The Lives of Others
by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
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DVD details
Actor: Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Koch, Thomas Thieme, Ulrich M?he, Ulrich TukurDirector: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck
Brand: SONY PICTURES HOME ENT
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 137 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-08-21
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures
DVD Reviews of The Lives of Others
DVD Review: Best German Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
I watched this movie when it came out and it's one movie I had to own. I recommend it to all my friends all the time.DVD Review: Viewing for Specialists...
Summary: 2 Stars
Maybe, simplistic English subtitles following a repeatedly-boring stills of story presenting a special services officer job-spaying over co-citizens, make a viewer even more asleep than just watching average images of characters hungry for copulating.
Well, what all this fuss about Oscar et al? A Stasi employer is shown as a citizen bored to tamper with dirty clothes of others?
At the end of the day, no call-girl services were available in Honneker Germany.
DVD Review: A Masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
One of the best films of the last ten years.
DVD Review: Amazing movie
Summary: 4 Stars
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The movie won the Best Foreign Language Movie in 2007 Academy Awards and definitely deserves this. The beauty of the movie is the internal strife that Wiesler goes through when he starts this particular assignment. I had read a story long back about a Japanese interrogator who was a loner because he could look through people. And the story told about how his talent was his curse. Wiesler strongly reminds me of that character. The reason he feels so strongly for this couple suddenly even after doing so many successful assignments is because he realizes somewhere in between, that he is spying on two individuals who are not a threat as is made to believe. And his actions that follow which make him go through a series of terrible events but make him hold on to his values. Sometimes I get a feeling that maybe he is trying to atone for his guilt of the past or maybe his emotions let him to believe that if he can get it right just this one time maybe he will be forgive himself? The movie is a sensitive portrayal of the relationship between Dreyman and Maria and is beautiful in parts. Not a light watch and will leave you with some points to ponder. The last shot where both the characters acknowledge each other is very unique.
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DVD Review: Bugging you
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a fictional story of stuff that actually went on in the former East Germany (also known as the German Democratic Republic, or GDR) before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The year is 1984. While there is no mention of it in the Special Features, it seems clear to me that it's an allusion to George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. After all, the GDR came about as close as the world has ever come to realizing Orwell's nightmarish dystopia.
I had heard horror stories about how oppressive the East German government was & how they were always "snooping around." However, this film brought the stories to life in a dramatic fashion. The denizens of the GDR were made more "real" by being immersed in a plausible plotline.
For all those people out there who think that the Patriot Act is a wonderful idea, this movie is likely to be a sobering experience. The GDR was a chilling world where warrantless wiretapping and domestic spying ran amock. No matter how noble the objective of warrantless wiretapping, once you open those gates you find yourself on a VERY slippery slope. At the bottom of the slope is the former GDR or present-day North Korea. Neither are or were pleasant places to spend one's life.
George W. Bush would be likely to watch this movie and say "Wow, those GDR folks really had their act together. Wish we could have been more like them while I was in office!" That is precisely the point of why it's so critically important that we not sacrifice our Constitutional values out of fear. I'm all for going after terrorists, but I'd rather not live out my days in a police state - thank you very much.
Description of The Lives of Others
This critically-acclaimed, Oscar?-winning film (Best Foreign Language Film, 2006) is the erotic, emotionally-charged experience Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) calls "a nail-biter of a thriller!" Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police (Stasi). Only a few citizens above suspicion, like renowned pro-Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman, were permitted to lead private lives. But when a corrupt government official falls for Georg's stunning actress-girlfriend, Christa, an ambitious Stasi policeman is ordered to bug the writer's apartment to gain incriminating evidence against the rival. Now, what the officer discovers is about to dramatically change their lives - as well as his - in this seductive political thriller Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) proclaims is "the best kind of movie: one you can't get out of your head."
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Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, this is a first-rate thriller that, like Bertolucci's The Conformist and Coppola's The Conversation, opts for character development over car chases. The place is East Berlin, the year is 1984, and it all begins with a simple surveillance assignment: Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich M?he in a restrained, yet deeply felt performance), a Stasi officer and a specialist in this kind of thing, has been assigned to keep an eye on Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch, Black Book), a respected playwright, and his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck, Mostly Martha). Though Dreyman is known to associate with the occasional dissident, like blacklisted director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert), his record is spotless. Everything changes when Wiesler discovers that Minister Hempf (Thomas Thieme) has an ulterior motive in spying on this seemingly upright citizen. In other words, it's personal, and Wiesler's sympathies shift from the government to its people--or at least to this one particular person. That would be risky enough, but then Wiesler uses his privileged position to affect a change in Dreyman's life. The God-like move he makes may be minor and untraceable, but it will have major consequences for all concerned, including Wiesler himself. Writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck starts with a simple premise that becomes more complicated and emotionally involving as his assured debut unfolds. Though three epilogues is, arguably, two too many, The Lives of Others is always elegant, never confusing. It's class with feeling. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Beyond The Lives of Others
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