Phil Mercer

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Film - The Lives of Others

 

I get invites to see films in preview on a fairly regularly basis and most are for indy or foreign productions. To start off with this frustrated me a little, but over the last couple of years I've come to recognise that some of the greatest cinema doesn't come directly from Hollywood.

Das Leben der Anderen, is one of those films.

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has managed to recreate an East Germany that those of us living on the West would never have experienced.

Everything from the colour absorbing filming to the claustrophobic locations seems to give life to something I have only read about. Interestingly from what I hear, its a very honest recreation.

As for the story itself. It sheds light on the fact that the East German government was almost more concerned that its own population shouldn't begin to fall out of line, than it was with international events.

We follow a playwright (Dreyman) and his girlfriend as they carry out what they do best. However, when a GDR Minister falls for the girlfriend so tries to complicate Dreymans life. The Stasi officer Wiesler is tasked with the job of finding out as much information about the playwright as possible, with the aim of removing him from the way of the Minister.

We follow Wiesler as he carries out what the Stasi did best. Through bugging and following him, he gets to learn everything about the man. But does he like what he sees. I wont tell you anymore.

This is one of the best films I've seen in a long time. It is slow, but builds believable characters and creates a tension that has you wondering what will happen next.

Labels: Film

# posted by Phil @ 10:44 pm

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