Thursday, November 22, 2007

We watched DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN, the Oscar winner that beat out EL LABERINTO DE FAUNO (PAN'S LABYRINTH) for the foreign language Oscar last year. Ulrich Mühe manages to be beautifully expressive in his minimalism as the secret policeman who is losing his belief in the system; Sebastian Koch is lovely as the Party approved writer whose rival is a powerful government minister.

It's interesting to watch as the meticulous Stasi guy sets up his surveillance, how much it plays like an American police procedural. Except now we're not rooting for the cop. We're worried about the guy being surveilled.

In these times where we hear so much about people who want to blow us up, it's worth remembering that it is not so nice to live in a state where the police are all-knowing, either. And it's worth watching how the very measures the State takes to protect itself against a group of people radicalizes those people and turns neutrals and even supporters into enemies.

But politics aside: a beautiful story beautifully told.

Labels: watching movies

10:44 PM

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Back to Complications Ensue main blog page.