Critic Reviews
Lives of Others, The (2007) Rank 5 Reviews
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Seattle Times (John Hartl)
What you're likely to take away from his Oscar-nominated drama in the foreign-language category is a sense of hope that feels neither forced nor sentimental. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Seattle Times (John Hartl)
Cinema Signals (Jules Brenner)
When the Berlin Wall came down -- the one seperating East and West Germany -- an unimaginable opportunity opened up. The repressed and unjustly imprisoned victims of a totalitarian regime were suddenly able to learn what the party had on them. Artists, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Cinema Signals (Jules Brenner)
RopeofSilicon (Paula Nechak)
Suspense, love, art and politics fuse and foment in The Lives of Others, the German entry for Best Foreign Film at this year's Academy Awards - and in a year where Almodovar's Volver was ignored, this at least deserves its nomination and advance praise. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at RopeofSilicon (Paula Nechak)
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
What's even more astounding is that this is the feature debut from German writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who previously had made a few shorts and done some TV work. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
von Donnersmarck makes a breathtaking debut with a gripping and fluid drama that works as political thriller, psychological study and even ... a touching love story. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
MovieMaze.de (Thomas Straßer)
In seinem Regiedebüt inszeniert Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck menschliche Dramen vor dem Hintergrund des Ãśberwachungsapparates der DDR. Der zurückhaltende Film beeindruckt durch ein hervorragendes Drehbuch, eine punktgenaue Inszenierung sowie ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at MovieMaze.de (Thomas Straßer)
filmrezension.de (Tobias Vetter)
Die ersten Bilder sind erschütternd: Sie zeigen, mit welchen Methoden Wiesler Verdächtige in einem dunklen Verlies verhört. Wiesler arbeitet berechnend und präzise, während die Verhörten weinen. Die Verhörszenen werden allerdings immer wieder ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at filmrezension.de (Tobias Vetter)
rec.arts.movies.reviews (Karina Montgomery)
Subtle and delightful - please see review. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at rec.arts.movies.reviews (Karina Montgomery)
Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's film is a melodrama in a minor key, quietly affecting, quietly chilling, quietly quiet. It captures the drab architecture of totalitarianism, the soul-dead buildings of a soul-dead state. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Orlando Sentinel (Roger Moore)
Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
So, what's the heftily named Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck going to do for an encore? In his debut, he's produced one of the best dramas to come out of Europe in the first decade of the 21st century, and expectations are so high for the next one that ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
MovieFreak.com (Sara M. Fetters)
The Lives of Others isn't just good it is damn good, an instant masterpiece of paranoia and forgiveness with echoes of Coppola, Wadja and Bergman all rolled up inside one fantastically intoxicating package. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at MovieFreak.com (Sara M. Fetters)
filmcritic.com (Matt McKillop)
The Lives of Others is a rare film. It's a solemn work of art, a thrilling piece of entertainment, and a heart-wrenching portrait of both compassion and oppression. Set in East Berlin in 1984, the film starkly dramatizes the atmosphere of secrecy and ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at filmcritic.com (Matt McKillop)
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)
Offers potent, eye-opening drama, as well as poignant characters that are caught up in a repressive, evil system. It's a movie not to be missed. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Jack Garner)
Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Eleanor Ringel Gillespie)
Poised between Kafka and Tom Cruise, The Lives of Others is the sort of movie that constantly engages you. You never know what's going to happen next, and it's all done with a precision and intelligence that's rare in movies these days. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Eleanor Ringel Gillespie)
Detroit News (Tom Long)
A political thriller that's consistently as inventive as it is creepy. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Detroit News (Tom Long)
Maxim (Pete Hammond)
A startling political thriller and the year's most urgent and important film, you owe it to yourself to see this beautifully written and directed movie. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Maxim (Pete Hammond)
St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)
As suspenseful and witty as any movie scene in years, that sequence comes at a crucial moment in "The Lives of Others," the spellbinding Oscar nominee from Germany. An intricately plotted thriller about good people who do bad things and bad people who do ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt)
San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)
Before collapsing under the weight of its own paranoia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was neither discernibly democratic, nor in any sense a republic. Its doctrinal theology was based upon the omnipotence of its surveillance network, and its ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at San Jose Mercury News (Bruce Newman)
Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)
Lives is a best-foreign-film nominee competing in a year that at least three movies in this category are stronger than Oscar's best-picture contenders. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Philadelphia Inquirer (Carrie Rickey)
Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)
It's so full-blooded, smart, sexy, tense and absorbing, so cleverly written and shot and cut, so filled with superb acting and music, so perfect in its closing moment, that it surely ranks with the most impressive debuts in world cinema. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Portland Oregonian (Shawn Levy)
Zertinet Movies (Steven Snyder)
Director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck begins the film (which is nominated for an Oscar this weekend as best foreign film) in an East German school before the fall of the Berlin Wall, as Stasi security experts teach a new generation about the ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Zertinet Movies (Steven Snyder)
Palo Alto Online (Jeanne Aufmuth)
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (say that 10 times fast) crafts a personal drama about the nightmarish years of East Germany's creative cold war. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Palo Alto Online (Jeanne Aufmuth)
San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)
A great film, the best I've seen since Terrence Malick's "The New World," and far and away the richest and most brilliantly acted picture to be released this Oscar season. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at San Francisco Chronicle (Mick LaSalle)
TV Guide's Movie Guide (Ken Fox)
A disturbingly accurate depiction of a national nightmare that ultimately transcends its immediate political statement to stand as a future classic of the political-thriller genre. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at TV Guide's Movie Guide (Ken Fox)
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
The week's Oscar win by "The Lives of Others" as Best Foreign Language Film may have surprised many, but any who have seen this lean yet intense film were hardly shocked. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
EmanuelLevy.com (Emanuel Levy)
Announcing the arrival of an extremely gifted director, this is at once a fascinating political thriller and a touching human drama that chronicles the shattering impact of the Secret Police not only on its citizens but also on its own officers. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at EmanuelLevy.com (Emanuel Levy)
Contra Costa Times (Mary F. Pols)
This is an elegant film that deserves to be a classic -- and an Oscar winner. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Contra Costa Times (Mary F. Pols)
Boxoffice Magazine
A delicate cross between a Robert Ludlum political thriller and Francis Coppola's voyeuristic nightmare The Conversation, The Lives of Others, which swept the German Film Awards, is a fascinating look into the political and psychological underpinnings of ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Boxoffice Magazine
Slate (Dana Stevens)
It's an intricate, ambiguous and deeply satisfying movie, a tautly plotted tale of state surveillance and personal betrayal that ultimately becomes an ode to the transformative power of art. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Slate (Dana Stevens)
USA Today (Claudia Puig)
A thoroughly compelling political thriller, at once intellectually challenging and profoundly emotional. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at USA Today (Claudia Puig)
Washington Post (Desson Thomson)
To watch "Lives" is not just to enjoy a fabulously constructed timepiece; it's to appreciate a deft cautionary tale. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Washington Post (Desson Thomson)
Film Threat (Matthew Sorrento)
von Donnersmarck creates a milieu so realistic that the attention-worthy setting becomes just a backdrop, while an intricate tale, as suspenseful as it is humanistic, takes over. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Film Threat (Matthew Sorrento)
Time (Richard Corliss)
Smartly crafted, impeccably acted, The Lives of Others packs a subtle punch, from its creepy first images to its poignant finale. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Time (Richard Corliss)
Denver Rocky Mountain News (Robert Denerstein)
Morally complex, beautifully shaded and filled with fascinating characters, this debut film from director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck brings us into a world that severely tests moral fiber. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Denver Rocky Mountain News (Robert Denerstein)
ColeSmithey.com (Cole Smithey)
Donnersmarck's confident direction suggests a fundamental question about why governmental wiretapping seems fascistic when performed in other countries, but permissible here. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at ColeSmithey.com (Cole Smithey)
The New Yorker (Anthony Lane)
If there is any justice, this year's Academy Award for best foreign-language film will go to The Lives of Others, a movie about a world in which there is no justice. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The New Yorker (Anthony Lane)
New York Times (A.O. Scott)
The Lives of Others is a supremely intelligent, unfailingly honest look at a shadowy period in recent German history. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Times (A.O. Scott)
rec.arts.movies.reviews (Laura Clifford)
