Lives of Others

For those of you phillistines who think the 'Day After Tomorrow' is a great movie, here's a newsflash. A great story with no CGI sometimes makes a better movie!! I'd heard lots of good things about this German movie, and wanted to see - finally went over the weekend. A long trek to Finchley Road for the late show, which allowed us to get in dinner. My first ever visit to Fine Burger, and I have to admit, they do make the most exquisite burgers! I had an original, beef, tomato, lettuce (minus onion), and it was the best burger I've ever eaten. This is a cow that died for a very deeply cause and will be much revered in my mind for some time to come. Of course, it's ridiculously overpriced, some £7 for a burger, and that's it - no fries, etc. But my, McDonald's and Burger King.. get a life. I also feel a compelling need to mention their onion rings - seen from afar, which were the size of my face!! I'm not kidding - I could have worn that ring around my upper arm with ease. Dont know what onions they're using, but I suspect a single onion could feed an entire Indian family.

Coming back to the movie, it's basically about life in East Germany, before the fall of the wall, as late as the eighties and nineties, living with the Stasi (that's their secret police that everyone's terrified of). It's about this author, his actress girlfriend, and this bastard Cultural minister who uses the Stasi to spy on the author to get something damaging about him, so he can destroy his career. The Statis spymaster, is the central character as far as I'm concerned, and the movie captures the nuances between the characters brilliantly.

It begins in Stasi school with the spymaster lecturing on interrogation methods and is a cool scene, but then slows down just a tad with the introduction of the author and the others... so I was wondering if my expectations were too high - so far (like all of 10 minutes!!) it was only 'ok'. Well, the movie is really long by un-Hindi film standards, some 2 h. 10 min, and the time just flies. I don't want to say a lot, but it's one of those movies, that leave you feeling very pleased with yourself, like you've accomplished something instead of just sitting there absorbed, watching someone else's hardwork. It's a movie that makes you think, and as you talk about it on the way home, it unpeels like a ruddy onion (I hate the number of times I seem to need to mention this stupid vegetable), layer after layer, some delicately transparent, where you can see the onions purple viens, and the others chunkier.

For me it was about so many things - a glimpse into a completely unfamilliar world (Sarolta dismissed my 'its a superb film' comments, saying it was ok - the story was nothing new, but then she grew up in a socialist state!!), throught provoking in its dealing with power, corruption, truth and beauty. The way the characters are real people, people you admire and at the same time, people victims to their weakness (for Day After Tomorrow fans, it's called a multidimensional character, like real people!). How people respond to their situation, sometimes predictable, and other times, maybe even surprising themselves. The acting is restrained, but really moves you and you get completely caught up in the story of their lives.

Enough of my waffling - it's a bloody GOOD movie, so go see it!! Incidentally, Somya and I were up till 2 am discussing it and we've now decided to buy a house in Berlin....... :-)