Film, history and audiences: international responses to The Lives of Others (von Donnersmarck, 2006)

Jones, Huw D. (2019) Film, history and audiences: international responses to The Lives of Others (von Donnersmarck, 2006). Across The Live/Mediatised Divide: Audience Research Conference, University of York, York, United Kingdom. 17 Sep - 18 Oct 2019.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Das Leban Der Anderen/The Lives of Others (2006) is one of the most globally successful German-language films of the twenty-first century, securing $77 million at the worldwide box office, along with the 2006 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Yet this fictional story of a Stasi officer who helps a dissident playwright in East Berlin in the early-1980s has divided critics, historians and film scholars at home and aboard over its historical depiction of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). Some like playwright Rüdiger Suchsland argue the film “presents the GDR so simplistically, clearly and unambiguously that one doesn’t have to think about it much, that one knows where one stands”. Others like the film scholar Paul Cooke suggest the film has the “potential to engage critically with contemporary popular discourses on the historical appraisal of the GDR”. What is missing from this debate, though, are the perspectives of ‘ordinary’ film viewers. In this paper, I draw on focus groups I conducted/supervised in Bulgaria, Italy and the UK for the HERA-funded MeCETES project, to see how international audiences responded to The Lives of Others. My analysis demonstrates that most foreign viewers felt the film presented a “true or at least a very credible plot” from which they “learned a bit about the period”. However, only some viewers responded in ways that suggest the film encouraged more critical reflections on the history of the GDR. Crucially, the most reflective comments came from respondents who had a deep knowledge of or personal connection to the history depicted on screen. I conclude my paper by discussing the implications of this finding to broader debates about how European historical films can contribute to understandings of European history and identity.

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