First of all, please forgive my awful German, I remember the nouns but not if those are the right articles...
I saw this film yesterday and was immediately entranced. On the one hand, the topic (the workings of the Stasi and citizen surveillance in old Eastern Germany) seemed bleak enough, but the fact that it had got the foreign film Oscar and that a similarly-themed film (Goodbye Lenin) was one of my favourites a couple of years ago, motivated me to give it a chance (I've gone off hopeless, depressing films ever since I watched Letters from Iwo Jima. It may be the hormones but I'd much rather watch something vaguely optimistic right now).
I thought it was brilliantly crafted, the story manages to come full circle in a satisfactory manner that doesn't feel contrived, and the characters feel believable enough. Top acting as well - it was easy to feel immersed in the bleakness of the DDR in the 80s. Not something that I've experienced first hand, but it reminded me well enough of the atmosphere of Spain in the 70s before Franco's death. That rarefied, asphixiating political blanket that dominates all speech and life, and makes everyone paranoid; something that anyone who has always lived in a democracy cannot really grasp.
Which is why it surprised me that the Academy gave it its highest gong - there are enough universal themes in The Lives Of Others to appeal to anyone, I think (loyalty, love of freedom), but the premise of living and working, and creating art, in a restricted environment where your every step is watched, is quite a particular experience. But maybe that's what made it attractive?
Anyway, I recommend it to anyone who was disappointed by La Vita E Bella and thought it was a load of sentimental dross, but who still thinks that a film doesn't have to end as a total tragedy in order to be regarded as good, honest and not a sell-out.