The Lives of Others (2006 film) | Hacker News Reader

The Lives of Others (2006 film)

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30 pointsMolitor590114 comments

"China’s facial-recognition systems crunch data from cameras to monitor citizens" (2017), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14643433

"The Stasi Had a Giant Smell Register of Dissidents” (2021), https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27998162

"US reauthorizing and expanding surveillance laws" (2024), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/16/house-fisa-g...

> Turner-Himes amendment lists some business types that are excepted from the requirement to help spy – like dwellings and restaurants – an almost limitless number of entities that provide wifi or just have access to Americans’ devices could be roped into the government’s surveillance operations. Using the wifi in your dentist office, hiring a cleaner who has access to your laptop, or even storing communications equipment in an office you rent could all expose you to increased risk of surveillance.

HN ranking history for this thread: http://hnrankings.info/40840762

Crazy that there was a proposed remake:

„In February 2007, Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella announced a deal with The Weinstein Company to produce and direct an English-language remake of The Lives of Others. Minghella died in March 2008 and Pollack died less than three months later.“

I have this in my “East Germany” collection along with Good Bye Lenin! and Deutschland 83. Could probably use a few more entries.

There are several other interesting Berlin/East Germany films worth looking at. There is a very old and silly one called "One Two Three". It involves the Coca Cola. Not that it is a great film, but rather a Western/American take on Berlin at the time. Much better is "Good bye Lenin." Very haunting and peculiar. Not Berlin/East Germany but in the same vein is 'The Unbearable lightness of Being'.

This was recommended to me via Movielens (movie recommendation site) many years ago as something I would rate 5 stars (out of 5).

Movielens nailed it on that one.

Super great movie. We watched it in our transitional justice class in university. Our professor was from the eastern bloc and grew up with the informants and the collapse of it all. It was interesting to study what happens after the end of an oppressive regime. The movie illustrated that pretty well in its timeline.

I saw this movie at the theatre when it came out. TBH, while I'm interested in the subject, I didn't like it all that much. It thought it kinda flopped as an arthouse movie. The content itself was not particularly rich and obviously not novel, at least for anyone who has ever read about the Stasi.

So if TLOO was overrated, at the opposite end of the spectrum is another "Panopticon movie" that's contemporarily set and underrated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerve_(2016_film)

That confuses me. There's not much about The Lives of Others that one could dislike that one would not also dislike about any other drama based on realistic characters and situations.

I'm not a movie critic, so it's hard not to be vague, I was just reporting on my own take and experience.

For a better arthouse movie, someone in this thread mentioned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye,_Lenin! which was indeed excellent.

For better directing and acting, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Stalin used real characters in a real situation, though with a dark-comedic take. Absolutely awesome.

No worries. I'm actually not a huge fan of art films, which might explain my confusion. I tend to like traditional dramas about believable characters and situations, and I just thought of The Lives of Others as that sort of thing, aside from it being German language. But every year, fewer dramas like that come out, so I am probably showing my age.

Great movie, what about it?

I haven't thought of the film since it came out.. Wonder what the OP's intent for discussion is.

One of my personal favorite movies ever. Totally worth it IMO. So many feels.

If you want to viscerally understand the dystopia that the communist bloc experienced then I think this is one of the movies you should watch.

Terrific movie

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