date watched: April 30, 2009
location: At the comfort of my own home, thanks to Netflix :)
One word: WOW.
Now, for the pseudo-film critic talk...
It's hard to believe that this is von Donnersmarck's debut feature. It is loaded with profound symbolism and its meditative style is breathtaking. Generally speaking, this film is about surveillance, but I honestly believe it's about cinema: its voyeurism, (perverse) pleasure, and the dangers of personal investment in spectatorship.
I haven't watched the other Oscar nominees of the 2007 Best Foreign Language Award (After the Wedding, Water, Pan's Labyrinth, and Indigènes), but I don't doubt the judgment of the jury one bit, now that I've watched The Lives of Others.
I can't even begin to analyze all the deep-rooted cinematic allusions in this film.
When Wiesler (played wonderfully by actor Ulrich Mühe) types out the reports, they are like scripts. But in this world, the actors are playing out the scenes as you are typing the words. There are countless instances when we catch ourselves cursing the screens' villains or when we root for the hero. The film pervades our very being for the moment, and although they are moving images projected on to a screen, we forget the ersatz nature. Likewise, Wiesler begins to break the walls little by little, until they are no longer "the other." At one point, he tells Crista-Maria (played by Martina Gedeck), "I'm your audience." She takes this to mean he is a fan of her acting. But we know the real meaning behind those words, and it is almost too chilling to register.
I don't want to go on and on, so I will conclude this post with one of my favorite lines from the film:
"What is a director if he can't direct? He's a projectionist wthout film, a miller without corn. He's nothing. Nothing at all."
Hopefully, it'll be no sophomore slumps for von Donnersmarck, and forward march into more blazing features.
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