Setups and Payoffs and The Lives of Others

May 17, 2009

Never was this more apparent to me than after a recent screening of The Lives of Others in one of my classes. A student approached me and offered an interpretation of a key moment that completely blew me away. Why hadn’t I seen that before?!

One of the Greatest

Sometimes it takes a keen eye to discover something new.

To me, The Lives of Others is one of the greatest films of all time. It certainly has become my favorite foreign film and as far as personal ranking goes, it’s one very small notch below The Shawshank Redemption. Besides the captivating acting and the rewarding story structure, the film sails effortlessly along a constant stream of setups and payoffs. No event, no turn goes unused. Everything is there to eventually be paid off later, almost to the point of being too obvious.

In an effort to cut to the chase, I won’t list out exactly every single thing that is setup and paid off, but if you have a chance to watch the film, do so with that in mind. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how economical the story is. Christa-Maria’s drug problem, the joke-teller who we find out was indeed sent down to the mail room, the typewriter that only has red ink - all of these are brought around again in the end. The last one in particular seems almost silly afterwards. Really? The only ink they could find for that particular typewriter was red? Of course it was, if you were setting up a clue for the author, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch) to discover later on.

But the one thing I could never figure out was why the Brecht poem? What significance did it have? It was obvious that, structurally, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) was enchanted by it enough to inspire some change in his character, but I wasn’t quite sure why it was never paid off. That is, until one of my students pointed it out to me.

Despair When Love is Lost

If you don’t quite remember, there is a point in the film when Wiesler breaks into the Dreyman’s room and steals the Brecht book. Back at the safety of his small apartment, Wiesler lays on his couch and reads the following lines:

It was a day in that blue month September Silent beneath a plum tree’s slender shade I held her there, my love so pale and silent As if she were a dream that must not fade. Above us in the shining summer heaven There was a cloud my eyes dwelt long upon It was quite white and very high above us Then I looked up, and found that it had gone.

It is a beautiful poem, but how was it paid off? See for yourself…

(And just to reiterate this TOTALLY ruins the end of the movie. Don’t watch this if you haven’t seen it yet!)

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Of course! It’s so obvious now right? Almost as obvious as the red ink in the typewriter. The Brecht poem foreshadows the ultimate tragedy that will occur, the loss of someone truly and deeply loved. Holding his love “so pale and silent” - certainly sounds like that last scene, does it not? Even Christa-Maria’s bathrobe is pale white! Sorry if this was obvious to you, but I get really excited about figuring this sort of stuff out.

A Point to the Poetry

Those lines are from the poem, Remembering Marie A. I think it’s fair to say that it is no coincidence that the subject of the poem also shares the same name as the woman in the film. The point of impetus for Wiesler’s change comes from Dreyman’s intense love for this woman. From what we can gather, Wiesler has never experienced a love as strong as this and thus explains why the poem has such an effect on him. How can Wiesler continue on his life without experiencing this kind of love at least once.

The poem continues:

And since that day so many moons, in silence Have swum across the sky and gone below. The plum trees surely have been chopped for firewood And if you ask, how does that love seem now?

Despair for a love lost. Plain and simple. And now, an understanding to why that particular poem appeared in the film. Christa-Maria’s death calls to Wiesler’s mind those lines and the tragic realization that now he knows first hand what Brecht was writing about.

The Impact Others Have On Us

Without a doubt, teaching this past year has had an incredible impact on my life. So many things I thought I knew, I didn’t, and so many things I didn’t think to know, I already understood. And just like Hauptmann Wiesler, I too feel myself propelled into a greater understanding of story (and by extension, life) because of the wisdom of one of my students. My thanks to Jee Sung Yang for his insightful analysis of one of my favorite films ever. A film that keeps getting better each and every time I watch it.