The Lives of Others

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s film The Lives of Other’s (2005) is set in East Berlin during the socialist reign from November 1984, up until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. The political context plays a significance role not only in the film’s subject matter but also in its cinematography, which exploits the voyeuristic tendencies of the audience, reflecting the surveillance of the Stasi Secret Police officers. The film follows a loyal socialist and playwright, Georg Dreyman who becomes subject (along with actor girlfriend Christa-Maria Sieland) to extensive Stasi surveillance due to his association with subversive artists such as Paul Hauser and Albert Jerska. Hauptman Gerd Weisler is the accomplished Stasi officer assigned to undertake the secret observation of the goings on at Dreyman’s apartment, but his devotion to the Socialist State begins to waver as he develops a sympathy with the artists and their acts of rebellion.

One particular sequence within the film seems to encapsulate its essence, in representing not only the prominent stylistic features found throughout the film, but also in demonstrating developments within the narrative line.

In this scene, Stasi officer Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz questions his subordinate Hauptman Gerd Weisler “Are you on the right side?” exhibiting his suspicions about Weisler’s loyalty to the State, which begin to accumulate throughout the film’s duration. Weisler consequently interrogates actress Christa-Maria Sieland about the typewriter used by her boyfriend and playwright Georg Dreyman to write a subversive article about suicide that was published in the West. The sequence is divided into two distinct parts; the interrogation and the consequences of this interrogation, in which Dreyman confronts Sieland about her suspicious behaviour and Weisler removes the incriminating typewriter from Dreyman’s apartment before a team of Stasi agents search his premises a second time.

This sequence functions as a