Das Leben der Anderen

The dramatic possibilities presented by the Stasi's monitoring of the people of East Germany are numerous. This film tries to explore quite a few of them but adds some melodramatic twists that waters down the film's overall impact. I enjoyed the acting in this film immensely and was introduced to some great actors I've never seen before (Ulrich Mühe, Sebastian Koch, and Martina Gedeck). The story presented here though was very frustrating. This basic story chose to create plot points that came off as too convenient and overly melodramatic. Here were great performances trying to tell the story of survival, desperate choices and betrayals most of us in the West have never had to face, but this story veers closer to soap opera than it does to informative drama. I had a similar problem with The Good Sheperd. There is a scene where Wiesler intervenes with Christa to help save her relationship with Georg. He is acting on information he obtained through surveillance and emotions he developed while watching this couple. Right here the story has an opportunity to subtlety tap into all the natural drama a surveillance story creates. Instead the scene is followed by a cheesy montage of the lovers reunion. There are other clumsy directorial moments (suddenly in one early scene Georg and Christa look directly into the camera as they speak to each other in one scene for no reason and never again in the film). But that said the film was intriguing and hopefully is a foreshadowing of some of the great drama to come out of this terrible episode in history.
Memorable moment: Wiesler identified as Stasi by an innocent little child in the elevator.
Film # 106