Varshini Suresh
Tawa College
English - Mt
The Lives of Others
Q: Compare the beginning and ending of a feature film you have studied,
commenting on contrasts and links between them.
Florian van Donnersmarch contrasts the beginning and the end of The Lives of Others
in order to show us the change in Weisler’s character from blind law enforcer to a man
able to think for himself, and a man open to the emotions of others. Cinematography
and dialogue have been used especially well to show this change.
The beginning of the film is comprised of its first and second scenes. The first scene is
the interrogation scene. This is where we first see Weisler. It is important, however, to
note that we hear of him before we see him. When the guard sends the prisoner into
Wiesler’s room, he says “call him Captain”. This gives the audience their first opinion of
Wiesler. We see him as a part of the state apparatus, rather than as a unique individual.
This idea is reinforced by the fact that the first shot we see of Weisler is a close up shot
his hand turning on the tape recorder. This placement of him next to the tape recorder
highlights the similarities between him and the machine. Tape recorders are an utterly
clinical means of observation. They simply record every word that they hear. There is
no emotion involved. This lack of emotion shows the lack of human awareness to other
peoples’ actions. This idea is reflected by Wiesler in the second scene in which he
analyses the words of the prisoner in front of an audience. He, like the tape recorder,
has taken in the words of the man, and the sound of his sobbing. He, also like the tape
recorder, is completely unmoved by this. This can be seen through the dialogue in the
second scene. Wiesler tells his students how to spot a liar. He says, “A man who is
speaking the truth becomes angry. A man who is lying cries” and “See how he repeats
the same phrase over and over again. A liar has a prepared story that he falls back on
in times of stress”. This analysis is completely clinical, which shows Wiesler’s lack of
humane understanding at the beginning of the film. This is further highlighted when he
black marks the boy who asks why the prisoner wasn’t given some rest during the
interrogation.
At the beginning of the film, Wiesler can be seen as the symbolic “actor” of the play of
life than exists within the film. In interrogating the prisoner he is an actor. He even has
a character to play – “the Captain”. He is not himself, but a robotic follower of the
government which directs him to do certain things. This lack of control over his
thoughts and actions are again brought into notice in the second scene. Here, his
lecturing of the Stasi students is very like him putting up a performance for an
audience. The performance, of course, is directed by the government, as it is they who
dictate what he is to teach. The wide angle shot of the tiered and slightly rounded seats
of the lecture theatre brings to mind a drama theatre, thus emphasising this idea.
As the film progresses, Wiesler becomes a writer and director of the play of life. This
role brings with it the freedom to express his own feelings and actions as opposed to
reflecting the feelings and actions of the East German government. This can be seen
very clearly towards the end of the film. Wiesler’s buying a copy of “A Sonata for a
Good Man” is symbolic of this. He tells the bookseller “this is for me”. This purchase
and the words that accompany it show us the first time that Wiesler does something for
himself during the film. First he acts on behalf of the government. He then acts on his
conscience, keeping Dreyman safe from arrest. Though this shows him breaking free of
the government’s ideals, his behaviour does not benefit him in any way – in fact, it
puts him in danger. It is only right at the end of the film that Wiesler finally thinks of
himself. This shows his gradual transition from government puppet to someone
completely in control o his own actions.
Varshini Suresh
Tawa College
English - Mt
The fact that Wiesler buys a book is in itself an action that shows that he has
completely broken free of the chains of communism. Books were banned by the GDR
due to their dangerous ability to incite people against the government. Wiesler goes
from siding with the government on this, to protecting a writer of books, to buying a
book himself. This shows his increasing affinity with the views of humanity. The buying
of the book signifies the end of this transition. There is also the fact that a book
represents human reactions. They are a form of art. Art deals with self –expression ad
freedom of speech and thought. This is a huge contrast to the clinical tape recorder
Wiesler associated himself with at the beginning of the film. It shows once again, that
Wiesler’s personality has changed. By embracing art, he shows that he has now
embraced human behaviour and expression.
The director creates a link between the beginning and the end of the film by associating
Wiesler with symbols that belong to opposite extremes of the same category. By
following the change in the objects associated with Wiesler, we follow the change in
Wiesler himself. An example of this is the way the film starts with Wiesler dealing with
a tape recorder and ends with him holding a book. As discussed before, this shows
Wiesler’s transition from robotic to human. Another example is the fact that Wielser
drives a car at the beginning of the film, and walks down the street at the end of the
film. While in the car, Wiesler can be seen as distancing himself from humanity, the
doors of the vehicle creating a barrier between him and the rest of the world. By
walking down the street, Wiesler seems to have removed these barriers between
himself and others, which again brings us back to the idea of him changing to become
more open to human thought and emotion.
Florien van Donnersmarch shows his audience that people do indeed have the ability to
change for the better, using Wiesler as his example of this. His use of cinematography
and dialogue follow Wiesler’s transformation from robot to human. A change in symbols
associated with Wiesler also supports this idea of change by creating links between the
past and the present. The huge contrast between the way this character is portrayed at
the beginning and the end of the film helps the audience understand this idea.