THE LIVES OF OTHERS PART I

“The Lives Of Others” is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I bought the DVD a couple of weeks ago so that I could go back over it carefully; disect it and consider all the aspects of the film. It is good idea to review the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR-1949-1990) in order to better understand the context of this story. This will require a review of how WWII ended, and the way Europe was divvied up between the West and the Soviet Union. Also, you may want to look again at the time that the Berlin Wall was put up in 1961 during the Kennedy Administration. I recollect from my youth this striking dichotomy between East and West, this barbed wire divide, tanks and stop-points, nervous machine gun toting guards, and the heightened tensions of the Cold War in Eastern Europe. One can not really comprehend this phenomenon too clearly these days; but go back and look at some of the black and white photos of shot-dead freedom-seekers tangled in the meshed wire. Some more business on your agenda is to study the Stasi and all the new information that is coming to light about the East German Secret Police-their techniques and the very paranoid atmosphere that was created within that society. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) lectures new agents about proper interrogation techniques very early in the film. I was reminded of the Trials of Salem, in a round about fashion, and the way that women were made to falsely confess to witchcraft in Colonial New England.

As far as the Stasi goes, there is an interesting piece in the Weekend Edition of The Wall Street Journal (9/15, 9/16). It is titled The Murder of a CEO by David Crawford. On November 30, 1989 Alfred Herrhausen, a prominent banker for Deutsche Bank, was killed by a roadside bomb. Herrhausen was an advocate of German unification, and maybe had his eye on getting control of East German banking rights. Evidence is coming out now that the Stasi may have engineered this assassination so that the Red Army Faction, a leftist terrorist group, would take the blame for the killing. It is going to be interesting, as more facts come out, to look at how the Stasi was able to accomplish this sophisticated feat of subterfuge. It looks like the Stasi had plants within the Red Army Faction, who maintained silence, but this is still being sorted out. Another thing mentioned in the WSJ article is that the Stasi may be linked to “Carlos the Jackal”. Just how far their tentacles reached in nefarious doings is a little hard to assess at this point. This is an interesting backdrop to view the movie by though. As you watch the Stasi wire George Dreyman`s apartment with microphones in the light switches, you see how efficiently they functioned. The extras on the DVD are very good, and Ulrich Muhe (in his actual life) tells how he was grievously informed on by “friends”; but was not made aware of it until he purviewed documents after the collapse of The Wall (not Pink Floyd`s Brick in the Wall) in 1990. Apparently, the Stasi kept meticulous records, as the Germans always seem to do. It is implied that some of this story reflects the life of Ulrich Muhe, whose own wife informed on him. Sadly, I`ve come to learn that Ulriche Muhe died on July 22nd, 2007.

This is just some warm-up writing for this near perfect movie, and I will make a point to go at it again with more dedication and perspiration, at a future projected sitting. This film requires careful consideration, as a result of the great amount of effort invested in it. At this writing, I see it as parallel stories of both the dissolution of the GDR and the Eastern Communist block from 1984-1990, and as the story of one Stasi agent`s internal changes from the icy Stasi bureaucrat to a more opened-minded individual who has tolerance for others. It is the story of the break-down of The State, and the melting of this political philosophy in one individual, a devotee of the highest caliber. The way this comes about is the brilliance of this story. Os the plot develops, Wiesler can gradually see the corruption of his colleagues, and specifically a minister named Hempf, who forces Georg Dreyman`s girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gideck), to engage in extracurricular liaisons. Another thing is, as he listens in on the lives of Georg and Christa-Marie, by way of electronic eavesdropping, he begins to sympathize with these people, and the way they conduct their affairs, freely and humanly. An interesting sidebar or possible theme is the way that Wiesler begins to have contempt for his supervisor, Anton Grubitz, a total yes man to the regime, no matter how wrong the policies may be. This is especially true when Hempf orders Grubitz to set up Christa-Marie for a fall, after she rejects the plump and gross Hempf, a surviving, reptilian ogre of the oppressive regime. Be sure to watch the cafeteria scene carefully when Grubitz applies some grueling psychological cruelty to a student eating his lunch. This is especially chilling, I thought! Another fascinating subplot is the gradual radicalizing of Georg Dreyman. His fellow playwright Jerska kills himself because he has been blacklisted and marginalized to a no career status. Dreyman begins to write about suicide rates in East Germany for Der Spiegel, a widely read West German publication. I am seeing the relationship between Georg and Christa-Marie as another important subplot, a splendid romance and true-love. It is all monitored by Wiesler of course, but he can see how magnificent and genuine their love for one another truly is. This may account for and contribute to the psychological changes that come about in Wiesler. There is a built-in tragedy in the plot here, regarding Christa-Marie, thus I won`t spill the beans about it here, but it is the crescendo of the story where everything comes unglued.

There is the use of Realism (that may be cinema verite) too in the sets, the colors of the film, and the props that are used in the various scenes. Just look at the clothes worn by the Stasi agents and the shadowy streets of Berlin, all in faded grays and blues, and you feel like you are there (mid 1980s). The scene where Wiesler has a very-brief professional visitor is stark and cold-what a poor lonely man really (even though he is a Stasi crumb-ball)! Lots of shots of reel-to-reel tape recorders and the rat-a-tat-tat of antiquated typewriters add a nice touch too. Often the typed pages are displayed with parts of the reports of Wiesler, with the text spoken, and I thought this was effective to make points about his mental evolution-the movement towards humanitarianism. Florian Henckel von Donnermarck stayed away from digital technology and just used analog, and this was a wise move for making things seem realistic (period specific-1980s). Everything is kept very simple and pruned, as far as sets go, and this adds to the cold ambience of a Communist State. Gabriel Yared did the music and it accompanies the mood of the plot perfectly. Sonata for a Good Man was composed by Yared for the movie and was actually performed by Sebastian Koch on piano in the film. One might swear it was written by Beethoven himself!

There is much in play in “The Lives Of Others”, and even William F. Buckley Jr. said it was the best film he had ever seen. For me, I am curious now about how the German Democratic Republic really came to an end and why it did? I am also interested in how the Stasi operated and really how far their intrigues took them down a dark road. When Wiesler sees the book in a shop window and went in to see it, a chill came over me. He could read his own story sequestered in a play by Georg Dreyman. And now I`ve come to learn that Ulrich Muhe later read of the turncoat behaviors of old friends and even his wife. In that atmosphere of paranoia human behavior was at its worse. Fortunately, some had the courage to defy The State, such as Wiesler. In our current country we must be careful to defy those who would like to spy on us, in the name of countering terrorism. This is a possible lesson of this movie, for me. Electronic eavesdropping is all the more easy with our current technology, and this scares me as I read about how the Stasi easily invaded the lives of Berlin citizens. A New Cold War is now emerging between the West (or maybe just the right-wing in the United States) and many of the countries of the Middle East (if not all of them). This may seem more like a religious division between Islamic countries and Christian ones, than a divide between Democracies and Totalitarian States...To say the least, we are treading perilously in shark infested waters!...