Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck wrote and directed The Lives of Others as his feature debut, and it landed like a film made by someone with nothing left to prove. The German drama runs 137 minutes. It opened in Germany through Buena Vista International on 23 March 2006, reached North America through Sony Pictures Classics on 7 February 2007, and cost US$2 million. It grossed more than US$77 million worldwide. Suhrkamp Verlag published the screenplay at the same time.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Wiesler Watches Dreyman
The film is set in 1984 East Berlin. Stasi Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, code name HGW XX/7, is ordered by his friend and superior Lt. Col. Anton Grubitz to spy on playwright Georg Dreyman. Dreyman’s pro-communist politics and international recognition had kept the state from directly monitoring him. Wiesler finds a man with no known vices and no record of disloyalty or dissent at all, and the model East German life mystifies him.
Ulrich Mühe plays Wiesler. Ulrich Tukur plays Grubitz. Sebastian Koch plays Dreyman. Martina Gedeck plays Christa-Maria Sieland, Dreyman’s lover.
The Minister’s Real Reason
Wiesler and his team bug Dreyman’s apartment at the request of Minister of Culture Bruno Hempf, played by Thomas Thieme. Then Wiesler learns the truth: Hempf is not chasing disloyalty. He wants Sieland.
Hempf is having Dreyman observed not for suspicions of disloyalty or dissent, but for his own lustful interest in Dreyman’s girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland.
Wiesler intervenes, and Dreyman discovers Hempf’s coercive relationship with Sieland. Dreyman begs her not to meet Hempf again and to be true to herself. She comes home without seeing him.
Jerska, the Sonata, and the Kolibri
Blacklisted theatrical director Albert Jerska gives Dreyman sheet music for the Sonate vom Guten Menschen. Shortly afterwards, Jerska hangs himself. Dreyman realizes the GDR has not published its suicide rates since 1977 and decides to publish an article in Western media.
To test whether the flat is bugged, Dreyman and his friends stage a fake defection attempt. Wiesler, now sympathetic, does not report it, so the conspirators believe they are safe. Because all East German typewriters are registered and identifiable, an editor at Der Spiegel smuggles Dreyman a Groma Büromaschinen Kolibri. It is ultra-flat, it hides under a floorboard, and it has only a red ribbon.
| Detail | The Lives of Others |
|---|---|
| Director | Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck |
| Runtime | 137 minutes |
| German release | 23 March 2006 |
| North American release | 7 February 2007 |
| Budget | US$2 million |
| Worldwide gross | More than US$77 million |
What the Awards Confirm
The Lives of Others won the 2007 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. It had already won seven Deutscher Filmpreis awards, including best film, best director, best screenplay, best actor and best supporting actor, after setting a record with 11 nominations. It won the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language and the European Film Award for Best Film. It was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The hardware matters less than the machine at the center of the film. The Kolibri is the best idea here: a typewriter with a red ribbon that leaves a mark the state can trace, hidden under a floorboard. Surveillance is the premise, but the typewriter is the trap. Wiesler’s turn is the part that lasts.
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