Ulrich Muhe is gone

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Shattering news -- Ulrich Muhe, 54, who delivered one of the most touching and devastating performances of '06 as the Stasi agent in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, has died of stomach cancer. I'm told he had an operation immediately after the Oscar ceremony five months ago, but he lost the fight last Sunday.

The Lives of Others Ulrich Muhe at Toronto's Sutton Place hotel -- Saturday, 9.9.06, 4:55 pm

I fell deeply in love with Muhe's Lives of Others performance, yes, after seeing it at the Toronto Film Festival last September. But I felt a huge kinship with Muhe himself, partly due to interviewing him and chatting with him at a couple of TIFF parties, but also because I knew that his own disturbing history with the Stasi (they watched him very closely in the '80s) was tied up in the role. I obviously didn't know Muhe very well, but I feel right now as if an old friend is gone.

Sony Pictures Classics co-chairman Michael Barker called it "very, very sad news ...he was a great actor, the Anthony Hopkins of Germany." Barker said he'd first heard that Muhe "was in trouble" about two or three weeks ago.

Oregonian film critic Shawn Levy wrote this morning that Muhe's performance "is the absolute core of this amazing film, and the images of him as an efficient tool of the state, then a man whose conscience slowly awakens, then a secret conspirator, and, finally, a man justified in his deeds if never acknowledged, are unforgettable. The film is a masterpiece and it's impossible to imagine without him. It's truly deflating to discover such a singular talent and then lose him in the same year."

Muhe won Best Actor awards for his Others performance at the European Film Awards, the Copenhagen International Film Festival, the German Film Awards and the German Film Critics Association, among others.

The Lives of Others DVD will be out on 8.21.07. If you haven't seen it, do.

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 25, 2007 at 8:56 AM

comment #1

kingofnails says ...

Whaaat??? This is truly stunning, shocking news. How sad. His performance in Lives of Others is simply wonderful, one of the main reasons the film works as well as it does. He was also in several of Michael Haneke's films. He will be missed.

Posted by kingofnails at July 25, 2007 9:24 AM

comment #2

Craig Kennedy says ...

"No. It is for me."

Posted by Craig Kennedy at July 25, 2007 9:36 AM

comment #3

buckzollo says ...

Life or more appropriately death is what happens when you are off making plans. And plans would this exceptional talent have had (and then some.) It was a privledge to witness him graciously accept all of the heaps of praise heaped upon him and the flick last year in Telluride. I guess there is something to be said for going out on top of your game.

Posted by buckzollo at July 25, 2007 9:55 AM

comment #4

nemo says ...

The actor, the screenplay, and the entire film captured perfectly the twisted idealism that motivated the Muhe character to participate in the monstrous system of the Stasi in the first place.

What makes the movie work is seeing the character's idealism become bruised as Muhe comes up against the cynicism of the bastards he is serving and the reality of the people he is victimizing. That injury doesn't kill his idealism, but instead makes it wiser and stronger. Almost against his will, Muhe's idealism very gradually untwists itself and forces him to act courageously.

Posted by nemo at July 25, 2007 10:36 AM

comment #5

T. Holly says ...

People keep dying HEre. What I didn't learn in Sicko last night in 2 hours (!) is that between private and universal, there is hybrib. And, "There are no examples of single payer (i.e. universal) systems that have successfully converted into a hybrid model, although there are examples of countries that have moved from private insurance to a hybrid model, one example is Germany."

Posted by T. Holly at July 25, 2007 10:42 AM

comment #6

kammy says ...

William F. Buckley Jr. called THE LIVES OF OTHERS "the best movie I ever saw.Ã¢â‚¬Â "...The tension mounts to heart-stopping pitch and I felt the impulse to rush out into the street and drag passersby in to watch the story unfold."

Here is the full review: http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGUwMTZkMjY3Y2U1Zjc5MWM3NWEzOWY2OWU5NmIzYTU=

Posted by kammy at July 25, 2007 10:44 AM

comment #7

le corbeau says ...

It's a good review of a great movie, but Buckley's whole setup (movie theaters with more than one movie? Great Scott!) made me think he was accidentally going to walk into a teen movie and shout, "This isn't E.M. Forster!"

Posted by le corbeau at July 25, 2007 10:49 AM

comment #8

jeffmcm says ...

