THE LIVES OF OTHERS

Germany, 2006, 137 minutes, Colour.
Ulrich Muehe, Sebastian Koch, Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme.
Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck.

This is a particularly fine film.

Winner of many European awards, it also received the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film. It received a SIGNIS (World Catholic Association for Communication) award as well.

This is a first feature film from a young German, Florian, who spent some years researching East Germany’s Stasi and the history of the German Democratic Republic. He sets his story in 1984-1985, just before the election of Mikhail Gorbachev and his change of Soviet policy, Glasnost. Within five years, the Berlin wall would come down and soon after Germany would be reunified. This is an intensely dramatic period in post-war German history.

Western audiences do not see many films set in the Democratic Republic. During the 1960s, there were many spy thrillers set in Berlin which were exciting but seemed fantasy-like for those who did not live through those experiences. There were such titles as The Ipcress File, Funeral in Berlin (both with Michael Caine as agent Harry Palmer), The Quiller Memorandum. The Cold War was particularly freezing in that part of Eastern Europe.

German cinema in recent years has been trying to come to terms with its history both during the war and after. There have been many films examining the German conscience and looking again at the Nazis and also at the Holocaust. Two years ago, Downfall was released, a portrait of Hitler as both human and monstrous.

Recently, there was a popular film about the end of the Communist era, Goodbye, Lenin. However, there are some commentators in Germany who fear that many now look back at the era of the Democratic Republic with some nostalgia, as if it were a happier, more simple and more secure time. The Lives of Others is a sobering reminder that this may have been a surface impression but that it was not the case.

The prologue to the film shows the bureaucrat Hans Weisler interrogating a prisoner suspected of knowing who aided his neighbour escape to the West. Weisler has taped his long sessions and plays them for a lecture he is giving to potential interrogators, analysing the responses of the prisoner and pointing out details of the techniques developed to get to the truth.

This is a film about Weisler, a dedicated, rather lonely and humourless official, respected by his superiors, but someone who seems to have reached his peak as a relentless interrogator. He is put in charge of an operation to try to find something damning in the life of East Germany’s most successful playwright who is living with the republic’s leading actress. The whole apartment is systematically bugged with 24 hour listening, especially by Weisler.

So, the audience is involved in two worlds. First, the world of the government minister, who has a roving eye on the actress, and wants more information against the playwright. We are reminded that basic and base human nature does not change even for a demanding socialist ideology. Second, the world of the artists who experience some cultural and political repression and who look to the west for support, even to the smuggling out of critical articles for Der Spiegel.

The focus of the film is a transition in Weisler who believes that people don’t change. He listens in to the life of the artists. He listens to music and Brecht’s poetry, opening up imagination and feelings he was unaware of. As his demanding immediate superior puts on pressure, he is faced with moral dilemmas of loyalty to a cause and human decency. Weisler’s is quite a moral journey.

Ulrich Muhe is mesmerising as Weisler. He is often stone-faced and expressionless but communicates powerfully the thoughts and feelings that he is experiencing. For us, an excellent and mature experience.

1.The impact of the film? Its Oscar, many awards?

2.A German production, the memories of Germany, of East Germany? The conscience about East Germany? For a 21st century audience?

3.The re-creation of 1984-85, the East German cities, drabness, offices, Stasi officers, the theatre, the parks etc? The musical score, the various moods? Authentic?

4.The Stasi and their role in East Germany, their history, the many operatives, getting information, wanting to know everything about all citizens, ways of spying, giving information, the records and the way they were kept, the nature of surveillance, the personnel, the bugging of apartments? Typed reports, discussions, arrests, cruel interrogations, torture? The discussion of methods?

5.The introduction and Wiesler? The discussions with Grubitz? Going to the theatre, the bonds between them, their memories, twenty years, their study together, their later careers and the differences? The play, seeing Dreyman, Christa Maria Sieland and her performance? The performance itself, the Soviet style of staging? (The later seeing of the play with the modernistic style?) Minister Hempf? The setting up of the tensions between these characters?