...while the genre often reflects paranoia, von Donnersmarck succeeds in hammering home how the right to privacy is integral to our human makeup. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at rec.arts.movies.reviews (Laura Clifford)
Minneapolis Star Tribune (Colin Covert)
The exceptionally acted film, nominated for a foreign-language Oscar, is an incisive character study, a suspenseful paranoid thriller and a vivid recreation of recent history. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Minneapolis Star Tribune (Colin Covert)
The Baltimore Sun
The life of the theater gives The Lives of Others its spark, verve and profundity. Even fans of Pan's Labyrinth (like me) may leave thinking this movie deserved its best foreign-language film Oscar. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Baltimore Sun
TV Guide (Ken Fox)
A tense and tightly plotted fictional thriller is based on real tactics used by the Stasi -- East Germany's secret police force -- to spy on and interrogate their own citizens. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at TV Guide (Ken Fox)
Sympatico.ca (Angela Baldassarre)
Remember those wonderfully crafted movies that you can’t get out of your head like “The Godfather” or “The Piano”? Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s “The Lives of Others” is precisely that kind of film, perfect in every respect, and memor ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Sympatico.ca (Angela Baldassarre)
Leonard Maltin's Picks
This year’s Oscar winner as Best Foreign Language Film isn’t sentimental or life-affirming, like so many recent awardees. It’s a fascinating, clear-eyed look at life in East Germany (the German Democratic Republic, or GDR) in the early 1980s, when ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Leonard Maltin's Picks
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
As a Cold War thriller, The Lives of Others is gripping stuff replete with the nuts and bolts of all-encompassing surveillance. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
Compuserve (Harvey S. Karten)
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's film, "The Lives of Others,"
is so deftly written it can be compared to Bert Brecht's political
plays ("Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny," for example)
and Costa-Gavras's political thrillers ("Z," as a case). ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Compuserve (Harvey S. Karten)
One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)
Works as a dramatically compelling indictment of a particularly odious regime, but also as a commentary on the corruption of power in the broadest sense. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at One Guy's Opinion (Frank Swietek)
Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)
At its height of power in Cold War East Germany, the Stasi (the German Democratic Republic’s Secret Police) had some 100000 employees and 200000 informers whose job it was “to know everything” about the 17 million citizens of the GDR. Captain Gerd ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Reeling Reviews (Robin and Laura Clifford)
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Philip Martin)
...resolved through a couple of endings, one brutal and tragic enough for the old Greeks, the other graceful and uplifting ... ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Philip Martin)
Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)
Utterly riveting fictional drama. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Entertainment Weekly (Lisa Schwarzbaum)
Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
It convincingly demonstrates that when done right, moral and political quandaries can be the most intensely dramatic dilemmas of all. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan)
The New Republic (Stanley Kauffmann)
Despite the fact that parts of this film remind us of past pictures with comparable themes, the director and his actors make it immediate, gripping. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The New Republic (Stanley Kauffmann)
New York Magazine (David Edelstein)
Ulrich Mühe gives a marvelously self-contained performance. There isn't an ounce of fat on his body, or in his acting: He has pared himself down to a pair of eyes that prowl the faces of his character's countrymen for signs of arrogance--i.e., of ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Magazine (David Edelstein)
Newsweek (David Ansen)
It's hard to believe this is von Donnersmarck's first feature. His storytelling gifts have the novelistic richness of a seasoned master. The accelerating plot twists are more than just clever surprises; they reverberate with deep and painful ironies, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Newsweek (David Ansen)
Austin Chronicle (Josh Rosenblatt)
Like all great screen performances, Mühe's magic comes out most in its tiniest moments: a raised eyebrow here, a slight upturn of the lips there. It's a triumph of muted grandeur; it's like watching someone being born. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Austin Chronicle (Josh Rosenblatt)
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
With solid performances and a terrific screenplay, this movie offers solid, no-frills drama that feels organic and believable, not contrived. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
Premiere (Glenn Kenny)
von Donnersmarck delivers something extraordinary and rare: a thriller that's entirely adult in both its concerns and perspective which manages to be as thoroughly gripping as any finely tuned albeit adolescent Hollywood nail-biter. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Premiere (Glenn Kenny)
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Rick Groen)
