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The Lives of Others
List Price: $19.94Our Price: $14.99 You Save: $4.95 (25%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Binding: DVD
Brand: Sony
EAN: 0043396170858
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Item Dimensions: 100
Label: Sony Pictures
Languages: German (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled),
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
MPN: 17085
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Sony Pictures
Region Code: 99
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Running Time: 138 minutes
Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
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Editorial Review:
This critically-acclaimed Oscar®-winning film (Best Foreign Language Film 2006) is the erotic emotionally-charged experience Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) calls a nail-biter of a thriller! Before the collapse of the Berlin Wall East Germany s population was closely monitored by the State Secret Police (Stasi). Only a few citizens above suspicion like renowned pro-Socialist playwright Georg Dreyman were permitted to lead private lives. But when a corrupt government official falls for Georg s stunning actress-girlfriend Christa an ambitious Stasi policeman is ordered to bug the writer s apartment to gain incriminating evidence against the rival. Now what the officer discovers is about to dramatically change their lives - as well as his - in this seductive political thriller Peter Travers (Rolling Stone) proclaims is the best kind of movie: one you can t get out of your head. System Requirements:Run Time: 138 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN Rating: R UPC: 043396170858 Manufacturer No: 17085
Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, this is a first-rate thriller that, like Bertolucci's The Conformist and Coppola's The Conversation, opts for character development over car chases. The place is East Berlin, the year is 1984, and it all begins with a simple surveillance assignment: Capt. Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe in a restrained, yet deeply felt performance), a Stasi officer and a specialist in this kind of thing, has been assigned to keep an eye on Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch, Black Book), a respected playwright, and his actress girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck, Mostly Martha). Though Dreyman is known to associate with the occasional dissident, like blacklisted director Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert), his record is spotless. Everything changes when Wiesler discovers that Minister Hempf (Thomas Thieme) has an ulterior motive in spying on this seemingly upright citizen. In other words, it's personal, and Wiesler's sympathies shift from the government to its people--or at least to this one particular person. That would be risky enough, but then Wiesler uses his privileged position to affect a change in Dreyman's life. The God-like move he makes may be minor and untraceable, but it will have major consequences for all concerned, including Wiesler himself. Writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck starts with a simple premise that becomes more complicated and emotionally involving as his assured debut unfolds. Though three epilogues is, arguably, two too many, The Lives of Others is always elegant, never confusing. It's class with feeling. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Beyond The Lives of Others 
Films from Germany |
Other Cold War Films |
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from Sony Pictures Classics |
Stills from The Lives of Others (click for larger image)
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - A TRULY GREAT FILM!
If I should pick the five greatest films I have seen in my life, The Lives of Others would be one of them. It is a story of people living in the GDR before the collapse of the Wall. It is a study in how much people can and cannot endure.
The performances are breathtaking - no point in selecting a few of the actors to praise, as even the actors who have no lines excel in their craft. The music, the costumes, the settings, all are fitting and magnificent.
Praise must be ... Read More
Rating: - A masterpiece
This is a beautiful movie.
Why can't we make good movies in America anymore?
Probably because we think that the more expensive they come the better they'll be. The Lives of Others proves the opposite. The budget of this movie must have been 1 percent of a Hollywood Blockbuster but the result is a hundred times better. It's time we learnt that lesson in this country.
This movie is about how human beings can be redeemed. Without preeching and always very subtly we witness the transformation ... Read More
Rating: - Wonderful film...
This is easily one of the top ten films of the past ten years. Beautifully written and acted, it recalls the scary nightmare that was communist totalitarianism in East Germany. I highly recommend it. The funny thing for me is that I ordered this film used from the buyer Planetjman on this site; the seller didn't like the three-star feedback that I gave him. Suddenly, I felt I was in the throes of an Orwellian world, when the seller started threatening me online to change my feedback. I did not. He retaliated ... Read More
Rating: - Hearing the heretics
It's all about stability - how to maintain it and how to prevent its disruption. In East Germany, from the establishment of The Wall, society found ways to lay out a given path for life. It also provided a traffic control body to keep individuals on that track. The traffic controllers were the staff and informants of the Stasi. Applying various, but effective, methods of thought control, the DDR rooted out dissent in its attempt to keep its populace thinking along "approved" lines. While we have been inundated ... Read More
Rating: - Amazing!!!
Really brilliant! I enjoyed this movie tremendously! Beautiful mise-en-scene back at the apartment, wonderfully acted. Very stylish and extremely current to the world that we live in!!!
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