just got back. a tremendous film. I loved it. I think, after seeing it, It is a better film than Pans Labyrinth, which is odd because the individual elements of Pans Labyrinth SHOULD add up to a better film. But, as fantastic as Pans was/is (and it is a magnificant film), The Lives of Others manages to be heart breaking, depressing, and draining- but at the same time- it is one of the most hopeful movies I have ever seen. The unemphazised goodness of everyone, even the most awful of awfuls, is really what sets this film apart from others like it. The characters aren't black and white bad guy / good guy with a defector thhrown in for good measure. These are HUMANS. humans who change, evolve and feel. Humans who are moved and humans who breathe and live.
It is an immense film on a small scale. brilliant, haunting and also excellent cinematically.
One of the best films I've seen all year.
"Picture "The View," with the wisecracking, sympathetic sweethearts of that ABC television show replaced by a panel of embittered, suffering or enraged Arab women" -the Times review of Black Eyed