Here is a guest review by my friend Sena.
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Sunday afternoon movies are highly under-rated. You can be entertained, toddle home for dinner, and generally take it easy and get to bed at a descent hour – even with the impending doom of Daylight Savings time. Such was the scene for my viewing of The Lives of Others last Sunday.
The Lives of Others takes place in Communist East Germany, where the Stasi (the secret police), are out in full force. The movie follows the lives of an artist, his girlfriend and various other characters that get caught up the Stasi scene of paranoia.
Nobody ever thinks they’d ever snitch on someone, but the change of heart and who betrays who winds up to be surprising. Many characters seem to be walking a tight-rope of “truth”. One wrong move and they’ll wind up in a prison, where it’s not the violence that does people in, but the psychological torture designed to do things like damage an artist enough so that they will never paint or write again.
On an interesting note, Ulrich Muhe, who plays the central Stasi agent actually grew up and started his acting career in East Germany. He found out after the Berlin wall fell that the Stasi had a file on him and his (now ex-) wife and other theatre actors were spying on him.
There are few movies that I would see more than once. This is one of those foreign films, like Amélie, that crosses the ocean from Europe for all audiences to enjoy. I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.
People, don’t be like Sophia and miss this film ‘cause you have to do your laundry instead. I forego-ed doing laundry last weekend in order to see this film and have never been happier. But I guess this depends on how many pairs of clean underwear you have in the rotation – it’s a personal choice.
Palmer’s Comments: An excellent review which urges me to go see this film! I echo Sena’s sentiments about doing laundry when you can go watch a movie. There is no excuse for doing laundry ESPECIALLY if your laundry machines reside at your place of residence. If it’s the laundromat, that’s a different story. That’s a valid excuse.
Also, if you do not have a blog (or have one and it sucks), feel free to pass on any worthwhile wisdom that you would like me to post on my blog.
Here is a guest review by my friend Sena.