It was a good movie but the slippery ease by which Muhe's character falls in love with the people he's spying on (apparently reading a little Goethe throws all your Stasi training out the window) prevents this from really being a 'masterpiece'.

But Muhe's death is a big loss.

Posted by jeffmcm at July 25, 2007 11:43 AM

comment #9

T. S. Idiot says ...

Muhe's performance is one of the best examples of what true film acting is all about: convincing us that a character is really listening and thinking, is experiencing emotions without shouting and making faces. Easily the best performance of the century so far.

Posted by T. S. Idiot at July 25, 2007 12:23 PM

comment #10

kammy says ...

Muhe's transformation in THE LIVES OF OTHERS is more credible than any of those characters in CRASH -- one of the worst pictures ever to win the Best Picture Oscar.

"No. It is for me." It is for us!

Posted by kammy at July 25, 2007 12:39 PM

comment #11

Patrick says ...

"The Lives of Others" is one of the most
overrated movies in recent memory. I'm sad
about the lead actor's death, but if we can
trash Glen Ford and others in this room when
they die, then I'm going to comment on how
obvious and "so what, didn't everybody know
that stuff happened" I found the film (and
performances) to be. Not to mention how the
supporting male character wasn't much of a
writer and the lead actress wasn't much of an
actress! I didn't buy a single frame of it.

Posted by Patrick at July 25, 2007 1:01 PM

comment #12

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Patrick: Sorry, man, but your opinion about Martina Gedeck not being much of an actress is a little deranged. No offense.

Posted by gruver1 at July 25, 2007 1:33 PM

comment #13

kammy says ...

"...apparently reading a little Goethe throws all your Stasi training out the window..."

Literature does have the power to stir the souls. "Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress", released in 2002, is further proof.

Posted by kammy at July 25, 2007 2:03 PM

comment #14

Gaydos says ...

Sad beyond belief. Only silver lining is that the man survived a dictatorship with his artistry intact.

Then he shared that artistry with the world in a humanistic masterpiece (and global arthouse hit) that explained the motives beyond the dehumananization and the ability of the human spirit to survive and conquer the bastards.

Peace...

Posted by Gaydos at July 25, 2007 2:43 PM

comment #15

Dan Revill says ...

Man, what a bummer. I loved The Lives of Others and him in particular. Really sad.

Posted by Dan Revill at July 25, 2007 3:52 PM

comment #16

Patrick says ...

Wells - Sorry, but I didn't make it very clear.
I meant that in the film she was supposed to be
a "great artist" and I just didn't buy any of it.
I'm sure the actual actress playing the part is
fine in other performances. Still, the film was
overrated and I'd give it (max) a B/B-. Certainly,
it's worth watching and had a strong opening act,
but I didn't buy Muhe's turn in any way. Oh, the
car accident/suicide was totally mishandled.
Although it's different in style, "The Princess
and the Warrior" is a vastly superior film.

Posted by Patrick at July 25, 2007 4:44 PM

comment #17

Breedlove says ...

This sucks. Best movie I've seen in the past year, minimum, if not this century. I think it's still playing at one theater here in NYC. I think I may go try to see it again. One of the best ending lines of any movie, ever. So good. R.I.P. - but really a legendary note to go out on.

Posted by Breedlove at July 25, 2007 5:15 PM

comment #18

le corbeau says ...

"I meant that in the film she was supposed to be a "great artist" and I just didn't buy any of it."

Well, remember that this movie is also about someone who's supposed to be a great playwright, and his play is shown to be godawful in two completely different ways over the course of the picture.

By the way, I think the comment about him being changed by Goethe is silly. He's changed because for the first time he contrasts the sleaziness of his superiors and their venal motives with the enormous harm he could cause to two essentially harmless people, who have the kind of life full of friends and art and free thinking that he wishes he had. When he reads Goethe, it's to try to see what it would be like to live a life of the mind instead of a life for the state, not because he's going to be transformed by a few lines of poetry.

Posted by le corbeau at July 25, 2007 5:17 PM

comment #19

rickyroma says ...

For some reason, Lives of Others returned to theaters in Des Moines, Iowa, this week. I saw it for the second time last Sunday, and am looking at the ticket stub as I type. It's easily the best film I've seen this year, possibly the best of the last few years.

Muhe's place in cinema history is secure with that performance.

Posted by rickyroma at July 25, 2007 8:42 PM

comment #20