and phrases. There's an odd scene in which he is caught asleep during a late eavesdropping session on Dreyman and his partner by the guy on the next shift; after which he gets up, thoroughly embarrassed and somewhat ashamed that he's been caught looking like a human being.
The film will branch out into all sorts of bother for the leads, in the sense illegal publications of articles on suicides and unregistered typewriters will be the order of the day. The film touches on themes of honour and guilt as Maria gets involved a little too deeply, and certain revelations cause Wiesler himself to question where his loyalties lie. Drenched in a metallic, stone-cold look and with a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar under its belt, The Lives of Others is an interesting and brooding period piece that shines thanks to its impeccable directing, individual acting performances and menacing narrative complimenting its menacing aura.