One of the best films of the last decade

Rating: 9/10 (22 February 2010)

I've read this film compared to Coppolla's The Conversation, both favourably and unfavourably, on the discussion boards here. It should be noted that the two films bear only superficial similarities, mainly that the protagonists are middle-aged surveillance operatives who get involved with a case.
However the styles are very different. The Conversation is a classic, and magnificent, piece of 1970s US paranoia-thriller, the best kind of film which came out of Hollywood in that decade of scandal that signified for many, the death of the American dream. Das Leben der Anderen is an equally intelligent and artful film, but one (from what I can gather) typical of modern German cinema, drenched in a sadness about its past, featuring strong themes of divided loyalties and moral dilemmas, but hopeful (unlike Coppola's film) about the future. Less suspenseful and pacey than The Conversation, this is a tale that gives a human face to the victims of the Stasi in East Germany, and, although it keeps you on the edge of your seat, is more of a drama, more sentimental in tone.
A wonderful film, its magic is in the feeling it generates in you for its characters, and the almost gentle tragedy that unfolds. A serious, well made and superbly (that should be underlined: superbly) acted film that isn't ashamed to tug at the heartstrings a little. Small wonder it won the Oscar for best film of 2006: I can't imagine a better film was made anywhere that year.