Right now I'm reading Jonathan Raban's new novel Surveillance and wishing to God I was watching The Conversation instead. That Coppola classic, starring Gene Hackman, had interesting things to say about surveillance: the havoc it can reach in the lives not only of the watched but also of the watcher, how it ingrains suspicion and paranoia so deeply that they can't easily be gotten rid of again. (Hackman even reprised this famous role in the inferior but pretty entertaining Enemy of the State.)
It's an issue on many minds these days, but I don't think Raban does much of a job of addressing it. This movie might, though, and I for one won't be missing it:
The film opens in 1984 in East Berlin, where we see Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) a captain of the East German secret police, teaching a class in extreme interrogation techniques. These include sleep deprivation, the spouting of Orwellian paradoxes (if the prisoner believes the state capable of detaining him for no reason, that belief alone is enough to justify his arrest), and, in a creepy detail, the collection of the prisoner's seat cushion after the interview to be preserved as an odor sample for police dogs. The real intrigue begins when Wiesler is assigned to bug and monitor the apartment of a successful writer, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), and his girlfriend, a famous stage actress named Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Georg is neither a subversive nor a party loyalist: He's a go-along-to-get-along guy, too comfortable with his success to question the regime closely, even as it closes in on his scruffier and more outspoken fellow artists. But Wiesler's superior, Col. Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), wants to further his career by impressing the party bigwig Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme), who is looking to get his swinish mitts on Christa-Maria by any means necessary. And Wiesler himself is a rigid ideologue, a socialist automaton who mistrusts all artists on principle—even if the meticulous care with which he runs his own surveillance operation hints at a thwarted creative desire.
Thank you for sharing with us, I believe this website really stands out : D.
I always seem to give up what I want when others want. . Not a good thing, no. Might be an honorable trait, but not “good”. The only time I would call this good is IF and only if those you always put before yourself practice the same as you.. . Too much of anything, including love, sharing and all the other positives is not healthy. Life is about balance. Give and take, share and receive etc.. . It is wonderful that you put others before yourself, but you must take into account hat you are somebody too and you are to get your share no matter what that share is at the time. Sometimes we have to put ourselves first OR we find ourselves asking the question in which you have here. We could later find ourselves resentful, unappreciated and disrespected for example. We could accidentally become a doormat to even those that do not realize they are taking advantage.