Reality is more cruel than movies.

Rating: 9/10 (11 April 2020)

For all The praise The world has heaped on "The lives of others," if anyone must jump up and say that "The lives of others" is a failure, it is probably The director of The former east German prison museum. Without the curator, however, the film's most important significance would not have emerged. This is a movie that must be seen in contrast, and only when you compare historical facts with the film can you still sit still, speechless and shocked after watching the movie, and understand the true cruelty.
The story is set in 1984 - not a year of choice for anyone who has read George Orwell's political fable 1984 - when the loyal and ruthless east German secret police, wiesler, after watching a play, offers to spy on the playwright derriman. Weisler's request coincides with that of the minister of culture, who has his eye on the beautiful actress krista, derriman's wife, in an attempt to find dirt through surveillance and coerce krista into satisfying his own desires. Weisler's psychology and motives are much more complex. On the one hand, he finds deraman "suspicious" because of the secret police's fearsome omnipresent sense of smell.
Weisler and another secret police officer alternated shifts to monitor the dreymans around the clock. What weisler did not expect, however, was that his humanity gradually recovered during the eavesdropping. He took a volume of brackett's poetry with him from the playwright's desk and was deeply moved by it; He burst into tears when he heard deraman's emotional piano playing on the monitor. Just as derriman began secretly and anonymously writing reports to the west German media about east German suicides, weisler chose to sacrifice his career to protect them. He sends off another police officer on duty, a man who listens in on the dreymans and fabricates surveillance reports, and ends up helping the playwright avoid a huge disaster in the middle of a crisis. Weisler was demoted to the basement as a messenger boy, and after the change, he still lived at the bottom of the social ladder as a messenger delivering free ads.
"The lives of others" swept The German awards, winning best European film, actor of The year and screenwriter of The year, and winning The Oscar for best foreign language film. Indeed, it has all the elements that the oscars love: east Germany, suspense, the resurgence of humanity, the triumph of good over evil... All in all, the story of a killer in love, an east German version of Leon, the American genre. But is this really the case? Of course, it's fair to say that weisler, who at first seems as cold as steel, is too quick and easy to turn his humanity around, and that the film's treatment of this point seems to be less than rigorous, but is it just that?
Donashmark, director and screenwriter, has been making his feature film debut at the age of 33, the lives of others, after nine years of preparation. When the film was shot, he got the help of many former east germans, and was able to film in many of the former east German government buildings. The only person who turned down his request was the director of the former east German prison museum. Why? Because, says the curator, the play is historically incorrect: throughout east German history, there were no "conscience-conscious" secret police like Mr Wiesler, sorry, none.
Yes, this is the truth of the matter, this is the most significant and powerful shock that it reveals: that the killer is not emotional, that humanity is not revived, that good does not triumph over evil. Donashmark said he wanted to show people back then that you have a choice. The truth is, no one chooses conscience. The warmer the movie, the harsher the reality. Donashmark is still too young and naive. He should have finished the film with the subtitles and told the audience that this tenderness never existed, this wish never came true. In this way, the film is complete, just, enough.