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!...

NEW EVIDENCE COMES TO LIGHT!

"Some people see things as they are, and ask why? I see things that never were and ask why not?" Robert F. Kennedy

I am a lttle sad today, but was hoping to be bright and cheery. That is not happening right now. Maybe when I go to the movies later today I will cheer up. This rusty button was from the Tiny Tim show-with The Potatoes as backing band, that Big Bucks Burnett (I will need a whole blog posting to tell Mister Bucks HORSE-OF-A-DIFFERENT-COLOUR story) put on at Club DaDa on May 19th, 1988. I will always remember that day, because it was my last one at AAA Motor Club. That was my best job that I have ever had in my life-I had more leisure time and money than ever before, so I could lead a near-yuppie existence in Dallas; I was a New Professional for the eighties. When AAA went corporate they cut the commission for the sales force and thus ran us off. It was a glorious day, but also a sad one for me. After that I made a perilous journey into the teaching profession and really had my wings clipped (what doesn`t kill you, makes you stronger)! Later on in the late nineties I did very well on the stock market during the final days of the Clinton Administration, and what now is characterized as the internet bubble. I`m glad that little bubble happened, because a body could make a lotta bread by playing technology stocks, like Dell, Intel, Yahoo, Cisco, and Qualcom. I was in CandyLand in those days. When The Potatoes played with Tiny Tim I was in a good state of mind too. I really learned a lot of songs before that date, as Tiny was an encyclopedia of ditties and would do the huggest medley ever when performing on stage. This button above can be seen on me in these videos that I will link you to on You Tube. I thought you had to be under thirty to be on You Tube, but have been provin wrong. There is Popcicle Man. Here is Noodles and Leather. This is Pipeline. Here is Jack Ruby`s Girls; it looks like it has gotton the most views, so far. This was startling to see The Potatoes, and 19 years ago no less. A few memories nicely preserved! I will include this graphic because it recalls the frame of mind that I had through much of the eighties. Did Jack Ruby shoot Oswald to hush him up? Was it an impulse killing, a crime of passion, or was it a carefully planned killing in order to cover-up the incriminating evidence of the assassination? Is this new evidence regarding The Potatoes-the lounge-ska-post-punk-musak-conspiracy rock-comedy-performance-art-spoof-slapstick-parody-way halloweenin`party-band-for the trippin` driftin`-souless yuppies of Dallas Texas-all of this and none of it-gets the electric chair laughing in vain crowd, sad-yes ? (Mostly none of these things, because you can not put a label on that Fun Band!) It is a miracle that some preservation has occurred in both regards (JFK Conspiracy and The Potatoes)-I know I have lost track of much stuff, and my memories are getting a little fuzzy too. See you at the GRAND OPENING OF THE NEWLY RESTORED TEXAS THEATRE in olde Oak Cliff (The Early Potatoes use to rehearse there) people, whenever that may be! Catch ya on rebound! (do not want to start drinkin`).

