The Lives of Others [DVD] [2006]

1984 is an inauspicious date for the setting of this fine movie about the East German autocracy. Whereas films like 'Goodbye Lenin' inspired a trend of nostalgia (coined as OSTalgia) for the GDR, 'The Life of Others' paints a more realistic picture. In a thoughtful, humane work, Stasi captain Gerd Wiesler is given a surveillance mission to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman and his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland. Weisler is an unquestioning party loyalist and cog in the Stasi machinery who takes pleasure in his thorough and exacting approach to such a mission. A dilligent professional, he is certainly not a sadist, but simply an automaton who divests emotional responsibility in the careful pursuit of his work. There is a brilliant early scene at the theatre where he is given his mission. Sitting in the Gods you are made privvy to the global perspective of a surveillance expert, the professional pleasure in his cold assessment of the situation. However, in a plot with shades of Francis Ford Copolla's masterpiece The Conversation, he find himself slowly drawn to the couple and ultimately implicated in their fate. Although it could also be suggested that there is a hint of 'Rear Window' about the story, Weisler's gradual softening of perspective is less Hitchcock-style obsession or voyeurism but rather about a lonely man warmed vicariously by the live and loves of others (hence the title).Georg and Christa-Maria's existence is one (un)governed by the senses, by friendship and romance. Their flat is warmly photographed as a haven of free expression, of literature, music and art. By contrast Weisler returns to his spartan appartment with only state propagandist television for company or entertainment. Furthermore, the soft warm tones of the couple's home is shown in stark opposition to Weisler's austere attic surveillance center, itself drained of almost all colour. Weisler chalks a map of the couples' flat on the bare floorboards of the gloomy attic, further illustrating his immersion in their lives but also his isolation from it. Brilliantly cast, Ulrich Mühe's Weisler has the emotionally fridgid and dispassionate features of a lobotomised Kevin Spacey. As his heart thaws, his expression softens in the subtlest of degrees, his marble eyes acquiring a human liquidity. In one scene, when Weisler weeps to the sound of Georg playing the piano, a tear erupts from his unchanged face as if the ice within him has melted. His emotional distance is also emphasised in another starkly lit scene in which Weisler has a brutally perfuntary encounter with a prostitute who makes it clear his time is on the meter. It's a understated masterpiece that - despite its sinister and ultimately tragic themes - doesn't resort to explicit violence or melodrama. It is also given levity by the subtlety of Ulrich Mühe's performance, and the humanity of the ending, which I won't spoil by divulging here.

Everything about this film achieves perfection. The oppressive political regime is cleverly portrayed through a combination of the lack of speed and lightness in the interactions, even the furniture and scenery feels heavy. The weight of this stillness is portrayed in the face and movement of characters, most notably the Stasi Officer who dominates this film.Not for a single moment do we forget that all of the characters fear that the state has complete control over all, that no one is safe, and scrutiny can and does fall upon anyone without any provocation.In the midst of this tension, artists struggle to achieve their potential and to maintain integrity. We quickly have the impression that it seems natural to maintain a certain level of distrust in intimate relationships, as the Stasi have ways of threatening what is held most dear to an individual if they want information to be given or kept from somebody.Watching this film feels experiential somehow. The multiple levels of the story transition seamlessly as we move between the mindset of those who seem to believe in and promote the regime, and those who are seeking to enjoy the relationships with those around them whilst protecting their rights to achieve and even to work. We understand more about how toxic and pervasive this is by the way the actress CM forces herself to comply with the vile actions of the official who pursues her. The understated script and direction of her character, as well as that of her playwright boyfriend when he learns of and addresses it tells us more powerfully of the complete control of the state than any loud and voluble outpouring of emotion could be. Both characters epitomise dignity within despair.I haven't said much about the Stasi officer. His storyline illustrates the power of art to transform belief. In a few simple shots of him eating alone and his bureaucratic diligence when seeking to observe others, we understand him to be a lonely character. We begin to appreciate his developing sense of connection to his subjects, and see that he seems to care. Music and literature have a role in his awakening humanity. It is the treatment of the actress by his senior which appears to shift the ground from under his feet. We see that his ethical core has awakened and shifted.I am not going to detail the closing half hour of the film so that others may enjoy the inevitability of events unfolding.....we begin to appreciate how his actions to protect begin to inadvertently cause harm...and we see that his transformation begins to threaten his position and status. This actor was perfectly case. His face is especially haunting in one particular shot. Very very powerful.I have to say, as it is so very rarely achieved, that this film has a truly perfect ending.