The lives of others

The last time Malcolm and I went to the cinema together (sans children) was, I believe, to see The Ice Storm in about 1998. Last night, thanks to the awful Saturday evening TV programming that is of compelling interest to teens and tweens, we decided to go again.

The film we saw is called "The Lives of Others". It is about the transforming power of art, culture and integrity. It's a tragedy, a thriller and a true-to-life story; exciting, tense and deeply moving. I can't recommend it highly enough: well worth waiting 9 years for. If you see only one film this year, make it this one.

Here's an excerpt from the Wikipedia entry for the film. "It won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, along with seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards including best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor and best supporting actor, after having set a new record with 11 nominations. It was also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Golden Globe Awards. The thriller/drama is about the cultural scene of East Berlin, monitored by secret agents of the Stasi, the GDR's secret police...... A piano sonata ("Sonata for a Good Man") is used as the main transformation point of the Stasi Agent Gerd Wiesler. In the film, the score doesn't carry the name of the composer, as it is original music written for the film by Gabriel Yared"

Here is the Time Out review;  the trailer is available here (not seen by me).

Comments

[John Baker]

I also enjoyed the film enormously. Busy, busy camera with something to engage eye and mind constantly. My review is at:
http://johnbakersblog.co.uk/the-lives-of-others-das-leben-der-anderen-a-review/

[Susan Balée]

I plan to see this tomorrow evening -- it's finally come to the local art theatre near us, but it's been on my radar since the Phila. Film Festival last month.

By the bye, Allan and I did see a wonderful film there that I'm sure has already played in G.B.: "Snow Cake" with Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver. I believe my crush on AR was renewed thanks to this film, and SW was unbelievable as a woman with autism. Have you seen it, Maxine?

[Maxine]

It's on my Amazon DVD rent list, Susan. But my current rate of watching DVDs is about one per 6 months (slightly better than 1 per 9 years, though).

[crimeficreader]

Thanks for the reminder about Snow Cake, Susan. I've been meaning to buy the DVD but had forgotten the name.
Rickman was on the BBC's breakfast TV recently to promote the DVD and doing his usual round of mild "grumpy old sod" in the interview. He hates these promo things, but I remain a devotee of his acting, which is superb.