If you get a chance, watch The Lives of Others. I was wary at first - judging from the trailers on the DVD for pretentious artsy PC films, including a trailer for that one where George Clooney played Edward R. Murrow - but it turned out to be one of the best films I have seen in a long time.
Certainly an indictment of the dehumanisation of society under socialist totalitarianism. And a damned good story exploring the character of a member of the Stasi who speaks maybe five sentences in the whole film and his relationship to those people he is assigned to observe.
German cinema seems to be going from strength to strength to strength over the last several years.
A brilliant film.
Posted by: aDM | 10 February 2008 at 14:51
I agree. It was very good. So bleak. Everything else aside, it's no wonder these countries' economies were basket cases when swathes of would be workforce were engaged in spying on each other. Of course it could never happen here...
That said, in reality the Stasi agent couldn't have helped the playwright like that. The Stasi investigated their own just as thoroughly as der Anderen, worked in teams rather than going virtually solo and the culture of the Ministry made sure agents' ideology was maintained.
The guy who played the playwrite was also in Zwartboek, another great continental film of recent years.
Posted by: Mark | 19 February 2008 at 12:33