THE LIVES OF OTHERS

What a satisfying film experience.

There were obvious contrivances, as least to me, viewing it as a writer.

But they disappeared in the craft: the washed-out colors in the days of the Berlin Wall; the more subtle, underplayed for the most part, European style of acting; the depth of the character studies and of the plot, even with the obviously piggy bad guys etc.

Mesmerized me.

Not to mention the thankfully more normal human physical appearance of the actors, so common in films from other countries compared to our mostly physically flawless or stereotypical ones. (The leading man seemed to be showing a bit of a pot belly under his shirt, etc.)

I can see why it won so many awards.

And speaking of communism (which the communists in the flick kept referring to as “socialism” as they were wont to do) as I did in my last post…what a bitter pill (though there is no denying the benefits of being guaranteed a job, health care, education, pension etc. but couldn’t that have been accomplished without all the soul destroying aspects of “the party” apparatus?)

But hey, where are the American movies like this? Where’s our dramatization of what the new guidelines for interrogation, or lack of them, are doing to people in our military and spy agencies?

Where’s the lives of us?