At the Sinny - The Lives of Others

On Tuesday night The Dulcinea and I saw The Lives of Others (Das Leben Der Anderen). Not since Children of Men have I watched a film that was so grey. I suspect that the color scheme was more than just a metaphor for the zeitgeist of East Germany in 1984. We are immediately introduced to Gerd Wiesler, a Stasi agent. Through intercutting, we see him alternately interrogating a man as well as teaching a class about interrogation to new Stasi recruits using a tape of his work in the other scenes. Wiesler is cold and all business. After what we presume to be several hours, the man being questioned, who's been forced to sit on his hands the whole time, is ready to pass out for lack of sleep. Wiesler eventually gets the man to reveal a name and tops off his victory by saving the seat cushion that the man sat on for future use when dogs may have to follow his scent.

When approached by his friend and boss, Anton Grubitz, Wiesler's workmanlike demeanor is pushed to its limits and he relents to an invitation to the theatre. There Grubitz gets to schmooze with Minister Bruno Hempf and Wiesler is given his next assignment: to investigate the man who wrote the play they just watched, Georg Dreyman, despite his clean record and nominal dedication to the state. In this scene, we find the minister is pure fat-cat while Grubitz is an opportunist looking to climb the ladder. Wiesler is ready to tow whatever party line is thrown at him while Dreyman, seen kissing his girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland, is portrayed as the only one to display any positive human traits, as if he were the only one to feel anything as opposed to purely making calculated moves.

Dreyman's apartment is duly bugged and a command center is setup in the attic where Wiesler listens in on the playwright and his girlfriend, taking notes all the while. It was a rather unnerving watching as the Stasi crew placed the bugs in the apartment in the daylight, barely pretending that they were there for another purpose. When a neighbor across the hall sees what's happening through the peephole on her door, Wiesler approaches her and reminds the woman to stay quiet lest her daughter's position at the university be in jeopardy.

Clad in headphones as above, Wiesler listens in on the lives of others and our voyeur slowly becomes more emotionally involved with his prey. As the tape rolls and reports are written, we learn that Dreyman is a bit of a fence-sitter. On the one hand, he keeps company with radical artists, some of whom are not afraid to speak their minds. But, on the other, Dreyman himself is unwilling to speak critically of the state, at least not openly. He prefers a more apolitical stance. His own personal life is revealed to consist mostly of going home to a dull, drab apartment to be alone with this routine punctuated by visits from a prostitute who, upon being asked to stay a bit longer, tells him to schedule more time for the next visit. Wiesler proceeds to get the hots for Sieland and follows her to a tavern one night just to be in her presence. But she has no lack of men in her life for, in addition to Dreyman, Sieland succumbs to the sexual advances of Minister Hempf.

During the film it seemed like the main characters were simply trying to live their lives. Some just wanted to practice their art while others just did their job. While the ending of the film is not one where everyone lives happily ever after, it's still a happy one. By the time the credits roll, Wiesler, the man with the ever-stoic face which rarely betrays any emotion has gone from just trying to do his job to doing the right thing. We witness him undergo a change of heart. He helps Dreyman escape the wrath of the Stasi, but there's a price to be paid. I appreciated that the change was not like Ethan Edwards' in The Searchers where John Wayne's character has a sudden revelation that blood is thicker than Injun water. The conversion is slow and when our Stasi agent finally steps up and takes action, he doesn't do so in an ostentatious manner; he's not a hero who steps into the spotlight. Rather he does his good deed exactly how he committed his bad deeds – in secret and away from the eyes of others. He makes the journey from state automaton to person by helping out Dreyman who undergoes his own metamorphosis. He spent his time trying to be apolitical and avoid the prying gaze of the authorities which also means that he watched as close friends, who chose the side of freedom and stood up for something, fell victim to the Stasi's influence while he did and said nothing. Finally finding courage, he stands up by writing a piece for the West German media which draws the attention of the authorities.

I recently listened to an interview with Philip Zimbardo, the psychologist who led the Standford Prison Experiment. He talked about good people can be set down a path to commit evil and how the social surroundings abet this process. Factors such as the status quo, the expectations of authority figures, dehumanization, et al. Zimbardo also talked about the evil of inaction. The Lives of Others was a nice illustration of this and, more importantly, of the inverse. Instead of merely documenting people taking on the roles expected of them by society and maintaining the status quo, we see rare individuals opting out of the evil encouraged by their society. Wiesler changes his actions while Dreyman overcomes his fear and decides to take action.

However hackneyed, The Lives of Others is a great tale about the human spirit and the ability of people to change for the better. But it's subtle and almost meek instead of being overwrought and flashy.