A movie that combines the Cold War intrigue of John Le Carré with the wired buzz of Francis Ford Coppola's "The Conversation" -- one of those rare two-hour-plus pictures that runs long but plays bracingly, excitingly short. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Globe and Mail (Toronto) (Rick Groen)
Boston Globe (Ty Burr)
The Lives of Others has similarities to Francis Ford Coppola's 1974 classic "The Conversation" but with undercurrents that resound across an entire century of European political history. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Boston Globe (Ty Burr)
Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)
Von Donnersmarck has crafted the best kind of movie: one you can't get out of your head. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Rolling Stone (Peter Travers)
New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
Except for Hempf, every character is under incredible duress, and the performances are exceptional. With his first feature, an Oscar nominee for foreign-language film, von Donnersmarck has certainly left his mark. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
New York Post (Lou Lumenick)
The skillfully acted and directed The Lives of Others is a timely warning about governments that seek to repress dissent. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Post (Lou Lumenick)
Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)
"At its best, privacy shields and nurtures what is unique and authentic in people, while its absence or its violation often contributes to dehumanizing them," Janna Malamud Smill writes in Private Matters: In Defense of the Personal Life. "Privacy ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Spirituality & Health (Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat)
Reel.com
A 2006 Oscar nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, Florian Henckel von Donnersmark's The Lives of Others captures the pervasive, soul-crushing anxiety of life in pre-glasnost East Berlin with chilling authenticity. In his remarkably accomplished ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Reel.com
L.A. Daily News
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's astounding debut, "The Lives of Others," shows how first-rate thrillers don't have to feature buildings crashing into Venetian canals, high body counts or even bullets for that matter. The movie, set primarily in 1980s ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at L.A. Daily News
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
There is a delicate balance between love and sex, art and life, surveillance and voyeurism, survival and collaboration. And this year's Oscar-winning best foreign-language film, "The Lives of Others," is a portrait of how any person, or country, walking ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
Chicago Tribune
"The Lives of Others" takes place in a world of systematic terror and freezing paranoia, an informer's society of secret police and betrayers in Communist East Germany. The time is the Orwellian 1984, five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall--and ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Chicago Tribune
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Political correctness in the so-called German Democratic Republic (1950-1990) wasn't a matter of social disapproval but of survival or death. "The Lives of Others," surprise winner of this year's Oscar for best foreign language film, is both a chilling ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
The little gray man has an oblong head, bald on the top, with a trim salt-and-pepper cut on the sides. His face is pale, his features bland -- not sharp, not soft, but somewhat indistinct, except for his steel blue eyes. It's the face of an invisible ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)
It is 1984 (really, it is) five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall. East Germany exists as a police state with over 300,000 of its citizens spying on one another. STASI, the secret police sets its focus on one of the only state approved play ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Lobo Howls (Judith Wolfe)
Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer)
The director is fortunate to have cast actors who fully embody their roles. Muehe, who once played Josef Mengele in Costa-Gavras's "Amen," has the ability to let you see far beneath his masklike countenance. Koch, dashing and intense, is entirely ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Christian Science Monitor (Peter Rainer)
Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Sean Axmaker)
Mühe's performance is brilliant, communicating more turmoil and pain with the droop of a lip and a flicker of the eye across an otherwise intently passive face than all the emotional storms of the cast. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Sean Axmaker)
The Phantom Tollbooth
Ah, those East German police. They were suspicious of anyone and everyone. In this story by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and set a few years before the Berlin Wall fell, a group of actors and playwrights were considered “suspicious.” An order was ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Phantom Tollbooth
Film Journal International (David Noh)
The Lives of Others takes place in East Berlin, 1984, with glasnost a distant dream, a city dominated by the Stasi, the government secret police/intelligence organization which kept close tabs on the entire population. Devoted Stasi member Gerd Wiesler ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Film Journal International (David Noh)
PopMatters (Cynthia Fuchs)
