― gff, Monday, 23 April 2007 18:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― stet, Monday, 23 April 2007 18:27 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alba, Monday, 23 April 2007 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 23 April 2007 18:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Monday, 23 April 2007 22:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― kv_nol, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 08:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Pete, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 09:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alba, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 10:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 11:20 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 11:38 (seventeen years ago) link
― That one guy that quit, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 12:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:22 (seventeen years ago) link
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― kv_nol, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― gff, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:39 (seventeen years ago) link
― call all destroyer, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 13:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alba, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:00 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:49 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:53 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― Not the real Village People, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 14:58 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:02 (seventeen years ago) link
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr Morbius, Tuesday, 24 April 2007 15:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― The Real Dirty Vicar, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― gff, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:46 (seventeen years ago) link
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 27 April 2007 17:49 (seventeen years ago) link
Ulrich Muehe RIP
(the guy who played Wiesler)
― rener, Wednesday, 25 July 2007 14:11 (sixteen years ago) link
"a bit schmaltzy," you bet.
If only more playwrights and actresses had introduced Stasi loners to Brecht, the Wall woulda been down in 1970.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 16:48 (sixteen years ago) link
I thought the movie was schmaltzy but still surprisingly effective, this mostly due to the central performance. Liked it much better than the highly-regarded domestic (American) melodramas I've seen recently: Mystic River blah blah.
I don't buy either of these absolutist, omniscient critiques, though:
the Stasi officer Wiesler helping Dreymann is such utter nonsense that it ruins the whole movie. It would never happen that some one with over 20 years of continuous indoctrination by the Stasi would help a mortal enemy of the State
-- Tracer
(Imagining that Weixler could exist) betrays ... a misunderstanding of the nature of totalitarianism in general, and the Stasi specifically. No Stasi agent would have been able to keep a secret like that, because everything was rigorously cross-checked and verified. No Stasi agent would have been on control of an entire investigation, from surveillance to interrogation, the way Weisler was.
-- Alfred
The world isn't sufficiently well-regulated to allow that kind of absolute & total certainty. Not even the world of the Stasi. It's always at least possible that human decision-making and/or fallibility could alter the program. There's always a corner here or there where something happens differently, for some unforseen reason. And it's always possible that a seemingly well-indoctrinated man might experience a change of heart even without the agency of "a death, an assault, an an acid trip."
But, yeah, the ending was kinda corny.
― contenderizer, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:16 (sixteen years ago) link
it's a total melodrama. nothing wrong with that.
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:17 (sixteen years ago) link
and the criticism that this could never happen is just silly. no one ever defected? no one ever passed secrets to the americans? give me 1 break. or in other words, what contenderizer said.
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:18 (sixteen years ago) link
i mean if you're going to deny even the remotest possibility of change in a human being i don't really see how you can buy any sort of drama.
xp: A totally unpersuasive one. Hollywood remake coming soon! really!
If you'd like to see the lead actress in a good, offbeat thriller: Summer '04
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:19 (sixteen years ago) link
Oh yeah.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:20 (sixteen years ago) link
how are they gonna do a h'wood remake??
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:20 (sixteen years ago) link
the lives of other others
― gff, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:21 (sixteen years ago) link
takes place under the shadow of the wall between virginia and west virginia
― gff, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
lol at early "Spacey" posts, he can play the lead. I think Sydney Pollack bought the rights.
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
(tho may not live to make it)
it's always possible that a seemingly well-indoctrinated man might experience a change of heart even without the agency of "a death, an assault, an an acid trip."
Not this particular man in this film.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:22 (sixteen years ago) link
http://www.cinematical.com/2007/03/01/weinsteins-to-remake-the-lives-of-others/
― Dr Morbius, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:23 (sixteen years ago) link
what does that mean? is he like your BFF or something? xp
― s1ocki, Wednesday, 13 February 2008 17:24 (sixteen years ago) link
And Hildegard Knef.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 19 June 2008 13:52 (fifteen years ago) link
most brits and americans know jack shit about east germany and so this film functions as a de facto history lesson
right, and I think it's especially cheeky to complain about the treatment of the protagonist here when like 2/3rds of the entire anglophone cinematic tradition is about those colorful rapey blood-soaked sociopaths who built our respective countries into what they are today, america esp. with all them westerns (also I finally watched gangs of ny lol)
― El Tomboto, Thursday, 19 June 2008 16:55 (fifteen years ago) link
i complain about those too!
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 19 June 2008 17:07 (fifteen years ago) link
though the usual western trope is the exact reverse, right? the law-abiding man of peace who circumstances force to become a killer in order to protect his family/town/etc
― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 19 June 2008 17:10 (fifteen years ago) link
"You are a good-looking boy. You have big, broad shoulders. But he is a man. And it takes more than big, broad shoulders to make a man."
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Thursday, 19 June 2008 17:13 (fifteen years ago) link
what the fuck does this have to with the fact that the protagonist's evolution into a Rilke-loving quasi-softie is convincing?
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 19 June 2008 18:24 (fifteen years ago) link
I saw it. I liked it, though I had a little more trouble with the believability of Dreyman, rather than Wiesler.
― clotpoll, Thursday, 19 June 2008 19:02 (fifteen years ago) link
fukk all y'all i CRIED REAL TEARS at the end of this
― Just got offed, Thursday, 14 August 2008 17:00 (fifteen years ago) link
so this is showing on the big screen here soon - worth seeing? didn't want to go through the thread for fear of spoilers. should be noted I'm not a big fan of calculated shmaltz (I did cry in theaters during A.I. though)
― 囧 (dyao), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 09:52 (fourteen years ago) link
it's pretty good, looks really nice, and obv the historical setting is fascinating. but maybe leave 10 mins before the end if you don't like schmaltz :)
― jabba hands, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 09:57 (fourteen years ago) link
haha - not sure how the people I would be seeing it with would take it. I'll tell them I need to make some stock trades
― 囧 (dyao), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 09:59 (fourteen years ago) link
yes it's good. leave when they stop steaming envelopes because maybe you are allergic to envelopes.
― wmlynch, Wednesday, 9 December 2009 18:46 (fourteen years ago) link
i liked this a lot, saw it in the cinema and really loved it until the end, which is pretty shit. But apart from that enjoyable.
― Pedro Paramore (jim), Wednesday, 9 December 2009 18:48 (fourteen years ago) link