THE LIVES OF OTHERS – Something in German.
For some reason, I got it into my head that this was going to be the
German version of AMELIE. I was all ready with my popcorn ready to
enjoy a hopelessly romantic foreign film. Well, it's not AMELIE.
Taking place in East Germany in 1984, it's about a surveillance expert
who decides to protect a playwright from governmental persecution.
Tragedy of course strikes several times over. For some reason, while
watching this movie, I was reminded of the parody TOP SECRET! since
LIVES is set in 1984 East Germany (TOP SECRET was released in 1984 and
was set in East Germany). I kept expecting to see Omar Sharif picking
up some phony dog poo ("what phony dog poo?").
SCENE TO REMEMBER: The book dedication.
MORAL TO THE STORY: The fact that you threw away your professional
life is okay because an author you don't know dedicated his book to
you.
Mom's note: First, when did Sam start watching foreign films and liking them???? He always used to trash my indie/foreign film choices. Second, TOP SECRET! was another one of those Cassel movies that we must have watched 20 times...probably Val Kilmer's only comedy role to date. Third, about THE LIVES OF OTHERS: it came out on video just before Sam died, and I bought the DVD because I'd heard it was really good. I never watched, however, because friends told me there was a really graphic car crash in it. To this day, I've never seen it -- maybe it's finally time to remove the cellophane and see how it goes.
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