In East Berlin 1984, Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) believes in what he does. A Stasi captain and surveillance expert, he implacably pursues his directive, “to know everything.” He doesn’t question what that knowledge might mean, or how it might be sha ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at PopMatters (Cynthia Fuchs)
Baltimore City Paper (Lee Gardner)
When Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) attends the opening night of the new play by Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), he spends the evening training his opera glasses on the audience, not the stage. A captain in the Communist-era East German secret police, the Stasi, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Baltimore City Paper (Lee Gardner)
Talking Pictures (UK)
German filmmakers, in contrast to their frank portrayals of Nazi horrors, have mostly dealt with the misdeeds of the Communist system by poking fun at the bumbling apparatchiks of the GDR in comedies such as Good Bye Lenin. Interestingly, 56% of the ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Talking Pictures (UK)
Salon.com (Andrew O'Hehir)
It's a week of riches here at Your Home for Thought-Provoking Entertainment (TM), what with the arrival of two of 2007's most-anticipated foreign films, and yet another reminder that there's a war going on over there, somewhere, which remains a political ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Salon.com (Andrew O'Hehir)
Scary and realistic, THE LIVES OF OTHERS (DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN) follows the
workings of the Secret Police, the "Statsi," in East Germany. This
organization, which, we are told, had 100,000 employees, was responsible for
spying on its fellow citizens ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at
NYC Film Critic (Ethan Alter)
If Guillermo Del Toro's marvelous Pan's Labyrinth weren't also in the running, my first and only pick to take home this year's Best Foreign Language Oscar would be the German entry, The Lives of Others. Written and directed by Florian Henckel von ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at NYC Film Critic (Ethan Alter)
Jam! Movies (Jim Slotek)
It is an emotionally powerful movie that doesn't leave you when you walk out the theatre doors. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Jam! Movies (Jim Slotek)
Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)
A terrific debut film for writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, The Lives of Others is set in the years just prior to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, at the height of the secret police (the Stasi, as they are known in East Germany) ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Qwipster's Movie Reviews (Vince Leo)
eye WEEKLY
Mired in shades of grey, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s smart, difficult film is as true to the story’s internal workings as to its historical snapshot of East Germany in 1984. Mühe plays a Stasi agent, assigned to spy on two potential ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at eye WEEKLY
Salon.com (Stephanie Zacharek)
This is a teasingly complex political thriller, but it's also a sort-of romance. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Salon.com (Stephanie Zacharek)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)
Good drama it is, and it's drama that raises a lot of questions, but I found it less tense than many. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)
Sacramento News & Review (Jim Lane)
...let's hear it for the Academy: They got this one right. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Sacramento News & Review (Jim Lane)
Variety (Derek Elley)
Superbly cast drama… that looks to be a solid upscale attraction wherever the special chemistry of good writing and performances is appreciated. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Variety (Derek Elley)
Film Threat (Rich Cline)
Not only expertly captures a specific point in history, but also offers a bracing examination of human nature. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Film Threat (Rich Cline)
The Hollywood Reporter (Eric Hansen)
Starts out dark and challenging then comes to a startlingly satisfying and warmly human conclusion that lingers long after the curtain has come down. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Hollywood Reporter (Eric Hansen)
About.com (Jurgen Fauth)
Brings the large and small betrayals of the doomed republic to paranoia-inducing life. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at About.com (Jurgen Fauth)
LYTRules.com (Luke Y. Thompson)
I don't know about you, but when I hear someone say something like, "Oh, this movie isn't REALLY a monster movie -- it's actually a family drama at heart!", I just want to tell them to fuck off. Who decided that family drama audiences and monster movie ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at LYTRules.com (Luke Y. Thompson)
Urban Cinefile (Urban Cinefile Critics)
There's nothing subtle or restrained about the themes of The Lives Of Others, as it explores oppression and personal liberty under the Secret Police in 80s East Germany. Yet this heart-jolting film from first time writer/director Florian Henkel von ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Urban Cinefile (Urban Cinefile Critics)
Wall Street Journal (Joe Morgenstern)
Stalin, as someone notes in "The Lives of Others," liked to call writers "engineers of the human soul." It was an ignorant notion, as well as a malevolent one. Souls resist engineering, and writers -- at least those worth getting excited about -- work ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Wall Street Journal (Joe Morgenstern)
