The Lives of Others

Sunday 13 May 2007, 9:59 pm

Last Friday, Joanne and I went to see The Lives of Others. We left the cinema utterly amazed. It is an extraordinary film. The film literally took my breath away. I was so overwhelmed, I couldn’t speak for a few minutes after the film. Early in the film, there is a conversation between Bruno Hempf, the East German minister of culture, and Georg Dreyman, a playwright caught between his creative integrity and the watchful eye of the East German regime. During their conversation, Hempf says, ‘No matter how many times you write it in your plays, people don’t change.’ The rest of the film proves Hempf wrong, in more ways than one.

The next day, I opened the Review of the Saturday Guardian to read Anna Funder’s article on the film. (If you haven’t seen the film, I’d recommend waiting until you have before reading the article.) I was almost expecting an article like this. One that says that the film could never have happened. I expected an article like this to ruin the film for me. It didn’t. Funder recognizes that the film is superb; however, she points out that the events portrayed the film could never have happened. The East German system of surveillance would not have allowed it to happen. A Stasi man would never have give the freedom that Wiesler was given in the film.

I have yet to read Funder’s Stasiland, but it is now on my reading list. I’m appalled by the notion that a totalitarian system could be that complete, that successful. Strangely, I’m also comforted by the fact that the regime used fear to ensure the passivity and acceptance of its citizens. Stay with me here: I’m not a sadist, and I do approve of or condone the methods used in East Germany.

I’ve recently finished Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. The characters in Never Let Me Go are in a horrific situation. Entirely absent is any notion that this situation could be changed. The characters accept their horrific fate, of which they are fully aware, as destiny. They discuss it amongst themselves. They seek to defer it. In some cases, they even rave against it. But they never consider that they could avoid it, that they could change it. They simply accept that it is why they were created. They are completely human, yet completely oblivious to the possibility of change for the better.

This is what I mean when I say that I’m comforted by the fact that in East Germany, fear was used to keep the population in line. The regime was never able to win the population’s hearts and minds. People wanted a better life, and there were those who fought for it.

Fear tactics are very persuasive, but they are also very obvious. They are an easy way to prevent opposition and to shut down rational debate. Not every one falls for it, though. Not everyone gives in. What frightens me is the idea that human beings can be taught to accept an unacceptable, inhumane situation as normal and natural.

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Filed under Books, Film

Tags: Books, fear, fear culture, fiction, Film, germany, stasi

Rafal Says:
Wednesday 16 May 2007, 12:50 pm

What cinema did you choose for this film?

Jeff VC Says:
Thursday 17 May 2007, 1:16 pm

@Rafal
We went to the Clapham Picturehouse. It’s close to home and we have a membership, so we get a discount on tickets. We see a lot of films there.

If you get a chance to see the film, I’d be interested to hear what you think about it.

Eman Says:
Friday 18 May 2007, 7:00 pm

“What frightens me is the idea that human beings can be taught to accept an unacceptable, inhumane situation as normal and natural.”

Recently, “This American Life” from Chicago Public Radio had a terrifying show about the “prisoners” in Gitmo. If you get a chance, you should download it and give it a listen. I think the episode was called “Habeas Shamabeas”.

Here in the states, the current administration is using fear as a tactic to undermine “American exceptionalism” (though that was probably bullshit from the start), but there is something else at work also. Most people don’t fucking know what’s going on, and it’s happening in plain sight.

Then again, once you figure out what’s going on, the hard part is determining what you can do to help. Write you congress member or senator? Give money to the lawyer’s defending these guys? Join a anti-war protest? It’s that feeling of helplessness that usually ends with people just accepting the way things are when you’re exacting pain on others. Is this even relevant to your discussion?

Jeff VC Says:
Friday 18 May 2007, 9:27 pm

@Eman

Perhaps what I should have written about is figuring out how to fight back when you know that something is wrong. And by that I mean doing something other than writing an oblique critique of American/British politics poorly disguised as a film/book review.

But that’s the thing, I don’t know what else to do. I make the excuse that I’m in a strange situation, living in one country and being a citizen of another. Everyone has an excuse, I guess. Mine’s not a very good one.

Anyone have any ideas?

Eman Says:
Saturday 19 May 2007, 3:54 am

That last sentence I wrote seems strange. I was asking if my comments were relevant to what you were saying. Sorry if it seemed snarky, not the intention at all.

Kiss.

Jeff VC Says:
Saturday 19 May 2007, 11:52 am

Hey Eman, you comments didn’t seem strange or snarky at all. And they were relavent. I think I may have written my response when I was a bit too sleepy…

I think that the interesting thing about your comments is that yours are based in raeality while most of mine were based entirely in fiction.

And you brought up an important question that I don’t think I have the answer to (yet). How do we fight something that seems impossible to fight? Do we — and most of us seem to — just sit there and let it happen? That’s not what I want to do any more. I’m inclined to simply fill this blog with political rants, but I don’t really think that’s a solution.