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The Lives of Others

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The Lives of Others
File:The Lives of Others (poster).gif
Directed byFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Written byFlorian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Produced byMax Wiedemann
Quirin Berg
StarringUlrich Mühe
Martina Gedeck
Sebastian Koch
Ulrich Tukur
CinematographyHagen Bogdanski
Edited byPatricia Rommel
Music byGabriel Yared
Stephane Moucha
Distributed bySony Pictures Classics (USA)
Buena Vista International (German-speaking areas)
Lions Gate Films (UK)
Release dates

Germany March 23,2006
United StatesFebruary 9, 2007
South KoreaMarch 22,2007
AustraliaMarch 29, 2007
United KingdomApril 11, 2007
Running time
137 min
CountryGermany
LanguageGerman

The Lives of Others (original title in German: Das Leben der Anderen) is an Academy Award-winning German film, marking the feature film debut of writer and director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. For it, Donnersmarck won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The film had earlier won seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards including best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor and best supporting actor, after having set a new record with 11 nominations. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Golden Globe Awards. The award went to Clint Eastwood instead for the film Letters from Iwo Jima.

The thriller/drama is about the cultural scene of East Berlin, monitored by secret agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police. It stars Ulrich Mühe as Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler, Ulrich Tukur as his chief officer Anton Grubitz, Sebastian Koch as the playwright Georg Dreyman, and Martina Gedeck as a prominent actress and his lover, Christa-Maria Sieland.

The film was released in Germany on March 23 2006. At the same time the screenplay was published by Suhrkamp Verlag.

On a global basis, The Lives of Others grossed more than 60 million US dollars as of May 2007[1]. A possible Hollywood remake is said to be in the works, with Anthony Minghella or Sydney Pollack directing.[2]

Plot

In 1984 East Germany (also known as the GDR) , Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (HGW), a keenly idealistic supporter of the communist regime, is assigned to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman, who, Wiesler is told, is suspected of Western leanings. Stasi agents secretly enter Dreyman's apartment in order to install small microphones in the light switches and electric sockets, and cables in the walls, which connect the microphones to an attic space above the apartment, where Wiesler and an assistant take turns monitoring the activity below 24 hours a day, typing a report with anything they hear that might be relevant. A neighbour who happens to observe the agents is told that, if she reveals their presence, her daughter will lose her university place.

Wiesler soon finds out that the real reason why Dreyman is being spied on is that a minister and member of the Party's Central Committee is attracted to Dreyman's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria; if Dreyman is arrested the minister will have free rein. This destroys Wiesler's motivation, as the job is not seriously investigating crimes against the Socialist state.

Dreyman is a supporter of the regime, but dislikes the way dissidents are treated. He publicly stands up for his friends if he feels that they have been unfairly treated. One friend, Jerska, is a director who has been sapped of joie de vivre because he has been blacklisted for several years. At Dreyman's 40th birthday party, Jerska gives Dreyman a gift of sheet music entitled "Sonata for Good Men". Shortly afterward, Jerska commits suicide; this finally spurs Dreyman into speaking out against the regime. Dreyman arranges with West Germany's Der Spiegel periodical magazine to anonymously publish in an article on suicide rates in the GDR. While the GDR publishes detailed statistics on many things, it has not published any statistics on suicide rates since the 1970s , presumably because they are embarrassingly high. Because all typewriters are required to be registered, Dreyman uses a separate typewriter with a red ribbon to write the article, which he hides under the floor in his apartment. Before Dreyman and his friends discuss sensitive issues in Dreyman's apartment they test whether it is bugged: they pretend that someone will be smuggled in a relative's car over to the West. Later they conclude that the apartment is not bugged, because the car is not searched. Unknown to them, that is only because Wiesler has temporarily taken pity on them and had not understood that the discussion was in fact a test.

As Wiesler's empathy for the writer and his girlfriend has grown over time, he lies in his reports to protect Dreyman. Also, at his proposal, the hours of surveillance are reduced, so that it is no longer continuous and he no longer has to share the work with his more objective assistant.

Meanwhile, the minister, angered that Christa-Maria had chosen to no longer see him, orders Wiesler's superior, Anton Grubitz, to find some way to destroy her and tells him that she has gained narcotics, illegally, from abroad. Grubitz and his men manage to catch her in the act of purchasing these drugs and she is arrested. Terrified, she turns Dreyman in, although she does not reveal the location of the typewriter. The house is searched for contraband by security officials, but the typewriter is not found. Wiesler is called in to interrogate Christa-Maria. At this point, Grubitz begins to suspect of Wiesler's newly found pity and implies that, even though they are longtime friends, a failure to perform his work will be very costly. Wiesler interrogates Christa-Maria (with his boss watching through the two way mirror) with the same flawlessness and objectivity that characterized him for years. She breaks down and tells him where the typewriter is hidden. Wiesler, however, still determined to protect a couple he has come to care for, travels to their apartment before the police can search it again and surreptitiously hides the typewriter.

During a second search, in the presence of Christa-Maria, when the hiding place of the typewriter is about to be opened, Christa-Maria walks away in shame, and throws herself in front of a truck. The secret hiding place is opened, but is found empty. A helpless Wiesler who is watching the events just outside the apartment tries to tell Christa that he has the typewriter, but can't complete his words. Dreyman arrives at the scene and Christa-Maria dies in his hands. As a result the surveillance operation becomes pointless: Wiesler's superior calls it off and, distrusting Wiesler, ensures the end of his career. The newspaper lying in the front seat of Wiesler's car announces that Gorbachev is the new Party Secretary of the Soviet Union. Wiesler is demoted to Department M, where he tediously steams open letters all day. Four years and seven months later, Wiesler is opening letters when a coworker with a radio notifies him of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

At the end of the film, after German reunification, Dreyman encounters the former minister and asks why his apartment was never bugged. The minister ironically details the scope of Dreyman's extensive surveillance, telling him where to look for the equipment. Dreyman finds the wires and becomes perplexed as to how he was never caught. He finds the truth further while searching his file in Stasi's archives: while Wiesler heard Dreyman and his friends conducting anti-regime activities (such as the writing of the suicide article), Wiesler did not report those things in his voluminous typed notes, and had falsely wrote instead that Dreyman was writing a play on Lenin, a topic the regime would have approved. Next to the final page of notes is a red smudge, which provides evidence that it was he who had removed the typewriter, which used red ink. Dreyman notes the code name "HGW XX/7" in all reports and discovers the identity that it corresponds to. He finds out the location of Wiesler and pursues him in a taxi, watching Wiesler delivering leaflets. He gets out of the car with the intention of meeting him, but changes his mind and gets back into the car.

Two years later, Dreyman publishes a novel named "Sonata for Good Men". By chance, Wiesler sees the book in a bookstore, and finds that it is dedicated "To HGW XX/7, with gratitude". When Wiesler buys the book and the vendor asks him if he should package it as a present, Wiesler responds: "No. It's for me."

Awards and Nominations

Festival Screenings

Notes and references

  1. ^ Box Office Overview on Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2024093,00.html
  3. ^ "KPN Audience Award". filmfestivalrotterdam.com. Retrieved 4 Feb. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)

Literature & Music

  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-518-45786-1
  • Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck: Das Leben der anderen. Geschwärzte Ausgabe. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 3-518-45908-2
  • A piano sonata ("Sonata for a Good Man") is used as the main transformation point of the Stasi Agent Gerd Wiesler. In the film, the score doesn't carry the name of the composer, as it is original music written for the film by Gabriel Yared.


Preceded by Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
2006 		Succeeded by
n/a
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