New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
A riveting drama about playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria (Martina Gedeck) and the Stasi agent who has wired their apartment and is spying on them in East Berlin. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
Detroit Free Press (Terry Lawson)
Few would deny that The Lives of Others is true to its self, and in its depiction of human nature -- and human spirit. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Detroit Free Press (Terry Lawson)
New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
A riveting drama about playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), his actress girlfriend Christa-Maria (Martina Gedeck) and the Stasi agent who has wired their apartment and is spying on them in East Berlin. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Daily News (Jack Mathews)
Denver Post (Lisa Kennedy)
It is Ulrich Muhe's portrayal of Wiesler that makes the film such an impressively humane political thriller. The muted shifts in Wiesler's character suggest that when you truly engage the lives of others, you open yourself to profound change. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Denver Post (Lisa Kennedy)
South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Laura Kelly)
Von Donnersmarck's story is not without a blatant non-Communist calling card, or even a moment or two of melodrama. But he zeroes in on the value of the individual in an era where such a value was not supposed to exist. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Laura Kelly)
Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)
The last line, the last look, the last moment: every movie lover knows that the ending can make or break a film. The Lives of Others -- which just won a very well deserved Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film -- has one of the greatest final lines of ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Flick Filosopher (MaryAnn Johanson)
Film Freak Central (Walter Chaw)
It has a heart you believe in and a working brain to match. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Film Freak Central (Walter Chaw)
Groucho Reviews (Peter Canavese)
If the story of a stodgy but conflicted Stasi captain gives sympathy to a historical devil, it also allows for an intriguing angle on the evergreen cinematic theme of voyeurism. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Groucho Reviews (Peter Canavese)
Political Film Society
The Lives of Others (Das Leben der anderen), directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, is a German film that depicts life in East Germany. When the movie begins, titles reveal that the secret police numbered 100,000 and informants were 200,000. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Political Film Society
Video Reviews with Joan Ellis
The Lives of Others” is a superb rendering of a culture both dead and alive. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck has written and directed this film that unfolds in the Orwellian state of East Germany in 1984 when the secret police, the Stasi, cast a ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Video Reviews with Joan Ellis
Plume Noire
It's not hard to believe that The Lives of Others became an audience fave on the festival circuit as director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's debut mixes politics, art and morals in a sober mainstream film led by a strong cast. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Plume Noire
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Gerd Weisler (Ulrich Muhe), a quietly ruthless interrogator for the secret police (i.e., the Stasi, with an enormous network of 200,000 informants whose job it was to learn everything possible about "the lives of others"), is assigned to wiretap the ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
The Onion (A.V. Club) (Noel Murray)
von Donnersmarck gives his debut feature, The Lives Of Others, no particular style, and the absence of visual risk-taking renders an exciting premise ponderous and stolid. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Onion (A.V. Club) (Noel Murray)
Time Out
This remarkably assured first feature, set mostly in East Berlin during the mid-1980s, chronicles the consequences of the Minister of Culture’s decision to investigate the lives of a successful playwright and his actress wife; those profoundly ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Time Out
The Nation (Stuart Klawans)
They come out of Europe during Oscar season, wreathed in more than a dozen awards. The Lives of Others, from Germany, tells of suffering in the East during the 1980s, as supervised by the GDR's secret police. Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams, from ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Nation (Stuart Klawans)
Time Out New York (Melissa Anderson)
Set on the cusp of the Cold War’s thaw-out, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s debut feature revisits an East Germany whose surveillance system would make the NSA emerald green with envy. These were the glory days of the Stasi, the German Democratic ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Time Out New York (Melissa Anderson)
Indiewire
Curiously - or perhaps not - the four decades of economic hardship and political oppression endured by the citizens of the former German Democratic Republic have, in the years since reunification, given way to "Ostalgie," a pervasive nostalgia for life ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Indiewire
Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)
