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What happens when a brilliant young writer/director is able to
convince some of the best acting talent in Germany to participate in
his movie? He gets an Oscar! "The Lives of Others" won the Academy of Motion Pictures Award for best Foreign Film in 2006. Absolutely amazing. The director of this movie, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, seems one of the most intelligent film artists to come out of Europe in several years. Donnersmarck speaks five languages, has a Masters Degree in philosophy from Oxford and spent a few years right out of high school living and studying in St. Petersberg Russia. It is Donnersmarck's incredible scope of knowledge and understanding of history and human nature that forms the basis of this very touching story. Of course a screenplay is only as good as its actors and Donnersmarck, through his relentless attention to detail, was able to get Ulrich Mühe to take on the role of the Stasi officer pictured here. Mr. Mühe is clearly a most accomplished actor, reminiscent of a combination of Kevin Spacey and Tony Shaloub. There are entire scenes in this film that owe their success to the incredible ability of Ulrich Mühe to show the emotional landscape of the character without words. He is one of those actors who can tell an entire story with a single look. Even more appropriate to this role is the fact that Ulrich Mühe himself was under Stasi observation for many years. Only after the fall of the regime did he find out that even his very own wife had been a Stasi informer for six years. In addition, his theater company in Berlin - which in many ways is a lot like a working family to an actor - had been infiltrated by four Stasi agents whose sole purpose was to spy on him. Mr. Mühe found these details when he requested to be able to see his Stasi file (which all German citizens may do at this point). The work of outstanding talent like Ulrich Mühe is just one aspect that helped the success of this movie. Music is another. The director wrote multitudes of letters to Gabriel Yared. In Donnersmarcks own words - normally Gabriel had a music budget that was the equivalent of our entire production budget. And again, through what I am sure was the force of his intellect and power of his writing the director of this movie was able to get the cooperation of a first rate talent. |
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One of the best movies of 2003. Here is what ImDb says: The
words German and comedy don't often fit together, but Good Bye, Lenin!
is an exception, a stinging political satire that shows the impact
on a close-knit East German family of the events that shook Germany
to its foundations in 1989. The film, which won nine prizes at the
2003 German Film Awards, including best director for Wolfgang Becker,
and best actor for Daniel Brühl, interweaves comedy with a message
of political change and the story of a boy's love for his mother,
an unusual brew for those accustomed to Hollywood romantic comedies
that often seem to take place in a vacuum. |
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Wikipedia has sections on the Stasi in German and English (different content) as well as Numbers Stations |
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NPR ran a story some time ago about "Numbers Stations". Radio stations that operated in support of various espionage efforts. (click the image) |