Das Leben der Anderen -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, [2] ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 18:17:50 01/27/08 Sun
Author: Cara
Subject: Das Leben der Anderen

This week someone -- maybe James -- mentioned the movie "The Lives of Others" as a neat mimetic specimen. In brief, an official Minister of sorts in the East German communist party tries to catch a playwright either writing or abetting seditious materials. He assigns a certain Inspector to monitor all the Playwright's activities. Meanwhile, Minister goes after Playwright's girlfriend, an Actress. In the end, Inspector witnesses the art and love that Playwright and Actress share, and falsifies his records, allowing Playwright safely to publish his wonderful defences of Freedom.

So, when I first thought of the movie's mimetic structure, I thought "Of course, Minister only wants Playwright's girlfriend because Playwright is his rival." But then, it occurred to me that Inspector was imitating Playwright, having come to admire him and his art and his love for Actress. Also, Playwright himself may have been imitating his mentor, a movie director who had been banned from film for subversive works.

If anyone hasn't seen it, it's a neat movie, very moving, with an initially sad but ultimately uplifting ending that proves that freedom is wonderful and capitalism works best.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]