So ok… from now on, when I see a flick or a show I’m gonna write a little something about it. The name of this editorial will be “ticket stub”. The gospel it aint, just my oppinion and a little bit of color. I’ll give the short and the long of it. The short will describe things in a way as not to devulge details because I like to see a film with almost no knowledge of the story and I don’t want to spoil it for you guys. The long will be my interpretation or oppinion.

the short:

Tonight I saw Das Leben Der Anderen or The Lives of Others, as I’m gonna call it from here on out. It is the story of life under surveilance set in the GDR at its end in the eightees. I won’t go into details about it here, but it is a tragedy, an entertaining study on empathy, desperation and compassion in the face of overwhelming suppression of a ruling class, in this case communism. If you like talking heads… If you like classics like Rear Window, The Third Man or Le Samurai or even something like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold you should check this film out… and after you do come back and read the rest of this and let me know what you thought.

the long:

Ok, so I loved it… I thought it was a great flik. The film is a true tragedy in the Shakesperean sense. I felt it was well crafted. The only thing that bothered me at times was the score. I felt like the it was a little trite and intrusive at times. The Cinematography serves the story well, and the performances seemed spot on, although I don’t speak German so I can’t be too sure about the delivery. They sold it to me, though.

I refuse to tell the whole story here, but it follows the lives of a playwright, Dreyman; his muse/lover/lead actress, Christa-Maria and the secret police officer, Weisler, who is assigned to observe them. The story gets interesting when Weisler a staunch party supporter and interrogator begins to empathize with the couple and intercede on behalf of Christa-Maria and Dreyman.

In a smart bit of metaphoric writing, Weisler becomes the director of the theatre of Dreyman and Christa-Maria’s life. His struggle mimics that of Dreyman; He subtly intercedes in the lives of these characters while unable to control his own. The producers of Weisler’s “play” are Weisler’s Stasi bosses who have their own sinister motives that mirror the unartistic motives of many an entertainment producer/exec.