The Lives of Others: Moonlight Sonata

I almost didn't see this one. I didn't even know it existed until it beat Pan's Labyrinth for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (I know that these posts make it sound like I put a lot of stock into the Academy Awards, but I really don't; Pan's was just such an experience for me that I couldn't believe that anything else could be better). And even then, this was just "That German Movie That Beat Pan's". But that changed when it became a class assignment. In my sociological theory class, one of the assignments was to attend three outside sociological texts. Buying a ticket to this movie and sitting through it counted as one, while writing a sociological analysis of it counted as another one, so I decided that it would be more fun than a few of the other options, and I could find out if it was truly better than Pan's Labyrinth. The short end to the story is that it's not. The long answer is as follows.

The story takes place in East Germany a few years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. The movie opens with a title card explaining the secret police force, known as the Stasi, whose stated goal is to, "know everything" (you gotta hand it to these guys for their honesty in their STATED purpose; I wonder what their latent purpose was!). The first scene introduces us to Wiesler, a die-hard believer in the state and the Stasi. His methods of interrogation are intense (to say the least), and he trains new recruits to be ruthless towards the people who would seek to bring down East Germany or flee to the West. The story is set up when Wiesler's superiors task him to set up surveillance on a playwright named Dreyman. Dreyman is the only non-subversive writer to be popular in both East and West Germany, which seems to counteract the need for surveillance, but the Stasi brass claim that they fear that he is only building up good favor in order to, out of nowhere, release a powerful anti-communist piece.

Soon, Dreyman's apartment is bugged, and Wiesler sets up a listening station that is monitored solely by himself and a subordinate who receives endless criticism from Wiesler. As time goes by, we see more of the lives of both Wiesler and Dreyman. Dreyman is a success both because and in spite of his government; he wishes for more artistic freedom, but is happy to oblige with his government. He lives a happy live with his beautiful girlfriend, Christa-Maria, and has meaningful relationships with his friends (even though they can be strained at times due to some anti-state sentiments present in some of them). Wiesler, on the other hand, leads a very lonely life. He is kind of like a grown up version of the schoolyard snitch; he has few (if any) friends since he would gladly turn in anyone ballsy enough to utter any anti communist sentiments. He relies on whores for companionship and is married to his work. As time goes on, he begins to envy the man he is watching.

If that wasn't strange enough, we learn the truth behind the surveillance; a high-ranking party member has a thing for Christa-Maria, and believes that if Dreyman can be arrested for ANYTHING, Christa-Maria will be his for the taking (sounds a little Sweeney Todd-ish). This obviously upsets Wiesler, but the last straw comes when he overhears a recorded song Dreyman received for his birthday.

Meanwhile, one of Dreyman's friends commits suicide due to the inability to work after being blacklisted. This causes Dreyman to lose HIS faith in the state, and he begins to do what the Stasi "feared" he would do, and begins work on a subversive story that is to be published in the West. As Dreyman attempts to stay under the radar, Wiesler begins fudging the logs to keep the man he has grown to admire safe.

As I said, The Lives of Others is, in my opinion, not as good as Pan's Labyrinth. However, it is still an incredible movie. It's too bad both films were released in the same year, since both deserved every award they were nominated for and/or won. The film paints a scary picture of life under an oppressive state, and is both uplifting and depressing at the same time. In a time when warrant-less wiretaps are a reality, this movie is incredibly relevant.

Up next: Persepolis...