PYRAMUS AND THISBE

I have an obsession with Pompeii, and try to read anything on the topic that I can get my hands on. I also believe that the painting that came from there, and that was done in the early Emperial Era of ancient Rome was the best painting that has ever been done by man. During the Renaissance, this work was discovered by observant Italians, and then emulated, but it was never topped! This is my version of Pyramus and Thisbe, the more ancient Babylonian version of Romeo and Juliet. It is included in Ovid`s Metamorphoses, Book IV. I did a sketch of the Pompeii version, when I visited the UT Art library one day, and then used the sketch to create this painting. I have not seen prints of this work anywhere except in that old book at UT. I enlarged the figures, as if you are right on top of them, so it seems as if you are right in the event. I believe I may have been influenced by Lucien Freud here, because he does that a lot. In terms of composition, I made the figures at a 90 degree angle to the horizontal/vertical grid of the canvass. I also raised the figures three-dimensionally by using some Golden molding paste, and while I could see that it is not marble, I could see where I could imbue some texture into the figures, making them more lifelike. This is not obvious by looking at the photo, but there is a sculptural aspect to it. For colors I used earthy ochres, fleshy tones, and pastel greens and blues, and thought of Cezanne romping in the French countryside. I imagined that I was holding a digital camera right up to the star-crossed lovers, even though this is a malpropism for possibly 6th or 7th century BCE action! I have never been as inspired by art as I was at the time that I went to the archaeology museum in Naples (early October 2000)! Simply put, this is why I like to paint in this style. I hope to make my future works more original, while still borrowing the organic integrity, and simplicity of these nearly lost works! The Pompeii paintings are greater than the Mona Lisa, The Madonna of the Rocks, or Guernica all combined! That is the philosophy of art of Monsieur Bovee; it has taken me many years of hard study to come to that kernel of wisdom, and I will hold on to it to my grave! * afterthought-9/20/2007-The fading frescoes in Fellini`s "Roma" keeps looping in my mind. Works of art are not eternal, but rather ephemeral, and wouldn`t it be a pity if we lost many of the paintings of Pompeii? Here is another web page with photos of Pompeii! Really, that one is not too good! The House of M. Lucretius Fronto is the very best site I have ever seen!

NO END IN SIGHT

“No End in Sight” could be the best documentary I have ever seen! The crisp audience applause at the end was emotionally revealing. The director, Charles Ferguson, is a historian, and this was transparent to me as I watched. The film was a compilation of talking head interviews with bureaucrats who had pertinent stories about how the Bush administration dropped the ball in the way they approached the War In Iraq. Ferguson just shows the facts of how the war began in March 17, 2003 and exactly what happened thereafter. Much footage is provided too of the war, and this underscores the vapidness of many of the policies implemented by the Bush Administration. Footage of Bush, Chaney, and Rumsfeld tossing out there little sound bites really reveals how hardened and stupid they were, not really caring if what they did helped to end the war or improve the conditions in Iraq. There was Rumsfeld saying, ”I don`t do quagmires.” I had just read “The Making of a Quagmire” by David Halberstam, who just recently died. Over the past four years that is just what I have been thinking, that the US is sinking into another quagmire, just like we did in Vietnam. This documentary puts all the pieces of the puzzle together for you, where as before we have been just looking at each of the fatal errors of Bush policy in isolation. I will make a little grocery list of the blunders for you, just to remind you, but understand that this documentary dissects each of these points for you so that you can clearly see it in your mindseye. The film footage makes it real for you too! After the fall of Baghdad, the city was never secured, and some of the greatest looting took place ever. The museum with some of the oldest treasures of civilization were pilfered. There were too few boots on the ground to secure Iraq. The Hummers were not armored properly. The wounds of soldiers from IEDs was shown. This was shocking. The de-Baathification policy undermined the professional class structure of Iraq, by jettisoning lots teachers, doctors, and lawyers in the rebuilding effort. The most shocking is revealed by Gen. Jay Garner and Col. Paul Hughes, who were actually making progress in rebuilding Iraq. They were part of the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. In May of 2003 they were fired and replaced with Coalition Provisional Authority, headed up Paul Bremer. Without consulting Jay or Paul, Bremer dissolved the half-a-million Iraqi army. Once this was done, and those men no longer had an income, they swiftly joined the Insurgency. The details about how this came about was the apex of the documentary. This was the biggest blunder in the way the war was conducted. Another grave issue though, is the way the soldiers have been harassing the citizens of Iraq in pursuit of insurgents. Like the Vietcong, they are blended in with the regular populous. The Vietcong had pulled off the Tet offensive this way in January of 1968, and then won the war this way! The parallels are eerie! Do not forget how the ammo dumps were not secured, so that the abandoned army went right to them and got them. A new thing that I learned was that some of the US civilian contractors actually played soldier, and murdered Iraqi citizens by shooting them from their cars. They then videoed the killings so that we can see it now. This was a very clear piece and I came away shocked, even though I had heard most of these facts before. You should see it soon, even if it is painful to see the foibles of history repeating themselves! The audience was clapping, I believe, because they were glad that the truth was coming out!