Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Movies
For Academy Award-winning filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, the only way to make the film that would launch his career was to do so on his own terms. After living in both Germany and the United States during his childhood, von Donnersmarck went on to study philosophy at Oxford University and Russian in St. Petersburg. He even interned for Sir Richard Attenborough before going back to his native Germany to join the Directing Class of the Munich Film Academy. There, von Donnersmarck worked on many short films, but none of his projects satisfied his creative needs, so in 2001, he left the school to make a full-length feature called The Lives of Others. Set during the 1980s in East Germany, the movie tells the story of a secret-service agent who becomes strangely preoccupied with the couple he spies upon. Five years went by as von Donnersmarck dealt with the process of writing, directing, and producing the film, but in 2006, the movie was released and met with tremendous critical acclaim, winning an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
A man who has devoted his life to ferreting out "dangerous" characters is thrown into a quandary when he investigates a man who poses no threat in this drama, the first feature from German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It's 1984, and Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is an agent of the Stasi, the East German Secret Police. Weisler carefully and dispassionately investigates people who might be deemed some sort of threat to the state. Shortly after Weisler's former classmate, Lt. Col. Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), invites him to a theatrical piece by celebrated East German playwright Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), Minister Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme) informs Weisler that he suspects Dreyman of political dissidence, and wonders if this renowned patriot is all that he seems to be. As it turns out, Hempf has something of an ulterior motive for trying to pin something on Dreyman: a deep-seated infatuation with Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck), Dreyman's girlfriend. Nevertheless, Grubitz, who is anxious to further his career, appoints Weisler to spy on the gentleman with his help. Weisler plants listening devices in Dreyman's apartment and begins shadowing the writer. As Weisler monitors Dreyman's daily life, however (from a secret surveillance station in the gentleman's attic), he discovers the writer is one of the few East Germans who genuinely believes in his leaders. This changes over time, however, as Dreyman discovers that Christa-Maria is being blackmailed into a sexual relationship with Hempf, and one of Dreyman's friends, stage director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert), is driven to suicide after himself being blackballed by the government. Dreyman's loyalty thus shifts away from the East German government, and he anonymously posts an anti-establishment piece in a major newspaper which rouses the fury of government officials. Meanwhile, Weisler becomes deeply emotionally drawn into the lives of Dreyman and Sieland, and becomes something of an anti-establishment figure himself, embracing freedom of thought and expression. A major box-office success in Germany, Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others) received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Mühe, (more)
