Movies About or Around Europe: "The Lives of Others"/"Das Leben Der Anderen"

Perhaps "The Lives of Others" should be a mandatory double feature with "Goodbye Lenin", which I previously reviewed. http://jensroadtoeurope.blogspot.kr/2014/08/movies-about-or-around-europe-goodbye.html While "Goodbye Lenin" shows a lighter side of the DDR, a life in transition as the wall comes down, "The Lives of Others" shows a country where ordinary people's lives can be destroyed forever by the Stasi, East Germany's state police. Perhaps you have already seen the film, since it has won many awards, including the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and was pretty much universally acclaimed when it came out. If you haven't seen it, however, here's a review of the film which comes with my highest recommendation.

"The Lives of Others" is truly one of the best films I've seen in a long time. 

The main characters are a member of the Stasi, Hauptmann (Captain) Gerd Wiesler, and the artist couple Georg and Christa Maria, whom  he's asked to run surveillance on by his friend and superior in the Stasi. The surveillance turns out to be a set-up on behalf of a high-ranking party official to get Georg out of the picture so that he can gain full access to Christa Maria, whom he's already been pressuring into a sexual relationship.Whether Georg is guilty or not isn't the point. Wiesler is charged with finding something.

What the upper officials don't account for, however, is Captain Wiesler's dedication not just to the party, but to ideas of right and wrong. He's disenchanted from the first by his friend's ambition to get ahead, regardless of the truth. He also appears to be immediately quite personally attracted to Christa Maria, which leads him to look out for her and intervene in her life. At one point in the story he uses information he's discovered about her personality through surveillance to convince her to return to Georg, rather than meeting the party official who's been sexually pressuring her. After his successful intervention, and the resulting happiness of the couple, Wiesler's interest in their lives only grows, and he is drawn deeper into a world of shades of gray and farther from his purpose as a Stasi official.

Captain Wiesler begins to become less strict in carrying out his duties in general, as he's exposed to Georg's private life.

Wiesler is also particularly sensitive to beauty, as in one scene where he appears to be transported by Georg's piano-playing heard through his surveillance headphones. The film's director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, told the New York Times that his initial inspiration for the film was the idea of just such a scene where a Stasi officer would overhear a supposed enemy of the state making music and be moved by it. In the film, Wiesel is also shown "borrowing" and quite enjoying one of Georg's books, a work by Brecht. These artistic connections between Wiesel and Georg create a thread of hope and light throughout the film, that creation and beauty may really trump forces of destruction.

Georg plays a piano song to release his emotions with unimagined effects on Captain Wiesel, who listens in secret. 

This was an exceedingly moving film, and I am sure I will watch it again at some point. The characters are well-drawn and fully human. The plot is involving but not at all rushed. The themes are universal and relevant, and surveillance is certainly not a relic of the past. I think this film is also a great introduction to the dark side of the DDR, though some critics have pointed out that the situation portrayed in the film perhaps would have been impossible, since Stasi officials were generally watched by other Stasi officials or operated in teams. Whether or not it is strictly historically accurate, however, it is true to human nature while also being forgiving of our collective weaknesses and hopeful about our future. This combination is rarer than it should be. I recommend seeing this movie as soon as possible!

*On one final note - I've reached 70 days of consecutive French and German study as of today. I'm happy to say, also, that in the 2 weeks or so since my last German film viewing, I've noticed a large increase in the amount of German which I can understand without the subtitles. I'm understanding whole sentences at times, and I'm getting more words in other sentences. It's really quite encouraging!