The Lives of Others

Tonight, I met up with my class, and we watched a foreign film. We watched, THE LIVES OF OTHERS. It was really good! I was able to read a review of the movie before hand. It was in THE NEW YORKER. This review was written in 2007, but it was a good review. The author Anthony Lane wrote about the story line. It is essentually about Germans, who are controlling the society in which this movie takes place, 1984. It takes place in East Berlin. During this time, The Stasi - the state security service has been sneaking into homes and putting all the homes under survaillence. They are spying on the people who live in these homes, because the people are doing something suspicious that is causing them to be questioned by the secerity service. It's really interesting.

MY REVIEW:

I am very picky about foreign films. I love to watch them when I get the chance. I enjoy movies like: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero, House of Flying Daggers, Amale, and many others. It's sometimes hard to find a good film that is worth watching...sometimes foreign films don't have a good story line, or other times the acting in the movies are just horrible. NOT in this case. THE LIVES OF OTHERS is a great film, and was very well acted. I really liked Ulrich Muhe. He played a Stasi agent who spies on a playwright and his actress girlfriend. The playwright who is being spied on, because the security service believes that he is writing a play that is not allowed and that will cause much controversy.

I really enjoyed this film, because the story line was so accurate and detailed. There was conflict, stuggle between characters, and great character development. The Stasi agent who spies on the couple, is a great character. He truly does not want to do harm. I believe at first he does, because he is indeed doing his job, however, as the movies progresses, I see this transformation that occurs to him. He doesn't want to hurt anyone, and he falls in love with Christa the actress, in the sense that he realizes through her, that the people they are spying on are just like themself. They are pround people who love their home, culture, and are proud to be German. I think that he does what he does in the movie, to help secure the "true good" of Berlin. He is a corky guy, who as well "acts" his part, but may not truly believe what he has to do.

The whole movie was wonderful, I have no bad things to say. The directing was amazing! The story line didn't leave anyone out of the loop or guessing. Everything was very detailed, and in the end leaves the audience thinking.

I love movies that are thought provoking, and that give the audience something to think about and to discuss. We really start to think about how lucky we as humans, as Americans, have it. I give this film 4 stars! :)