The Lives of Others

The Lives Of Others received a little bit of criticism due to the fictional nature of its story, although this of course ignores the fact that the film never claims to be anything other than historical fiction. A historical fiction that strives to find an emotional truth within its tale of a German Stasi agent and the artist he is spying on. The film succeeds in this venture in granting such a life through every facet of the story. This includes the overarching detail it grants to the chilling world of the Stasi where they mark down the name of a student even attempting to state a philosophical objection to the modus operandi of the state. The film's masterstroke though is to take the potentially tragic story of the writer, attempting even a minor form rebellion due to the ignored suicide of his friend, living in the repressive state though through the lens of the Stasi agent secretly listening the man's life in order to discover something in order to arrest the man. The film keeps a closer focus upon the agent and there is the greatness of the film particularly as realized through Ulrich Muhe's outstanding portrayal of the agent. His depiction of the man slowly changing and becoming involved in the man's story on the he only knows through spying on him embodies the greatness of the film. This power of this central idea is never wasted as it orchestrates such a compelling journey of one man. A story that could have been rife with sentimentalism however the film carefully avoids this as it just as bluntly reveals the potential harshness of the world in the story of the writer's actress girlfriend, wholly earning the central deeply moving and in the end rather inspiring tale of the spy who gives into his humanity rather than his state's mandate.
5/5