Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)

Director:

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck

Writer:

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (written by)

Release Date:

23 March 2006 (Germany)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Before the Fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's Secret Police Listened to Your Secrets

Plot:

In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives.

Plot Keywords:

Listening | East German Culture | Berlin Wall | 1984 | No Opening Credits

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 56 wins & 22 nominations

Cast

Martina Gedeck	...	Christa-Maria Sieland
Ulrich Mühe	...	Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler
Sebastian Koch	...	Georg Dreyman
Ulrich Tukur	...	Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz
Thomas Thieme	...	Minister Bruno Hempf
Hans-Uwe Bauer	...	Paul Hauser
Volkmar Kleinert	...	Albert Jerska
Matthias Brenner	...	Karl Wallner
Charly Hübner	...	Udo
Herbert Knaup	...	Gregor Hessenstein
Bastian Trost	...	Häftling 227
Marie Gruber	...	Frau Meineke
Volker Michalowski	...	Schriftexperte (as Zack Volker Michalowski)
Werner Daehn	...	Einsatzleiter in Uniform
Martin Brambach	...	Einsatzleiter Meyer

Also Known As:

Leben der Anderen - Die Sonate vom guten Menschen, Das (Germany) (working title)
The Lives of Others (USA)

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality/nudity.

Runtime:

137 min

Country:

Germany

Language:

German

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Australia:MA | Czech Republic:12 | Argentina:13 | Ireland:15A | Malaysia:U | USA:R | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-11 | Italy:T | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Hong Kong:IIB | South Korea:15 | Brazil:12 | Sweden:7 | Germany:12 | Singapore:M18 | Portugal:M/16 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | France:Unrated | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | UK:15 | Spain:7

Filming Locations:

Altes Stadthaus, Klosterstraße, Berlin, Germany

Company:

Arte

Trivia:

All the listening/recording props used in the film are actual Stasi equipment on loan from museums and collectors. The props master had himself spent two years in a Stasi prison and insisted upon absolute authenticity down to the machine used at the end of the film to steam-open up to 600 letters per hour.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When uncle Hauser is calling from Berlin (West) you can see a bus from the public transportation service that was not introduced until the mid or late 1990s, passing the phone booth.

Quotes:

Georg Dreyman: The state office for statistics on Hans-Beimler street counts everything; knows everything: how many pairs of shoes I buy a year: 2.3, how many books I read a year: 3.2 and how many students graduate with perfect marks: 6,347. But there's one statistic that isn't collected there, perhaps because such numbers cause even paper-pushers pain: and that is the suicide rate.

Movie Connections:

References Salesman (1968)

Intelligent and moving dealing with GDR history

East Berlin, November 1984. Five years before its downfall the GDR seeks to maintain its power with the help of a merciless system of control and observation. When Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz puts loyal Stasi-Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler on to the famous writer Georg Dreymann and his girlfriend Christa Maria Sieland who is a famous actress herself, he expects career advancement for himself. For most important politicians are responsible for this "operative act".

What Wiesler did not expect: the intimate view on the world of the ones he's observing changes the snitch as well. Looking at "the life of the others" makes him aware of the beggarliness in his own life and enables access to a so far unknown world of love, free thinking and speaking he is hardly able to elude. But the system can't be stopped anymore and a dangerous game, which destroys the love of Christa Maria Sieland and Georg Dreymann and Wieslers present existence begins.

Until the fall of the wall each of them has paid a big price. After that a whole new world begins.

My personal opinion - though it doesn't count that much - is that this one a an absolute Must See. I can hardly remember such an intelligent and moving German movie especially not including the whole topic of GDR history and the dealing with it. I think this is the first German movie which shows this system as it used to be (which has been confirmed by several contemporary witnesses) and not turns it and its people into comedy though there have been several good ones, of course.