Set in East Berlin circa 1984, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's feature debut -- a 2006 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee -- is a careful listener and a quiet observer, telling the tale of the fascinating tête-à -tête between playwright Georg ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)
allesfilm.com (Christiane Kalss)
Der recht regimeunkritisch anmutende Schriftsteller Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) lebt mit seiner Freundin, der Schauspielerin Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), im Ostberlin der 80-er Jahre ein Künstlerleben zwischen Konfrontation mit den ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at allesfilm.com (Christiane Kalss)
PopMatters
Within days, Wiesler and his team set up an elaborate system of surveillance, with microphones carefully hidden throughout the artist’s apartment. For weeks after, Wiesler sits with headphones encasing his face and a journal in front of him, dutifully ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at PopMatters
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Muhe plays Gerd Weisler, a no-nonsense captain in the secret police. The year is 1984, and the security apparatus is a well-oiled machine that combines betrayal and coercion with electronic surveillance. Even the most seemingly ardent communist can be ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Jolie Williamson)
Set in 1984, the film tells the story of a dedicated agent of the Stasi -- the East German secret police -- who is spying on a playwright. But instead of concentrating on bringing about the writer's downfall, Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) becomes fascinated by ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (Jolie Williamson)
Creative Loafing (Matt Brunson)
Pan's Labyrinth deserved to win the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar, of course, but the Academy's selection of The Lives of Others hardly qualifies as an outrage. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Creative Loafing (Matt Brunson)
Hollywood.com (Betsy Bozdech)
Human nature trumps all in [this] thoughtful, engrossing tale of intrigue and instinct in 1980s East Germany. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Hollywood.com (Betsy Bozdech)
Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)
Its suspense builds on the fragile and nuanced business of emotional rebirth. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Houston Chronicle (Amy Biancolli)
Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)
A powerful new film from Germany, “The Lives of Others,” shown at the 2006 Toronto international Film Festival, zeroes in on life under the Stasi secret police before the Berlin wall came down. Wrtten and directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Wolf Entertainment Guide (William Wolf)
Cutting Edge
DDR, Oost–Berlijn, 1984. De muur scheidt West van Oost. Iedereen wordt geleefd door de Stasi, de Oost–Duitse geheime politie. Hun belangrijkste taak: ervoor zorgen dat de ideologie van het nationaalsocialisme wordt nageleefd en nagestreefd. Concreet ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Cutting Edge
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)
Will remind some of 'The Conversation,' but a closer if less obvious link is 'Fahrenheit 451': Wiesler is essentially Bradbury's conflicted 'fireman,' Montag, transported from a dystopian science-fiction future to a dystopian historical past. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)
The New York Times (A.O. Scott)
''The Lives of Others'' is haunted by a piece of music called ''Sonata for a Good Man,'' composed for the film by Gabriel Yared and, at the same time, magically familiar to some of its characters. Like the story that surrounds it -- a suspenseful, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The New York Times (A.O. Scott)
Scary and realistic, THE LIVES OF OTHERS (DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN) follows the workings of the Secret Police, the "Statsi," in East Germany. This organization, which, we are told, had 100,000 employees, was responsible for spying on its fellow citizens in ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at
Richmond Times-Dispatch (Daniel Neman)
The ending is important to "The Lives of Others." At two or three other places, it could have ended and been a completely different movie, though nearly as good. But Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, making an extraordinary debut as a writer-director, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Richmond Times-Dispatch (Daniel Neman)
Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
The fictional story here, set between 1984 and 1991, focuses on the investigation of a popular and patriotic playwright (Sebastian Koch); that the captain assigned to his case (touchingly played by Ulrich Mühe) is mainly sympathetic and working ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Chicago Reader (Jonathan Rosenbaum)
Village Voice (J. Hoberman)
A compelling thriller but an unsatisfying character drama. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Village Voice (J. Hoberman)
San Diego Metropolitan (Jean Lowerison)
There's been a lot of buzz about "The Lives of Others" since its nomination for the foreign film Oscar. In my world, this wouldn't win it, but neither would "Pan's Labyrinth" or "Water," the only other nominees I have seen. My choice wasn't nominated. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at San Diego Metropolitan (Jean Lowerison)
Comingsoon.net
