Remarkable film-making; Muhe and Koche are excellent

Rating: 10/10 (4 April 2008)

THE LIVES OF OTHERS is a work that puts your faith back into the film-making of today. Nearly every component is perfect- acting, direction, writing, editing, music and more. I am sure that it will become a modern classic, and it is certainly one of the strongest films produced this decade.
Muhe is brilliant as a Eadt German Stasi official who becomes emotionally involved with the suspects (a playwright and his actress lover) he is spying on. Muhe has very little dialogue in the film, and much of his acting is done with facial expression, reaction and small movements. He is superb. Sebastian Koch, who also did an excellent job in BLACK BOOK, is marvellous as the playwright, capturing his intelligence, anguish and eventual discovery. All the other cast members also put in great work- as I said earlier, the acting is near perfect.
The final twenty minutes or so are shattering, and Muhe's last look at the camera (the closing shot of the film) is haunting and entirely appropriate.