a foreign film review by Chris White
THE LIVES OF OTHERS
Written
& Directed by Florian Hinckel vonDonnersmarck
Growing up in Reagan’s America, we pitied those who
were living behind the so-called “iron curtain.” We spoke of our freedom and
democracy as people who know only what has always been.
THE LIVES OF OTHERS
gives us a glimpse behind that storied curtain—twenty years or so after the
fact—and in doing so, reveals a passion for
free expression…for a life lived without state-sponsored oppression, that
neither I nor any of my freedom-loving, American neighbors could have possibly
known.
East German artists in the 1970s and 80s served at
the pleasure of the state. The state monitored their artists—both publicly and
privately—to keep tabs on how pleasing an artist’s behavior was.
In the film, an acclaimed playwright abides his
benevolent keepers. Lives in relative peace with them. Until…his actress
girlfriend becomes a person of increasing state suspicion. And it is here,
under the oppressive monitor of the state, that their lives are forever
changed.
With, perhaps, the most satisfying ending in recent
cinema history, THE LIVES OF OTHERS fascinates and compels at every turn. It is
a deeply human film. One that may be, in fact, the most accomplished first
feature since Orson Welles’ CITIZEN KANE.
2006 \\
Color \\ 138 min.
Sony
Pictures Classics
COUNTRY
OF ORIGIN: Germany
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