The December 2006 issue of Sight & Sound contained a feature declaring a renaissance of German cinema, suggesting that there is something exciting happening among the country’s young filmmakers. Considering that Germany’s ugly political history often threatens to overshadow the beauty found in its rich artistic history, it is a fitting achievement that with his first feature film, writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has captured a story which confronts and humanizes both, creating one of the most powerful cinematic experiences in recent memory.
While The Lives of Others is equal parts romance, thriller, and human psychological study, its power is derived from its author’s ability to let the story’s setting and time do its own work, without the manipulation often found in “issue”pictures. The action is set in East Germany in the early 1980’s, before the fall of the Berlin wall, where we first encounter prototypical Stasi surveillance master Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) who eventually bugs the home of the country’s most famous playwright, George Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), and his partner and leading actress, Christa-Maria Sieland (Mostly Martha’s Martina Gedeck).
While the cold and seemingly soulless Wiesler appears to be the polar personality opposite to his relatively free-spirited subjects, his exposure to the sounds of their home — their ideas, their music, their passion — begins to have a profound effect on him. The early classroom scene (in which 
Wiesler is teaching Stasi recruits how to use sleep deprivation in interrogating witnesses) provides a subtle suggestion that as humans, we are often the product of suggestion and indoctrination. Indeed, the East German regime had reason to fear artistic expression and open discourse. Just as the American government doesn’t want us to know the number of lives or dollars spent on the “war on terror,” the ironic turning point in the film involves writer Dreyman’s discovery that of the endless volumes of data the Stasi and the East German government compiled, they stopped recording one statistic: the number of suicides.
Dreyman’s discovery mirror’s Wiesler’s unexpected self-discovery: he has somehow formed a bond with two people who don’t know he exists and whom he is meant to destroy. While the directing and writing here are exceptional, the film belongs to Ulrich Mühe (who is also terrific in Michael Haneke’s Funny Games), who provides a true masterpiece of acting despite saying very little throughout most of the film. Although I would not suggest it on an initial viewing, I suspect that a study of his use of facial expression from beginning to end would reveal how such an otherwise undeveloped character (we’re provided almost no backstory) can work as the emotional center the story.
There is a scene near the end of the film in which Dreyman chooses not to have a confrontation with Wiesler that I suspect most viewers will want him to have. The roles have reversed in that now Dreyman sees, but remains distant. Through Dreyman’s choice, Henckel von Donnersmarck is revealing the key to the characters, their culture, and the communicative power of art, both Dreyman’s and his.
Here are this morning’s Oscar-nominated films, alphabetically. The nominees for foreign language film and documentary feature are compiled at the end of the list. (Short format nominees are listed in a 
1 response so far ↓
1 dmh // Aug 4, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I learned tonight watching the recorded 7/25 episode of Charlie Rose that Ulrich Mühe died last week, losing a battle to stomach cancer, at age 54. So in memory of the extrememly talented actor, now would be a great time to see The Lives of Others, or the very different Funny Games, or Benny’s Video. I imagine that his performances in other films (which I haven’t seen) would be equally worthwhile.
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