Question re The Lives of Others (spoilers)

[Future Man]

I just watched this excellent film over the weekend and what I kep wondering as the plot unfolded was, how was the increasingly sympathetic Stasi agent able to so freely write (falsely) benign summaries of what was being said in the apartment down below, when presumably all that sound equipment was itself recording everything being said, and a simple review of the tapes would show the deception?

[jcankerhuxley]

I just watched this excellent film over the weekend and what I kep wondering as the plot unfolded was, how was the increasingly sympathetic Stasi agent able to so freely write (falsely) benign summaries of what was being said in the apartment down below, when presumably all that sound equipment was itself recording everything being said, and a simple review of the tapes would show the deception?

Spoiler Alert





(The East German Government fell)

Good observation. The freely benign reports shows the Stasi officer as a paper tiger in a world crumbling around him.

[Polynikes]

It is some time since I saw this film, but my suggestion is that given the seemingly impeccable loyalty and (more importantly) seniority of the Stasi officer, either it would not occur to anyone else to doubt the authenticity of his transcripts, or anyone who did happen to have such doubts would not dare to raise them or check the transcripts for fear of reprisal, given the Stasi officer's senior status.

I shall watch this film again when I get the time. It was very good.

[Future Man]

It is some time since I saw this film, but my suggestion is that given the seemingly impeccable loyalty and (more importantly) seniority of the Stasi officer, either it would not occur to anyone else to doubt the authenticity of his transcripts, or anyone who did happen to have such doubts would not dare to raise them or check the transcripts for fear of reprisal, given the Stasi officer's senior status.

I shall watch this film again when I get the time. It was very good.

When you do watch it, note that at the end the superior/former friend remarks that he's sure he's covered his tracks too well to be proven disloyal but that he's being demoted nonetheless... the superior knows something is up in other words...I have to think they were not making recordings and that fact is alluded to somewhere, or else this aspect of the film is a plot hole.