ManiakJiggy This is How Movies Should Be Made

Ploydsge just watch it!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

hcf-72795 "Das Leben der anderen" besides giving us a quite realistic picture on the former german democratic republic, focusing on both the dictaturial regime and the routine of the artists it suported and financed, reveals the existing dicotomy in every human being. Characters who were supposed to have an established behaviour according to their social positions and status, reveal unexpected behaviours. The main character struggles with ethical questions and almost risks its life to be faithfull to what he discovers to be the right thing to do troughout the storyline.It is all in all a very coherent, moving and revealing story.

Piro Hunter It manages to evoke emotion which is a good sign. However, there are two really difficult aspects of the film which are its major flaws. Firstly, the editing is terrible. I don't mean just "bad". It is terrible. Jump cuts, outdated flow and poor transitions. Few modern films have such a problem at the cutting station as this one. The second problem is the fact that the story jumps a lot, especially towards the end, the pace is too slow at times and it is just getting through the motions.So, having said that, it is inspiring to watch the film. It is a living memory of the socialist times and humanity at its worst and its best. The actors are giving their best performances, full of heart, charm and energy. There is emotion. There is depth in every scene. No one can take that away. Is it among the best German films in recent history? Yes! Is it worth watching? Yes. Is it perfect? No. But its beauty probably lies in its imperfection.

shantahalderdulaw "Your missing this film means you necessarily did not live another human dimension of life". That's my simple suggestion,if expected,when it comes to this film.This probably is one of the films directed from first to last minute with the highest degree of intelligence and consciousness a human being can afford or perhaps have ever attempted to exercise. It's worth almost of fifty other films combined and you will feel that glint of humanity that is sublime,instinctive yet here is in distress and being challenged in such an overwhelming way that has only to be felt,ever represented in a film perhaps in the whole of film history.It can test one's breaking points,shake one's core principles that one snuggles deep inside.It teaches what humanity is with grueling and sometimes deeply undermining a test.It can break and penetrate one,it can lacerate one,it can consume one if one believes himself to be a human and;even if he doesn't believe himself to be human,this film will recommend that,that disbelief or desensitization is artificial and imposed thus is not inherently human and can afford to let a man be wavered.It is capable of stirring one's human feelings irrespective of the extent of exposure,hardening to inhumanity one has been or can be imagined to have been subjected to.

sreeduttasamanta In the stifling atmosphere of communism where even the most private thoughts are read every seconds, a Stasi official named Weiseler weighs his humanitarian feeling over his duty to the government and learns the meaning of love , sacrifice etc. This movie called "The Lives of Others" shows us that life is impossible to understand or judge unless looked at it from its own point. The movie's first opening scene shows us Weiseler's unwavering loyalty towards the party and he suspects Georg Dreyman, a writer, of sedition when he is thought to be an ideal citizen by many others. Henceforth a secret operation is ordered by the minister of culture at Dreyman's house with Weiseler in charge of it. From that point he starts to intervene in the lives of Dreyman and his girlfriend Chirsta Maria Seiland and gets to know every personal thing in their lives. He eventually comes to know that the cultural minister is nothing but a competitor of Dreyman and misuses his power to get Christa. When he comes to know that the communist party head (the cultural minister) behaves like a bourgeois and moulds the communist rules according to his whims and fancies, his loyalty which was entirely directed towards the government becomes divided and he empathizes with the lives of Dreyman and Christa Maria Seiland. He becomes a soft- hearted man and tries to save them at every possible opportunity. He does not report that Dreyman has written an article about the movie director, Jerska's death which is prohibited by the law. He also removes the typewriter from under the door sill which would have been a concrete proof that Dreyman is anti-national and he would have punished or killed. After a few years, the communist regime breaks up and he no longer is a stasi official, but a commoner. I liked the last part when he goes to the bookstore to buy a book by Georg Dreyman and the owner asks "Should I pack it?" He tells "No, It is for me." which has double meanings. One is that he bought the book for himself, another is that the book was written by Dreyman about him, the Stasi official who saved his life.