English Literature & Creative Writing

Encoding through Costuming: The Politics Underlying the Visuals in The Lives of Others

Document Type

Oral Presentation

Location

Indianapolis, IN

Subject Area

English Literature & Creative Writing

Start Date

10-4-2015 1:00 PM

End Date

10-4-2015 2:30 PM

Description

In 2007, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. While Anglophone critics were especially generous in their praise, one claiming that director von Donnersmarck had created a film that is near perfect in every respect,  individuals who had lived in communist East Germany tended to believe the film was unrealistic in its positive portrayal. Oxford professor Timothy Garton Ash lived in Berlin in the 1970s and, in an article published in The Guardian, he relates his impression of the film as: No! It was not really like that. This is all too highly colored, romantic, even melodramatic; in reality, it was all much grayer, more tawdry and banal.  This underscores how collective and personal historical memory can clash with a (n)ostaligc retelling of those events. In this study, we examine how cinematographic decisions and costuming are employed to influence the viewer's affective response to two key characters. The costuming and the resulting emotional response ultimately contradicts and undermines the viewer's expectations, we find ourselves sympathizing with an agent of East Germany's secret police (the Stasi) and feeling averse to the angelic heroine of the film.

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Apr 10th, 1:00 PM Apr 10th, 2:30 PM

Encoding through Costuming: The Politics Underlying the Visuals in The Lives of Others

Indianapolis, IN

In 2007, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. While Anglophone critics were especially generous in their praise, one claiming that director von Donnersmarck had created a film that is near perfect in every respect,  individuals who had lived in communist East Germany tended to believe the film was unrealistic in its positive portrayal. Oxford professor Timothy Garton Ash lived in Berlin in the 1970s and, in an article published in The Guardian, he relates his impression of the film as: No! It was not really like that. This is all too highly colored, romantic, even melodramatic; in reality, it was all much grayer, more tawdry and banal.  This underscores how collective and personal historical memory can clash with a (n)ostaligc retelling of those events. In this study, we examine how cinematographic decisions and costuming are employed to influence the viewer's affective response to two key characters. The costuming and the resulting emotional response ultimately contradicts and undermines the viewer's expectations, we find ourselves sympathizing with an agent of East Germany's secret police (the Stasi) and feeling averse to the angelic heroine of the film.