The Lives of Others Movie Review

The Lives of Others [Das Leben der Anderen] (2006)

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Written by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Directed by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring: Ulrich Mühe, Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch
Rated: R
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Plot
In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Verdict
What an amazing movie that triumphs in small but significant reveals. Despite a totalitarian regime, there are still ways to rebel. The agent thought he was backing a worthwhile cause, but through petty retaliation and insight into a playwright's life he decides to help someone he's been tasked with condemning. He realizes the assignment is a ploy for vengeance, and the exposure to art moves him. As the movie states, hope always remains. That can't even begin to cover how amazing this movie is; a study on isolation, compassion, and oppression. The conclusion is absolutely amazing, as understated as the rest of the movie yet incredibly moving. This is in a class by itself, and it's unfortunate that subtitles will dissuade many.
Watch It.

Review
The setting is Germany in the 80s where secret police, the Stasi, spy on citizens. Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is showing a class an interrogation, talking about how to determine guilt and innocence as he replays the tape. The suspect has been interrogated for hours, and Wiesler tells the class that innocent people get mad. The guilty get quiet and cry. That's how he knows this man is guilty. That and his story hasn't changed. As the viewer, I question that logic. The suspect provided a name, but is it true?

This operates under the guise that everyone is a suspect and thus all guilty. That Stasi can surveil anyone, any house. Wiesler is tasked with bugging playwright Dreyman's apartment, though Dreyman seems loyal to the party. I wondered if the regime distrusted artists in general, but the reason is that the minister, Hempf, is interested in Dreyman's girlfriend. He wants to remove the competition. Wiesler's colleague sees it as a career opportunity, but Wiesler didn't join for petty grievances. Dreyman's girlfriend Christa is in an impossible situation. If she rebuffs Hempf he can have her and all her friends arrested. She cold lose everything or subject her self to the coercion.

Ulrich Mühe plays Wiesler

Through Dreyman's friend Jerska, we get a glimpse of what it's like to be blacklisted, the despair and resignation. Dreyman could easily be facing that fate if the Stasi find anything. Wiesler spends so much time observing others that he has no life. We've seen more life in Dreyman's apartment than Wiesler's.

Neither Dreyman nor Christa are in control of their lives. The Stasi drive or undermine everything they do. Wiesler intervenes in the surveillance in an attempt to reveal Hempf's relationship to Dreyman. Was it an attempt to end an assignment he knows is a farce? Does Wiesler feel sympathy, knowing the investigation is unfounded? Wiesler watches, or rather listens, to this relationship. He has nothing comparable, consumed by work. In every scene Wiesler is isolated, alone in blank spaces. Dreyman is surrounded by art, people, and friends. Dreyman unknowingly introduces Wiesler to art and poetry. Wiesler looses faith in the investigation and even the mission at large. It doesn't matter as Hempf wants evidence. Wiesler questions the job.

This movie is so small yet derives such tension in these moment where so much happens between the words and scenes. Dreyman urges Christa not to see Hempf, but she tells them they're no different. They're both in bed with the government out of safety, self-preservation, and fear. Dreyman is spurred to action as his writing is constrained, his girlfriend coerced, and his friend now dead. With friends Dreyman fakes a plan to see if he's monitored. When nothing happens, as Wiesler doesn't call it in, Dreyman assumes he is not. Wiesler is invested. Dreyman's poetry book Brecht and Jarska's sonata was enough to push him over the edge when he knows this case is bogus. He's not going to trap an innocent man. Wiesler has saved Dreyman, but now he must continue this double agent act to cover for Dreyman. Dreyamn writes an article excoriating the regime. While the bosses have no proof, they know it's Dreyman and question how Wiesler missed it. He's so far in that he must keep covering for Dreyman or risk his own career.

Sebastian Koch plays Dreyman

The thing about this foreign movie is that so many people won't watch something with subtitles. Even past that, it's difficult to imagine a world like this despite widespread surveillance in America.

We get this moment when the Stasi search Dreyman's apartment. He knows they're going to find evidence against him. It's the end and he knows it, except the typewriter isn't there. Wiesler moved it; to protect Dreyman and to a lesser degree to protect himself. Wiesler can't see this man imprisoned.

The wall falls, and that's the end of surveillance. Dreyman discovers he was surveilled despite his assumptions. He's able to obtain the extensive surveillance footage. Reading through it he realizes Wiesler saved his life. This movie has so many small but significant reveals. Its subtlety is a strength. This culminates in an amazing final scene punctuated by Wiesler's line, "It's for me." which contains so much depth, a hallmark of the movie. The final scene leaves an indelible mark long after the movie concludes.