Das Leben der Anderen The Lives of Others 2006 (Germany) 137min
我始終很喜愛也很佩服那些”鐵幕時期”, 仍堅持創作的自由意志的藝術家 (導演, 作家, 劇作家), 他們是怎麼熬過蘇聯坦克的達達聲和無所不在的政治壓迫, 怎麼熬過作品被禁個十幾二十年的日子, 卻又能在作品中透露出人性的光輝或嘲諷, 而非走上絕望的不歸路? 如電影中被列入黑名單無戲可導而自殺的導演 Jerska, 或是那永遠在掙扎著, 恐懼著, 最後背叛了愛人的女伶.
去年七月華沙大主教因為被揭露在共產時期曾和秘密警察合作而被迫辭職, Legacy of communist-era collaboration, Secret files haunt Eastern Europe (兩篇BBC對東歐秘密警察和線民的相關報導) 那是一個怎樣的氣氛, 怎樣的時代, 其實我在文學作品中看到很多了, 但是前捷克總統 Havel這番話是個很好的概括: (聽起來也挺適合用在納粹時期的^^) 這些秘密檔案的處理到現在其實還是有點棘手的, 雖然在電影中似乎一切早已公開化了.
We are all in this together – those who created this regime; those who accepted it in silence; and all of us who subconsciously became accustomed to it.
以上是觀影的過程中一直在腦中盤桓的想法, 早在<竊聽風暴>去年橫掃歐洲電影獎之前我就注意到這部電影, 也可以預期這會是我喜歡的 genre. 沒想到看完之後發現電影比我想像的更流暢也更深刻, 在冰冷的政治機器和僵固的體制下, 男主角從不滿, 嫉妒, 感動, 認同, 甚至涉險的變化轉折讓人非常能感同身受, 一鳴驚人的 Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (編劇導演) 骨子裡歌頌的是時代壓迫下人性的良善, 處女作就能拍出各層面都很棒的作品, 真令人期待.
聞天祥影評
review from New York Times, By A. O. SCOTT
It is not inaccurate to describe ‘The Lives of Others’ as the story of how both men become disillusioned and hasten each other’s disillusionment….
The poet and the secret policeman — both writers, in their differing fashions — may be the only two true patriots in the whole G.D.R.; in other words, the only people who take the Republic’s stated ideals at face value. But since the nation itself functions by means of the wholesale and systematic betrayal of those ideals, the only way Wiesler and Georg can express their loyalty is by committing treason. …
In 2007 we, of course, know in advance the punch line that history will deliver in the autumn of 1989. But the easy, complacent distance that informs much historical filmmaking is almost entirely absent from this supremely intelligent, unfailingly honest movie. …
Early in the film, Minister Hempf condescendingly mocks the faith in humanity Georg expresses in his plays: ‘People don’t change,’ he says. And in some ways Mr. von Donnersmarck endorses the minister’s point of view, even as he turns its cynicism into cause for hope. Georg and Captain Wiesler, though they occasionally waver and worry, remain true to their essential natures, and thus embody the film’s deepest, most challenging paradox: people don’t change, and yet the world does.
