The Lives of Others (2006)
Ulrich Mühe: Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler
Photos
Quotes
-
[last lines]
Buchverkäufer : 29.80. Would you like it gift wrapped?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : No. It's for me.
-
[Wiesler enters the elevator at his apartment building. A young boy with a ball joins him]
Junge mit Ball : Are you really with the Stasi?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : Do you even know what the Stasi is?
Junge mit Ball : Yes. They're bad men who put people in prison, says my dad.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : I see. What is the name of your...
[pauses]
Junge mit Ball : My what?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : [thinks for a few more seconds] Ball. What's the name of your ball?
Junge mit Ball : You're funny. Balls don't have names.
-
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : An innocent prisoner will become more angry by the hour due to the injustice suffered. He will shout and rage. A guilty prisoner becomes more calm and quiet. Or he cries. He knows he's there for a reason. The best way to establish guilt or innocence is non-stop interrogation.
-
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : Madam?
Christa-Maria Sieland : Go away. I want to be alone.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : Madam Sieland?
Christa-Maria Sieland : Do we know each other?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : You don't know me, but I know you. Many people love you for who you are.
Christa-Maria Sieland : Actors are never "who they are."
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : You are. I've seen you on stage. You were more who you are than you are now.
Christa-Maria Sieland : So you know what I'm like.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : I'm your audience.
Christa-Maria Sieland : I have to go.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : Where to?
Christa-Maria Sieland : I'm meeting an old classmate. I...
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : You see? Just now, you weren't being yourself.
Christa-Maria Sieland : No?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : No.
Christa-Maria Sieland : So you know her well, this Christa-Maria Sieland. What do you think - would she hurt someone who loves her above all else? Would she sell herself for art?
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : For art? You already have art. That'd be a bad deal. You are a great artist. Don't you know that?
Christa-Maria Sieland : And you are a good man.
-
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : Socialism has to start somewhere.
-
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : Hands under your thighs. Palms down... What do you have to tell us?
Prisoner : I haven't done anything .. I don't know anything.
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : You have done nothing... know nothing... . so you think we just arrest innocent citizens on a whim?
Prisoner : No... not
Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler : If you think our humane system is capable of something like that, that would be a reason enough to arrest you