Saw The Lives of Others tonight and was totally blown away – I thought it completely deserved its Best Foreign Film Oscar. Of course, I haven’t seen Pan’s Labyrinth (and am not planning to), and understand that many who saw that thought it deserved the Oscar.
Has anyone seen both, and if so, what do you think?
TIA.
I hope to catch it this week. I loved the del Toro, but most people who thought it deserved the Oscar haven’t seen the German winner (largely because of an extremely limited release) to be able to compare the two.
Thanks, AG – I figured you and lissener would be the two most likely candidates to respond. Let me know what you think after you see Lives of Others – as I said, I thought it was outstanding.
I’ve seen both, and thought Pan’s Labyrinth was beautifully made, and moving, and was one of the best films I saw last year.
With all that, I agree that The Lives of Others deserved its Oscar. The acting by all three main characters was excellent, with Ulrich Muehe being especially good. It managed to capture a particular atmosphere without being preachy or condescending. There were a lot of little details that anyone who ever lived in the GDR (or any other communist country) will identify with. With any luck it will have been a good antidote for the Ostalgia (nostalgia for the GDR) that’s cropped up in Germany of late.
Having lived in Russia since the dissolution of the USSR, I was struck by one thing in particular:
Dreyman reviewing his Stasi file after the fall of the Wall. The KGB’s successor, the FSB, doesn’t now and never has allowed anything comparable.
Let’s hope it gets a broader release in North America now that it’s won an Academy Award.
I think it will. It just opened here in Philly; it was in the largest “theater” (what do you call that – theater? screen? room? screening room?) of the local indie multiplex, and the 4:00 Sunday afternoon show was about 3/4 full.