This was one of the best movies I’ve seen all year; it works on so many levels, as a thriller and a fascinating character study. I immediately watched it again with the director’s commentary on, and then I liked it even more. I was fascinated by the fact that the actor playing the Stasi officer had actually experienced surveillance as portrayed in the film, during his youth as an actor. Apparently after the wall fell, he read his Stasi file and discovered that many people he thought of as friends, as well as his wife of many years and the mother of his children, were listed as informants against him.

But the thing I have been talking about most, several days later, is the underlying theme of the movie. The director explained that his inspiration for the film came from an anecdote about Lenin. Lenin is quoted as saying that listening to the Appassionata made him want to stroke people’s heads, but he needed to smash their skulls in to accomplish his revolution; so he couldn’t listen to that music any more. The director was amazed at the power art and beauty have over people, and wondered what would happen if someone forced Lenin (or Hitler for that matter) to listen to such music. And this film is what came of that question.

The film really speaks to me about the impact art and beauty can have on the world. Maybe I’m no Mozart or Michaelangelo, but I can create beauty and joy too.