The Lives of Others: (Das Leben Der Anderen)(BFI Film Classics)

This study offers a fresh approach to the remarkable German film The Lives of Others (2006), known for its compelling representation of a Stasi surveillance officer and the moral and ethical turmoil that results when he begins spying on a playwright and his actress lover. Annie Ring analyses the film's cinematography, mise-en-scène and editing, tracing connections with Hollywood movies such as Casablanca and Hitchcock's Torn Curtain in the film's portrayal of an individual rebelling against a brutal dehumanising regime. Drawing on archival sources, including primary research from the Stasi files themselves, as well as Enlightenment philosophies of art and Brecht's theories on theatre dating from his GDR years, she explores the film's strong but much-disputed claims to historical authenticity. She examines the way the film tracks the world-changing political shift that took place at the end of the Cold War – away from the collective dreams of socialism and towards the dreams of the private individual, arguing that this is what makes it at once widely appealing and fascinatingly problematic. In doing so, she highlights why The Lives of Others is a crucial film for thinking at the horizon between film and recent world history.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Introduction 1. A Contemporary Classic - and a Conservative One? 2. The Authenticity of a Very Hollywood Film Mode 3. Depicting the Stasi's Surveillance Regime 4. The Good Spy of East Berlin: Captain Gerd Weisler 5. Brecht, Performance, and the Politics of an Aesthetic Education 6. 'Sister Art Is/Coming on Stage': Christa- Maria Sieland 7. Success? Georg Dreyman and German Unification Conclusion Notes Credits Bibliography

About the Author :
Annie Ring is Associate Professor of German and comparative film, literature and cultural theory at UCL, UK. Her research focuses on film, surveillance, technology and the politics of subjectivity. She is author of After the Stasi (Bloomsbury Academic, 2015). She is co-editor of Architecture and Control (2018), Uncertain Archives: Critical Keywords for Big Data (2021) and has contributed to The German Cinema Book (British Film Institute, 2020).

Review :
A considered study of the 2006 Oscar-winner. What makes a classic film? Annie Ring offers intriguing answers to this question in an accessible and engaging volume with breath-taking range and intriguing depth. From surveillance to melodrama and from Brecht to Hitchcock, she covers the myriad facets of a modern-day classic, The Lives of Others. This original and fascinating analysis makes a compelling case for including The Lives of Others in the canon of contemporary classic cinema. Anyone who has watched von Donnersmarck's Stasi melodrama will profit from reading Annie Ring's well-researched and accessible book. Ring's writing style is consistently clear, elegant and concise, making her arguments easy to follow and understand. Her passion for the topic is evident throughout the book, and she succeeds in arousing the reader's interest in the film, its themes and its historical context … The Lives of Others is a well-researched and engaging analysis of a complex and thought-provoking film. Ring's insights and analysis will be of interest not only to film scholars and students but also to anyone curious about the political and social dynamics of East Germany during the Cold War. Well-written and deeply thought-provoking. Alongside analysis of the film's aesthetic and philosophical themes, Ring brings historical fact to the fore in a way which makes a reductive black-and-white reading of the film and its political message entirely impossible ... [Ring's] ability to simplify complex ideas without smoothing over the nuance is at its most visible in moments of intertextual analysis.