January 30, 2011
The Lives of Others
So, another foreign film, this one German. So it takes place in 1984 in East Germany, and the main character is, depending on how you look at it, either a writer who is being spied upon by the Stasi, or a Stasi agent who is spying on a writer. And beyond that the movie really delivers events at its own pace, which shouldn’t be spoiled by a writeup.
More than anything else, it’s about how absolutely warping an environment like that is, and what it does to the watchers and the watched, and if it’s maybe a little unsubtle at times, it’s nevertheless pretty damn good. Recommended to people who aren’t afraid of subtitles.