annalee

I think the best film I saw this year was The Lives of Others or Das Leben der Anderen and I saw today that the amazing actor from the film Ulrich Muehe died of stomach cancer this week only in his 50s. I thought he was so wonderful in that film. It's about the observation techniques of the Secret Service in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell and follows a Stasi agent played by Muehe who becomes involved in the lives of the people he is spying on. It is obviously a very dark film, grim and desperate but it was also beautiful and very moving. My favourite part is where Muehe goes into the house and takes the Brecht book that one of the actors was reading and when he listens to them playing the piano. I really recommend this film and I want to watch it again too though I think I would find it so sad to watch it now that he's dead.