dispatches from the new world of work

Stunning & Stunned

Movie reviews are not within the scope of this Blog. Until now. The Lives of Others. To do more than mention the name would require thousands of words. I cannot commend it highly enough; now, not on DVD—must be seen on the Big Screen. (My only elucidation will be to say that it was "one of those very rare ones" where literally not one word was heard upon the end of the film—and almost everyone sat, in stunned silence, until the end of the credit roll.)

Tom Peters posted this on 03/27/07.

Comments

Interesting. Looks like we already know which movie to watch after seeing the Blades of Glory starring Will Farrell. :)

Posted by Mr. Waay at March 27, 2007 1:36 PM

Isn't it great? Germans read American blogs, Americans are stunned by a German movie dealing specifically with German history.
It's all about sharing ideas, stories and concepts ...

Greetings from Germany
Sven

PS: To me, the "Brand You" article was a great inspiration.
Thanks for that!

Posted by Sven at March 28, 2007 3:00 AM

My husband and I were in Berlin over New Year's 1989-1990, just as the Wall was falling.You still had to get to East Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie, but it was relatively open. Even with the euphoria over the Wall, the East was pretty depressing. We went into a number of stores and shops - shoddy merchandise. The people were friendly enough, but clearly downtrodden. We kept asking ourselves, "If this is the showplace of communism, how did it last as long as it did?"

It's very hard for those of us who've lived in freedom to imagine the true horrors of a totalitarian state.

On the last day of our trip, we had some East German currency we had to use or lose. We stopped at a little restaurant near the Soviet Embassy and ordered a drink and a snack. Undrinkable, inedible. My husband just shook his head,"Imagine having to put up with this. Not to mention that, up until two weeks ago, the person at the next table was spying on you."

I haven't seen the movie, but had read the Lane review. It's on our list to see before we return to Berlin for a visit in May. Thanks for the reminder that we really do need to see it.

Posted by Maureen Rogers at March 28, 2007 9:38 PM

I'm intrigued by the statement, "Movie reviews are not within the scope of this Blog." So what is the scope of the blog? And what's the point of having a scope if you go outside it? And shouldn't EVERYTHING be in scope anyway? :-)

Posted by Mark JF at April 2, 2007 5:21 AM

Remarkable film, remarkable director and theme.

Just want to add two blog entries of me:

http://voyager.zaadz.com/blog/search

One article is an essay of German poet and author Wolf Biermann about the film. Read more in his essay. Its translated into English.

The other entry deals with double shipwreck of Nazi and Stasi chapter in Germany. And the remarkable work of Florian.

Cheers,

Albert Klamt

Posted by Albert Klamt at April 3, 2007 12:49 PM

I couldn't agree more about this movie. Itâ€™s absolutely phenomenal. One lonely â€œhelplessâ€ bureaucrat in an insane and oppressive system, with absolutely no hope of making any kind of meaningful difference whatsoever, decides to do the right thing and pays the price. But in the end, the insanity does stop, the sun comes out, and a better future does emerge from the ashes.

Words canâ€™t possibly do this movie justice, everyone simply needs to see it.

Posted by John at April 6, 2007 11:15 PM