Well done!

Rating: 8/10 (19 July 2006)

Before I saw this movie I watched a discussion on TV between the director Donnersmarck and an Eastern German actor (Henry Hübchen). Hübchen had accused Donnersmarck of having directed an American tearjerker instead of doing an authentic film on how it was to live in a state where you were being watched 24/7. The discussion on TV was quite arduous and I recall Donnersmarck calling Hübchen a hypocrite. So, when I went to watch this movie I bore in mind the discussion I had seen on TV and I looked out for Hollywoodish elements in the film.
My conclusion: Hübchen is not all together wrong. The way Donnersmarck arranged the film it at times seems overly dramatic to me and I have a hunch that Donnersmarck was trying to turn this film into some sort of Greek tragedy, where everything leads up to the final scene in which the Gedeck character is killed/ commits suicide. I imagine that being spied on in the GDR (German Democratic Republik) was devastating and terrifying (especially for an artist) but I don't think that the film itself was very realistic. Don't get me wrong, I loved the movie, it was beautifully conceived and acted out well, but all the time I thought I was watching a tragedy written by Racine or Corneille and turned into a movie by Donnersmarck.
On the other hand, I disagree with Hübchen. I think a film as good as this deserves every appraisal it can get because if once you see a good German film you have to cut the filmmaker some slack for minor slips as long as the film is entertaining. And this film is entertaining. I enjoyed every scene of it and I was immediately seized by the suspense and thrill of it. So thank you, Mister Donnersmarck for a good German film and keep em coming.