The lives of others
The film about the Stasi spying on East German lovers was seen as too dark, with one funder even wanting it remade as a comedy. But it went on to win an Oscar
‘We did it for almost nothing’ … Martina Gedeck and Sebastian Koch in The Lives Of Others. Photograph: Buena Vista
‘We did it for almost nothing’ … Martina Gedeck & Sebastian Koch in The Lives Of Others. Photograph: Buena Vista
Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, writer và director
In winter 1997, during my first year at film school in Munich, I was lying on the floor listening khổng lồ music. I started thinking about how Lenin once told his best friend that he couldn’t listen to lớn his favourite piano sonata as often as he would like, because it made him soft, & might stop him from wanting to hurt the people he needed to lớn hurt. Suddenly, an image came khổng lồ my mind: a man with headphones, in a bleak & depressing attic, secretly listening lớn his enemies, but thereby involuntarily hearing the kind of music he has been avoiding his entire life. I opened my laptop, started typing và within about an hour had written the outline of the movie.
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In 2002, my wife và I found out we were going lớn have a child, which meant I needed to make some money quickly. I thought The Lives of Others could be produced for a relatively small budget, so I decided khổng lồ write the script. I didn’t think it would take years lớn get it made, but it did. One broadcaster told me they would finance The Lives of Others if I turned it into a comedy. I wasn’t open to doing that.
In 2004, I sent the script to lớn one of Germany’s most respected casting agents, 85-year-old Erna Baumbauer, who made it her mission khổng lồ get the movie produced. She put me in touch with the German actors I admired most and persuaded them to read the script. They loved it, and she convinced them lớn act in it at a rate that was probably about 10% of what they usually make. That way we could get the film made with just public grant money. The shoot was 37 days in the grey Berlin winter. I had mapped out every frame beforehand with the cinematographer. There was no time for any kind of experimentation or improvisation.
Once it was finished, we screened it for all the German distributors. One after another they passed. They felt it was too dark, too intellectual. Then a miracle: Buena Vista took on the film & released it in 2006. Theirs was the kind of faith every artist hopes khổng lồ encounter in their life. If it hadn’t been for three people at that company, The Lives of Others would never have been seen by anybody. It would be collecting dust on a shelf. The line between success và failure is extremely thin.
Sebastian Koch, played Georg Dreyman
I first met Florian when he approached me at premiere of a film of mine. He’s quite tall, he really stands out. I liked him very much straight away. He was sensitive và smart. Years later he told me he had written a script, a small thing, very humble. He read it to lớn me and I was immediately captivated. We spent days together at his kitchen table, reading it over & over, refining it. We were a fantastic team.
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It is quite difficult lớn make a political movie like The Lives of Others in Germany, & there was very little money behind the production. But the script was strong enough to attract other actors such as Ulrich Mühe & Martina Gedeck, who were already big stars. We all did it for almost nothing. I think every actor wants lớn make at least one film that endures, that can change the world a little bit. The atmosphere on mix was almost lượt thích a student film because we all worked out of passion và belief. Some projects just attract the right people – you can feel there’s something unspoken between the lines. It was such a fantastic experience. I was just simply happy.
Deep sadness … Koch’s writer with his lover, played by Gedeck. Photograph: Allstar/Sony Pictures Classics/SportsphotoMy character, Georg Dreyman, is kind of a perfect guy when you first meet him – good-looking, beautiful girlfriend, famous in the theatre. He even plays football in the street with kids. You think, “Such a man surely doesn’t exist?” Which is why I give him this deep sadness. He’s quite lonely in his ivory tower of art.
I had been living in Berlin for 15 years by the time we made the film & had a lot of connections lớn East Germany. I first came to the thành phố in 1990, right after the fall of the wall, & spent three years in the Schiller Theatre where I worked with people that had been betrayed by family members in the GDR. To see the sadness và greyness that still remained in the city back then left a lasting impression on me.
I remember saying in the editing room: “We will definitely win the Palme d’Or”, because the film has a very French feel. In the kết thúc it didn’t go lớn Cannes because it was signed up for the Berlinale
