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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Das Leben der Anderen (The lives of others)

20:37 / 20.05.07

An utterly marvellous film which is gripping, emotional and just a great yarn.
If your luckily enough to have this film showing at your local cinema I would advice to see this over any American Trash being shown.
This film has everything from the first time director & writer Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck and its being a little rough around the edges gives the firm a lot more charm.

Does anyone else know what I’m talking about?

20:40 / 20.05.07

I do indeed. Amazing film. Just see it.

Just see it!!!! Completely deserved the 'best foreign film' Oscar it received -- even deserved to beat out the totally wonderful Guillermo film "Pan's Labyrinth." Watch it and see why.

miss wonderstarr

21:18 / 20.05.07

I enjoyed this film but I can't help thinking the fact that it's being hailed as incredibly intelligent and that rare thing, a thinking person's thriller [I paraphrase, but I expect I could find such praise in reviews] says more about the perceived low quality of mainstream thrillers in general. Maybe it's an accurate perception. Admittedly, it's a lot more subtle and complex than Deja Vu ~ but I found it fairly conventional next to, for instance, Hidden, which was far more striking and memorable in my opinion. I liked the last half hour or so best, but on the other hand, I agree with reviews that suggest the end is dragged out. An interesting film anyway, and above all a brilliant character study of Gerd Wiesler, but I'm a bit wary about going along with what seems the prevailing view that it's stunningly good.

RichT's boring old name

11:37 / 21.05.07

Ah.. I thought I was the only one who felt it was amazing after seeing it, everyone else I'd spoken to had the reaction of it being pretty good but didn't blow them away.

I found the film emotionally powerful and really got sucked in by the atmosphere and (grinding) pacing. Loved the 80's decor and equipment, and the whole grainy darkness in the way it was shot.

Something I attributed to my strong reaction to it was watching the film shortly after a re-read of 1984, however this is viewed from the perspective of 'the system' (or a cog in it) more than that of the 'victim' which left me with a lot of hope that you think, no matter how oppressive a regime can be it's being run by people.

I do, however agree about the epilogue section- thinking back it was a bit cheesy and I don't think it really added anything to the rest of the film, although at the time I was still reeling from the scene which could have ended the film.