I have had something of a bee in my bonnet about this German Academy Award winner that has put me off watching it before now; I had no doubt that it was probably a well-made and absorbing film, but I could not forgive it for taking the Oscar away from "Pan's Labyrinth". So I tried to work out what it was about the movie that made it the more appealing to the Academy voters.
For a start, perhaps a film about East Germany in the years prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall was more resonant to the voters' sensibilites than a magic realism fable set in the dying years of the Spanish Civil War. Then again, some viewers just don't warm to fantasy. I really can not quibble too convincingly since the director has turned out a film which probably presents an all-too-true portrait of the effects that the huge Secret Service Stasi spy network had on the lives of the nation and not a cosy picture of a simple and naive way of life as in "Good Bye Lenin". The story is told through the characters of actress Martina Gedeck who is involved with playwright Sebastian Koch as they are spied upon by Stasi captain Ulrich Muhe, a man who will stop at nothing to get the confessions he seeks. However he gradually changes as he realises that not only is there a richer life out there but that not all of the targets set for him deserve to be brought down. Muhe's is a beautifully underplayed role and his fall and redemption do indeed move the viewer. Gedeck as the fast-living actress and Koch as the socialist stalwart who refuses to believe that he has been under surveillance are also excellent, as is the depiction of a grey and unforgiving society.
However I still think Del Toro wuz robbed!
1 comment:
Muhe should have been awarded a posthumous Best Actor award for a very
underplayed and subtle performance in a very well mad film. You have hit the
two nails on the head as far as 'Pan's Labyrinth' is concerned - what's all this
nonsense about strange creatures and just who is fighting whom! The collapse of
communism in Europe is more a part of the present-day environment for the
adult world than the continued fighting against Franco sixty odd years ago - and,
understandably, much better known. Having now seen both films, I am hard-
pressed to choose between them.
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