Das Leben von Anderen
Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Staatsicherheit.
Staatsicherheit who?
DO NOT JOKE ABOUT STAATSICHERHEIT, IT IS TREASONOUS TO THE SOCIALIST ORDER.
*ahem* My own bad jokes notwithstanding, The Lives of Others is, in fact, a really good movie about the dreaded Staatsicherheit or Stasi forces that turned neighbors into informers against anyone with pro-West views.
Since it won the 2006 Academy Award for Foreign Language film in an upset over Pan’s Labyrinth (another very good film), this is hardly news, but it’s worth mentioning that Lives of Others is in DVD now, and they had two copies at the Movie Gallery by my apartment, so there’s no more excuses for not seeing it.
Set in East Germany in 1985, The Lives of Others is the story of a playwright, his actress girlfriend, Christa, the government official who falls for Christa, and the Stasi officer assigned to up dirt on the playwright in hopes of getting him out of the way.
The Lives of Others excels at moments of unbelievable tension, incredible tragedy, and, in the end, some degree of redemption — perhaps the most surprising feature for a German film.
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Thanks for posting this — I’ve been thinking lately “what was the name of the movie about the Stasi Dagny and I talked about seeing?” Now I can just refer here to remember.
On another foreign film note — I started watching Babette’s Feast (again) this week. Still have to find time to finish it — I’m just up to the time of the Feast. Good movie.
1 majorloony said this (September 6, 2007 at 9:22 pm)