I don’t often write about movies on the Urban Mainframe. That’s odd in itself because I watch a lot of them and consider myself to be something of a movie buff. Having said that, my movie collection, I suspect, is that of a typical bloke. There’s lots of war, action, sci-fi and adventure films. There’s not a lot of drama. There’s only one or two “chick flicks” (oh come on, who doesn’t love Ghost?)

My collection is that of someone who doesn’t demand too much, intellectually, from his entertainment. I watch films to escape for an hour and a half — to be James Bond, Neo or Luke Skywalker. I don’t want to have to think too much when I watch a movie, I just want my imagination stimulated and the day-to-day tedium of life to be replaced with beautiful women, fast cars and lots and lots of explosions and gunfire.

You can probably appreciate then that, on being given for Christmas a sub-titled film with a dialogue spoken entirely in German, I wasn’t exactly filled with delight and anticipation. However, and to my great surprise, The Lives of Others turned out to be one of those rarest of films — one that captures the viewer’s attention from the moment it starts and holds it in a vice-like grip until the final credits roll.

I’m not going to write about the plot, since I wouldn’t want to spoil the film for you. I will tell you only that this is a film set in East Berlin during the dark years of the Cold War and is an insightful and disturbing look into the operations of the Stasi — the East German secret police.

Whilst the historical accuracy of some of the scenes has been questioned, the overall portrayal of life in East Berlin and the effects that the suffocating interference of the Stasi had on the GDR’s citizens, is probably as realistic as it could be.

In a review, American journalist John Podhoretz called the film “one of the greatest movies ever made, and certainly the best film of this decade.” William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in his syndicated column that, after the film was over, he turned to his companion and said, “I think that this is the best movie I ever saw.” Time magazine’s Richard Corliss named the film one of the Top 10 Movies of 2007, ranking it at #2. Corliss praised the film as a “poignant, unsettling thriller.”

As for me, I agree with each of these reviewers. The Lives of Others is a film that touched the very core of me, and its impact will stay with me for long, long time.

The Lives of Others is not a Hollywood-esque blockbuster, nor is it a big budget movie — production costs were apparently only US $2m — yet despite this, maybe even because of this, the emotional involvement that the film elicits is sublime. I found myself unable to break away from it, so compelling is the story and the acting.

According to The Lives of Others Wikipedia entry (which I won’t link to because of the spoilers it contains), a Hollywood remake of the film might be forthcoming. I hope that this project (if it exists) comes to nothing. Hollywood and the inevitable Americanisation of this movie would really ruin it. I can only recommend that you watch this film in its original form, because it’s a real treat.