Who's listening?

Rating: 10/10 (1 January 2008)

It is rare to see a film that is so totally convincing as Das Leben der Anderen.
The movie focuses on Stasi agent Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), and the wiretapping of Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), a famed author, and actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck).
The whole film from the architecture to the furniture is beautifully bought to life.
But much more than that is the sense of menace through the banal that the film draws you into.
Extraordinary performances by all involved, wonderfully understated and suppressed and controlled, and the overall washed-out tones add to the surreality of a world whether you are either a listener or listened to.
A perfect paranoia for all involved the film unfolds and builds with a tremendous sense of pace. For a film this long it is beautifully handled.
Of course, the film is about the need for freedom, but that sells it way short; perhaps, it is more truthfully a film about good in unexpected places.
Definitely deserves its Oscar: one of the outstanding films of German cinema, and for my money the best German film since Das Boot and Run Lola, Run.
Hugely recommended.