2008 Woodie Awards
'The Lives of Others' decries spying society
Under the East German Stasi network , citizens were presumed guilty
Matt Ward, Special to the Log
Issue date: 4/19/07 Section: Entertainment
For German screenwriter/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the historical horrors of the communist state that assumed power in East Germany following World War II is best conveyed by that government's paranoia about the influence of music, literature, drama and art on the masses. In his Oscar-winning directorial debut, the German director's film, "The Lives of Others," depicts the former German Democratic Republic as a surveillance society so wrapped up in monitoring the lives of its own citizens that they are more trapped by the rationalizations and manipulations of power than by the Berlin Wall that physically kept them in.
Set in 1984 under the ubiquitous watch of the government's secret police, known as the Stasi, fictional playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his actress girlfriend Christa- Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) endure constant surveillance by loyal Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), who is assigned to look for any signs of their subversion of the socialist regime.
To infiltrate their lives, Wiesler is stationed in the attic above Dreyman's art-filled apartment, equipped with monitors and headphones to watch and listen over Dreyman and Sieland's every activity. By bugging the flat with microphones, Wiesler is able to hear every conversation, debate and argument by Dreyman, Sieland and their circle of artist friends - not to mention their lovemaking and intimate talks.
A repressed man of hard disposition, trained to expect the worst in people and to peel away their art and artifice with clinical detachment, he is obsessed with uncovering any secrets that will justify his violation of their privacy. The end justifies the means in a surveillance society - especially since endless stacks of files testify to the fact that practically everyone will "fold," or give in to interrogation, sooner or later, and deliver some tidbit of information that will satisfy the Stasi's presumption of their guilt.
However, as Wiesler becomes more immersed in the artists' lives, he experiences the urgings of incipient empathy and starts to interfere, compromising his loyalty to the government.
Set in 1984 under the ubiquitous watch of the government's secret police, known as the Stasi, fictional playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) and his actress girlfriend Christa- Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck) endure constant surveillance by loyal Stasi agent Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), who is assigned to look for any signs of their subversion of the socialist regime.
To infiltrate their lives, Wiesler is stationed in the attic above Dreyman's art-filled apartment, equipped with monitors and headphones to watch and listen over Dreyman and Sieland's every activity. By bugging the flat with microphones, Wiesler is able to hear every conversation, debate and argument by Dreyman, Sieland and their circle of artist friends - not to mention their lovemaking and intimate talks.
A repressed man of hard disposition, trained to expect the worst in people and to peel away their art and artifice with clinical detachment, he is obsessed with uncovering any secrets that will justify his violation of their privacy. The end justifies the means in a surveillance society - especially since endless stacks of files testify to the fact that practically everyone will "fold," or give in to interrogation, sooner or later, and deliver some tidbit of information that will satisfy the Stasi's presumption of their guilt.
However, as Wiesler becomes more immersed in the artists' lives, he experiences the urgings of incipient empathy and starts to interfere, compromising his loyalty to the government.
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