Black & White World

Leben der Anderen, Das (The Lives of Others - 2006)

I usually avoid the IMDB message boards as a matter of course, but I found myself browsing through it last night.  Main criticisms on the board appear to be accuracy and plausibility.  I can’t speak to historical accuracy in The Lives of Others, but plausibility—well, that’s a tricky thing.  What’s plausible for one viewer might be completely inconceivable to the next.

All of this is difficult to discuss and avoid spoilers, but essentially it’s this:  a character makes a choice that is completely the opposite of everything that his life up until this moment has stood for.  As the viewer, you have to decide whether you buy that choice or not.  If you don’t buy it, the rest of the movie will not work.  I bought it, but I can understand why the next guy might not.

Enough generalizations.  The performances here are excellent, particularly Ulrich Muhe as Weisler, the Stasi investigator.  He’s a pressure cooker with the lid screwed on tight; we never see him with even a button undone—even when he’s having sex with a prostitute his shirt is buttoned right up to the collar and he’s barely loosened his pants.  It’s a brilliant realization of character.  The direction, by first-timer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (!) is beyond reproach—well-paced throughout and builds effectively to the climax.  I will admit that the end employs a few too many flash-forwards and started to lose me, but the finale was worth it for me.  Recommended!  Shouldn’t have beat Pan’s Labyrinth for Foreign Language Film, though.

I’m hearing now that this film is set for a Hollywood remake in 2010.  Now, while this has several fans up in arms, that in and of itself doesn’t much bother me, if the idea is to update it to modern time and show the USA spying on its own citizens.  It’s a natural direction to go in; it might even be interesting.  The idea of a remake doesn’t bother me.  What bothers me is casting Nicolas Cage as the Weisler character.  I don’t understand why Cage continues to get work at all, to be honest.  Why?  Why, America?