MetaChat - The Lives of Others

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15 October 2007

The Lives of Others Das Leben der Anderen is one of the best films I've ever seen. →[More:]It is considered to be "perfect" by some and has been called "one of the best movies ever made" and a character study in the guise of a stunning suspense thriller".

post by: chuckdarwin at: 14:38 | 13 comments

(I thought I'd post something about a movie that I can rave and rave about... I honestly think it deserved Best Picture)

posted by chuckdarwin 15 October | 14:44

Did you read Timothy Garton Ash's piece on it in the New York Review of Books? Great perspective.

posted by Hugh Janus 15 October | 14:49

From Garton Ash: I read [my Stasi file] and was deeply stirred by its minute-by-minute record of my past life: 325 pages of poisoned madeleine

Anyone know what 'poisoned madeleine' means?

posted by matthewr 15 October | 14:57

Wow! I have not seen that before, Hugh. DANKE.

posted by chuckdarwin 15 October | 14:59

'Poisoned madeleine' is probably a reference to Proust's Remembrance of Things Past - eating one sets off his whole five-volume saga.

posted by expialidocious 15 October | 15:04

Wait, that wasn't clear - Proust doesn't eat a poisoned one!

posted by expialidocious 15 October | 15:05

Thanks, expialidocious!

posted by matthewr 15 October | 15:24

Me too. I've been telling everyone I know about it. Last movie that got me that jazzed out of the theaters was Primer. Oh, actually, A Scanner Darkly.

posted by Ambrosia Voyeur 15 October | 16:04

YES! This is seriously one of the best films I have ever seen.

posted by sveskemus 15 October | 16:18

I liked it...but honestly I didn't see why it was completely hyped like it was. Maybe I just wasn't in the right mood when I saw it, or maybe I had too many expectations or something.

But I thought the ending was very powerful.

posted by muddgirl 15 October | 16:23

I heartily concur--I thought it was astounding. I saw it on one of my trips to town over the summer, intending it as the first of a double bill, but there was no way I could see anything else immediately after that. I had to walk around and think for a while first. Part of what I thought about was how little subtlety and complexity one finds in most movies here.

posted by elizard 15 October | 18:58

Just finished reading that article, Hugh--thanks so much. Well written, informative, insightful. Gave me more to think about.

posted by elizard 15 October | 22:11

I thought it was fairly good. Bit too long though. It's very tense at first. But after a few hours I just started wishing the Stasi would just kick the damn door down and drag him away so I could get out of the cinema without my bottom being permanently flattened.

Nice prostitution scene though, and I love those Seventies jackets. Just could have done with an hour or so less of slowly panning across the room where the guy in headphones looks all angsty...

posted by TheophileEscargot 16 October | 01:26

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