The Lives of Others

Engagingly shot and I think it faithfully portrays all the negative aspects of the police state, but otherwise I have one big problem with this film. I did not believe at all the transformation of a heartless spook into the essence of virtue, who even sheds a tear to the sound of moving music, and the ending with the "dedication" falls somewhere into the realm of unbelievability and incomprehensibility. But thanks to the sensitive direction, the almost two and a half hours were easily digestible, even though the dialogues and the whole concept of the story were a bit daft. (07/27/2011)

Gorgeous - and damn depressing - example of how the previous regime worked and how it managed to destroy people. It catered to perverts, specific perverts, who enjoyed watching others. Well, this era favors perverts again. Everything has its charm, but this is wonderfully filmed and presented, and it will shake you. Power is destructive, and you don't want to be in the sights of the mighty. (04/08/2016)

In recent years German cinema has been making massive efforts and every year it manages to produce one or two really high quality pictures. The Lives of Others is just such a picture, mainly thanks to the topic they deal with. The very first scene when the theory of interrogating “subversives" is cut with a real interrogation is great. It is in these scenes where we learn how the Stasi worked and what methods it used that the picture is at its most powerful. Unfortunately, the makers relatively soon abandon this and continue in the style of a classic drama, not getting back onto the same rails we wanted the whole picture to run on until toward the end. I found the Gerd Wiesler character bewildering. Although Ulrich Mühe does a very good job, somehow I couldn’t understand from the movie why he starts behaving how he behaves from the very beginning of the interrogation and what motives led him to behave that way. Why does an unfeeling interrogation machine turn become a “good person"? From persuasion and realization, for love in just because he has the power? If I hadn’t read the official distributor’s text, I wouldn’t even know (and in my opinion what the distributor claims isn’t in the movie). Despite all of the above shortcomings, this is a picture worth watching. Although a chamber piece, it isn’t boring and it’s very well acted by all concerned. Added to that it has really effective music and camera, which shoots everything with faded and cold tones of color which is really atmospheric. In the end, this is almost a classic bugging thriller set in an interesting environment. But still I can’t help feeling that if the makers had kept the whole movie on the same wave as it was at the beginning, we would be looking at a much better movie altogether. But this way it isn’t at all disappointing, quite the opposite. (01/20/2007)

It was no gripping and moving experience, but this film following true events from a difficult, tension-ridden time does have its power, and the credit goes mainly to the superb performances. I always thought the Germans were completely plankish as actors, but this film has a bunch of people who really know how to act. The story is not very interesting, but it’s very well filmed and will make you await eagerly for the final reveal. I don’t think it’s brilliant work of art, but its concept beats many more famous spy films. (02/29/2012)

The lives of the latter struck me as incredibly emotional at the end, and I am thus able to forgive them for some of their minor ills (playing the piano with the line "How could anyone who really hears this be a bad person?" for example). The arts are really what suffered the most under the Red Pigs, and this film for me quite accurately conveys the paranoid atmosphere that intellectuals with talent had to live in at that time. This film should be required to be shown in schools, although I don't think anything can move a moron. Ulrich Mühe played one of the saddest characters I've seen in a long time. I really applaud him. (04/12/2010)