Lives of Others

[da]

Excellent film. Stark, and my brain did a little short-circuit when the intro screen said it was set in 1984. The real 1984. This was during my lifetime. So weird. 23 years later, it's a place full of McDonalds and Sony and €. So weird. Of course I remember when the wall came down, seeing it on TV, talking about it in school; it seemed such an optimistic time.

Anyhow, I came out of the theatre to find a police car parked nearly blocking mine. In the dark, I couldn't tell what the driver was doing, but I could be reasonably sure that he wasn't going to threaten my family if I didn't tell him my secrets. In fact, he drove off as I got into the car, presumably so I could get out.

Then I went grocery shopping and all of the security cameras were staring at me.

Comments

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I forget just how excellent your writing can be. *smooch*

To me, it's not just that it's from 1984. It's that only five years separate the film from the Wall falling. My sister visited East Berlin, crossing at Checkpoint Charlie, when she was a foreign exchange students in '87; three years later on my first trip to Europe, the Wall was gone.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

When i lived in Spain in '85-'86, the cities were full of McDonalds, Wimpy's, Burger Kings, IKEAs, Sony and Gucci, and what. I also at that time saw women doing laundry in the Río Tajo in smaller towns. Quite a dichotomy still in that country back then.

When the wall fell, my aunt Helga got to go to where she grew up for the 1st time since 13 August 1961. While there, she got to see her mother's grave, and be at her father's side when he died. The DDR government wouldn't let her go home on that day in 1961, when she'd gone shopping in West Berlin. Her parents brought her money and her documents, and she got on the first flight to the US, ending up in Columbus, OH, not long after meeting and marrying my uncle Gilbert.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

I can barely imagine what that would be like for her.

Her, and lots of other folks who got stuck on the wrong side of the wall, I guess.

[dcseain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, though it was still a better deal for them than for the ones who died trying to escape from the East.

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen that film, but I've seen Goodbye, Lenin. It's a much happier film, from what I understand. Still, it also gave me an insight into why such a large number of people in both East and West Germany say they sometimes regret reunification.