This much-lauded German film (Das Leben der Anderen) hardly needs my kudos. It swept both the European Film Awards and the German Film Awards, and it won the Best Foreign Language Oscar – an instant tipoff that it’s exponentially better than whatever movie won the Best Picture Oscar. (The Departed had fortuitous industry politics working in its favor; The Lives of Others had universal global acclaim.)
If great cinema is built on themes that can be neatly encapsulated in blocks of -isms, well, The Lives of Others seamlessly deals with more than I can name: Altruism, authoritarianism, heroism, erotism, voyeurism, socialism, moralism, intellectualism, and optimism.
Last but not least, the anachronism: How can a movie packed with so many heady concepts be so goddamn entertaining, and be about East Germany’s secret police squad (the Stasi – such a fun word to say, so rare the opportunity to contextually say it)? It makes The Departed look like a tedious redundant mob flick, and Hollywood look like an ebbing cultural force.