6.Hempf, his silent driver and assistant? His wanting to see the actress, the beginning of the affair, her response, going with him, her personal insecurities about acting, about the relationship, not telling Dreyman? Her being at the social, at home? In the car with the minister, his lascivious behaviour? The appointments and the deadline, the discussions with Dreyman, breaking the appointment, going into the café, the discussion with Wiesler and his advising her? The minister’s revenge, surveillance, her arrest, interrogation and torture, her giving information, the record on the list as her being a spy? Dreyman and the minister later meeting – and Dreyman’s disgust with him?

7.Grubitz, his work, his position, information, his self-confidence, his ingratiating himself with the minister, the bugging of Dreyman’s apartment, getting Wiesler to do the surveillance? His interviews with people, in the workplace, uniform, civilian dress, discussions with Wiesler? The reaction to the article, questioning Wiesler? The raids, not finding the typewriter? Wiesler to interrogate the actress, Grubitz’s suspicions, his arrival to get the typewriter the second time, its being absent? The death of the actress? The confrontation with Wiesler, demoting him? A portrait of a career type? The irony of listening to the jokes about Monica and relegating with worker to steaming letters? The background of his being a lecturer, doctorates and theses, the categories of creative artists? His final revenge?

8.Dreyman and his life, his friends, the play and its performance, his pleasure, arrogance, the party? His birthday party, the cake, the variety of guests? At home, his relationship with Christa Maria? Love for her? His going to see the director, their discussions, the blacklisting of the director and his not being able to use that term? The director at the party, alone? The lecturer and his friendship, critique? The director’s suicide? The gathering information about suicides, the lack of statistics? The building up to the writing of the article? The visitors from West Berlin? Their testing out the surveillance – and Dreyman believing he was not under surveillance? The final knowledge of the truth about Christa, his plea to her, her arrest? Her knowing about the typewriter? Getting the article to the west, its publication, reactions? Seeing the West German television news? His friends and the discussions? Grubitz and the search, interrogating Christa Maria, Wiesler and the information, Wiesler getting the typewriter? The irony of Dreyman not knowing this? The fall of the Berlin Wall, the aftermath, Dreyman going to the records, the huge files, reading the information about himself, knowing that Wiesler falsified the records, a play about Lenin instead of the article? The search for Wiesler, finding him, watching but not speaking to him? His realising what Wiesler had done – and dedicating his book to him with thanks?

9.Dreyman’s friends, the lecture, their stances, the blacklisting of the director, his suicide, the visitors from the west?

10.Wiesler as a person, his age, alone, rigidity, methods of interrogation, his lectures, his sense of duty, his efficiency in bugging the apartment, the constant listening? His listening to Dreyman and Christa Maria, the sexual behaviour (and his own interlude with the prostitute)? Listening to the music, to Brecht’s poetry, Dreyman’s comments about anybody listening truly to these and not being changed? His decision, discussions with Grubitz, his disgust with the minister’s behaviour? The other member of the surveillance team, his being late, listening in, the reports? Wiesler and his change, saying that it was a play being written and not the article, his visit to the café, the discussion with Christa Maria? His being caught by Grubitz, having to interrogate Christa Maria, the map, his going to take the typewriter, watching from the street, Christa Maria’s death, the bloodstain on the report? His being relegated to steaming open letters, the years passing, the postman? Seeing the advertisement for Dreyman’s book, the dedication, buying it for himself? A portrait of personal transformation?

11.The methods, repressive, Soviet style, Soviet socialism, ideology and loyalty, the collapse, the Berlin Wall and its effect?

12.The meaning of the name Anderen, the Others? The Stasi and the Others? The socialist attitudes? The German Republic, the elite and their power, the use of power, the use of privilege? People’s rights? Suspicions – for instance Dreyman’s neighbour and her fears, the threats about her daughter? People in a state of fear giving information? A 21st century perception on this history?