The Lives of Others

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The Lives of Others
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Produced by Max Wiedemann
Quirin Berg
Written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Starring Ulrich Mühe
Martina Gedeck
Sebastian Koch
Ulrich Tukur
Music by Gabriel Yared
Stephane Moucha
Cinematography Hagen Bogdanski
Editing by Patricia Rommel
Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics (USA)
Buena Vista International (German-speaking areas)
Lions Gate Films (UK)
Release date(s)
Flag of Germany March 23, 2006
Flag of United StatesFebruary 9, 2007
Flag of AustraliaMarch 29, 2007
Flag of United KingdomApril 11, 2007
Running time 137 min
Country Germany
Language German
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Lives of Others (original title in German: Das Leben der Anderen) is an Academy Award-winning German movie, marking the feature film debut of director/screenwriter Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, along with seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards including best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor and best supporting actor, after having set a new record with 11 nominations. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Golden Globe Awards.

The thriller/drama is about the cultural scene of East Berlin, monitored by secret agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief officer Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as his lover Christa-Maria Sieland.

The film was released in Germany on March 23, 2006. At the same time the screenplay was published by Suhrkamp Verlag.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

In 1984 East Germany, Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, a heart-felt supporter of the communist regime, is assigned to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman, who is suspected of Western leanings. Stasi agents secretly enter Dreyman's apartment in order to install small microphones in the wall sockets, and cables in the walls, which connect the microphones to an attic space above the apartment, where Wiesler and an assistant take turns monitoring the activity below 24 hours a day, typing a report with anything they hear that might be relevant. A neighbor who happens to observe the agents is told that if she reveals their presence her daughter will lose her spot at university.

Wiesler soon finds out that the real reason why Dreyman is being spied on is that a minister and member of the Party's Central Committee is attracted to Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria; if Dreyman is arrested the minister will have free rein. This destroys Wiesler's motivation.

Dreyman is a supporter of the regime, but dislikes the way dissidents are treated. When Jerska, an artist friend commits suicide because he has been blacklisted for several years, Dreyman publishes anonymously in West Germany an article on suicide rates in the GDR: while it publishes detailed statistics on many things, since the 70s it does not publish any statistics on suicide rates, presumably because they are embarrassingly high. Because all typewriters are required to be registered, Dreyman uses a separate typewriter with a red ribbon for this, and hides it under the floor in his apartment. Before Dreyman and his friends discuss sensitive issues in Dreyman's apartment they test whether it is bugged: they pretend that there will be a secret transport in the trunk of a car of someone to the West. Later they conclude that the apartment is not bugged, because the car is not searched. Unbeknownst to them, that is only because Wiesler has temporarily taken pity on them and had not understood that the discussion was in fact a test.

Wiesler's empathy for the writer and his girlfriend having grown as time went on, he lies in his reports to protect Dreyman. Also, at his proposal, the 24-hours-a-day listening to what the microphones pick up is reduced, so that he no longer has to share the work with his more objective assistant.

Meanwhile, the minister had ordered for spying on Christa-Maria and she is arrested for drug abuse. Terrified, she turns Dreyman in. The house is searched for contraband by security officials, but the typewriter is not found. Wiesler is called in to interrogate Christa-Maria. She breaks down and tells where the typewriter is hidden. Wiesler leaves quickly and later enters Dreyman's apartment before the police reaches there. He carries out the typewriter.

During a second search, in the presence of Christa-Maria, when the hiding place of the typewriter is about to be opened, Christa-Maria walks away in shame, throws herself in front of a truck. The secret hiding place is opened, but is found empty. A helpless Wiesler who is watching the events just outside the apartment, tries to tell Christa that he has the typewriter, but can't complete his words. Dreyman arrives at the scene and Christa-Maria dies in his hands. As a result the surveillance operation becomes pointless: Wiesler's superior, Anton Grubitz, calls it off and distrusting Wiesler, ensures the end of his career. He threatens that Wiesler will have to spend atleast twenty years opening letters. The newspaper lying in the front seat of Wiesler's car announces that Gorbachev is the new Party Secretary of the Soviet Union. Wiesler is demoted to Department M, where he tediously steams open letters all day. Four years and seven months later, Wiesler is steam opening letters when a man listening to the radio behind him says that the Berlin Wall has just fallen.

At the end of the film, after German reunification, Dreyman encounters a former minister and asks him why his apartment was not bugged. The minister tells that it was, he should check the wall sockets. Indeed, Dreyman finds microphones and cables. He finds the truth further while searching his file in Stasi's archives: while Wiesler heard Dreyman and his friends conducting anti-regime activities (such as the writing of the suicide article), Wiesler did not report those things in his voluminous typed notes; instead, he (Wiesler) falsely wrote that Dreyman was writing a play on Lenin, a topic the regime would have approved. Next to the final page of notes is a red smudge, the same red ink that Dreyman used in his secret typewriter. Dreyman notes the code name "HGW XX/7" in all reports and finds out the real identity of Wiesler. He finds out the location of Wiesler and pursues him in a taxi, watching Wiesler delivering leaflets. He gets out of the car with the intention of meeting him, but changes his mind and gets back into the car.

Two years later, Dreyman publishes a novel named "Sonata for a Good Man". Dreyman still does not approach Wiesler. By chance, Wiesler sees the book in a bookstore, and finds that it is dedicated to "HGW XX/7" (Wiesler's Stasi codename). When Wiesler buys the book and the vendor asks him if he should package it as a present, Wiesler responds: "No. It's for me."

[edit] Awards and Nominations

[edit] Festival Screenings

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ KPN Audience Award. filmfestivalrotterdam.com. Retrieved on 4 Feb 2007.

[edit] Literature & Music

  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-45786-1
  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Geschwärzte Ausgabe. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-518-45908-2
  • A piano sonata ("Sonata for a Good Man") is used as the main transformation point of the Stasi Agent Gerd Wiesler. In the film, the score doesn't carry the name of the composer, as it is original music written for the film by Gabriel Yared.

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Tsotsi		 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2006		 Succeeded by
n/a
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