In 1949, George Orwell's novel "1984" predicted that people would be constantly watched by a "Big Brother" government. In this country, it's taken 20 extra years for the government to take a cue from the classic sci-fi novel, but the haunting resemblance ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Comingsoon.net
Cinematical (Martha Fischer)
At the center of The Lives of Others is Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), a quietly proud Stasi officer who has spent his life and career in unquestioning service of the East German government. His service is not blind: Wiesler is a man who serves with full ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Cinematical (Martha Fischer)
New York Magazine (David Edelstein)
A s Gerd Wiesler, a masterful interrogator in the East German secret police (the “Stasi”) and the fulcrum of the fraught melodrama The Lives of Others, Ulrich Mühe gives a marvelously self-contained performance. There isn’t an ounce of fat on his b ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at New York Magazine (David Edelstein)
Reeler (Michelle Orange)
Von Donnersmarck proves himself beyond doubt, moving with purpose toward a grace note of quiet benediction. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Reeler (Michelle Orange)
artechock (Rüdiger Suchsland)
Es gibt einen Moment, so ungefähr in der Mitte von DAS LEBEN DER ANDEREN, da weint Gerd Wiesler. Es ist nur eine einzige lange Träne, die stumm und kalt am Nasenflügel dieses harten Mannes hinunter flieÃźt, dessen übriges Gesicht dabei nahezu ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at artechock (Rüdiger Suchsland)
The Arizona Republic
There's a similar restraint at work in the dramatic arc of The Lives of Others, which has won numerous awards in Europe and is nominated for an Oscar as best foreign film. The antagonists, a famous playwright and the Stasi officer assigned to eavesdrop ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at The Arizona Republic
City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Beloved in its homeland (and recently nominated for a Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar), The Lives of Others is the first feature by 33-year-old writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, whose Oxford education in philosophy, political science, ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at City Pages, Minneapolis/St. Paul
Nick's Flick Picks (Nick Davis)
The formal mechanisms are so obvious and impersonal that they flatten our modes of thinking and feeling almost as much as the propaganda films that a regime like East Germany's would have approved. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Nick's Flick Picks (Nick Davis)
Film-Forward.com (Kent Turner)
A refreshing alternative to the whimsical and nostalgic look back on Communist life in Good Bye Lenin! ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Film-Forward.com (Kent Turner)
Movies for the Masses (Joseph Proimakis)
It's so beautifully made, that people tend to oversee it's weak character transformation that's at the heart of the script, which strikes the drama's credibility. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Movies for the Masses (Joseph Proimakis)
Haro Online
The Lives of Others just got a shot of free publicity by winning the 2007 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. This award continues a streak of wins, including 7 German Film Awards (in most major categories), 4 additional nominations, and a slew of other ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Haro Online
Toronto Star (Geoff Pevere)
Writer-director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's movie about the stirring of a cold, Communist soul manages to be both painstakingly docudramatic and moistly idealistic at the same time. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Toronto Star (Geoff Pevere)
Slant Magazine
Though The Lives of Others is the film debut of Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, it clearly articulates both the thirtysomething German director's technical facility and his understanding of palatably packaged cultural history as the safest road to the ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Slant Magazine
Reel Film Reviews (David Nusair)
Sporadically interesting but primarily dull, The Lives of Others revolves around several characters as they attempt to navigate the treacherous and thoroughly paranoid waters of the former East Berlin - with the emphasis placed on a loyal Stasi agent ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Reel Film Reviews (David Nusair)
Newsday (Jan Stuart)
Rich in authentic period atmosphere and performances, but sabotages its best efforts with a sentimental payoff. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Newsday (Jan Stuart)
Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)
Though likely cathartic for his countrymen, Donnersmarck's airing of German dirty laundry could have used more agitation. ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Boulder Weekly (Thomas Delapa)
LA Weekly (Scott Foundas)
The Lives of Others wants us to see that the Stasi -- at least some of them -- were, like their Gestapo brethren, “just following orders." You can call that naive optimism on Donnersmarck's part, or historical revisionism of the sort duly lambasted by ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at LA Weekly (Scott Foundas)
Exclaim!
He’s Gerd Weisler (Ulrich Muhe), a lonely surveillance man who seems disconnected from both his own existence and the people whose lives he’s hired to ruin. Like Harry Caul in The Conversation, he’s a man with no life beyond his job and no way of ...read the complete Lives of Others movie review at Exclaim!
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