Submitted by cinemascope on Tue, 2007-05-01 13:33. :: Cinemascope 5
Movie title:
The Lives Of Others
Starring:
Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme
Directed by:
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Written by:
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Genre:
Thiller
Year:
2007
Country:
Germany
Language:
German
Runtime:
2 hours and 17 minutes
Imdb:
Rating:
Synopsis
East Berlin, 1984. Secret Service (Stasi) agent Gerd Wiesler (Muhe) is assigned to spy on Party-faithful playwright Georg Dreyman (Koch) and his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland (Gedeck), little realising that his mission has been ordered by Culture Minister Hempf (Thieme), who wants to disgrace the playwright and have an affair with the actress. During the course of his surveillance, Wiesler, previously unquestioning in his allegiance to the Party and to the Stasi and its methods, finds his attitudes increasingly thawed through his observations of the minutiae of the couple and their lives.
East Berlin, 1984. Secret Service (Stasi) agent Gerd Wiesler (Muhe) is assigned to spy on Party-faithful playwright Georg Dreyman (Koch) and his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland (Gedeck), little realising that his mission has been ordered by Culture Minister Hempf (Thieme), who wants to disgrace the playwright and have an affair with the actress. During the course of his surveillance, Wiesler, previously unquestioning in his allegiance to the Party and to the Stasi and its methods, finds his attitudes increasingly thawed through his observations of the minutiae of the couple and their lives.
Review
A truly outstanding debut film from von Donnersmarck, who dropped out of film school without graduating in order to make this movie. A fascinating insight into life behind the Berlin Wall and under the ever-watchful eyes of the formidable Stasi, what von Donnersmarck manages to achieve is a movie that deals with powerful emotional journeys through a mise en scene of cold precision, with clinical, minimal, editing and photography of drab interiors, and an elegant score by Gabriel Yared. This coolness of technique gives even greater emphasis to the moments of trickling, warming emotion as Stasi agent Wiesler is gradually exposed to the passionate lives of the subjects of his surveillance. All the performances are good, but special mention must go to Martina Gedeck for a performance of sensuality and raw emotion, and to the quite superb Ulrich Muhe as the cold fish agent Wiesler: much of the movie relies on the subtlest registers of emotion while he eavesdrops on the couple, and Muhe's performance is a masterclass in restraint and quiet power. One of the year's best films.
A truly outstanding debut film from von Donnersmarck, who dropped out of film school without graduating in order to make this movie. A fascinating insight into life behind the Berlin Wall and under the ever-watchful eyes of the formidable Stasi, what von Donnersmarck manages to achieve is a movie that deals with powerful emotional journeys through a mise en scene of cold precision, with clinical, minimal, editing and photography of drab interiors, and an elegant score by Gabriel Yared. This coolness of technique gives even greater emphasis to the moments of trickling, warming emotion as Stasi agent Wiesler is gradually exposed to the passionate lives of the subjects of his surveillance. All the performances are good, but special mention must go to Martina Gedeck for a performance of sensuality and raw emotion, and to the quite superb Ulrich Muhe as the cold fish agent Wiesler: much of the movie relies on the subtlest registers of emotion while he eavesdrops on the couple, and Muhe's performance is a masterclass in restraint and quiet power. One of the year's best films.
