We are under constant observation by our smartphones, the details of our every move, every tweeted thought collected by software to be analyzed by AIs in order to better sell us crap we don’t need and rile up political unrest. Will our current surveillance state be better or worse when those AIs develop the capacity to be changed by what they’ve learned of us? How watching impacts a human Stasi watcher in 1980s East Berlin is the subject of 2007’s extraordinary The Lives of Others. Oscar winner that year for Best Foreign Language Film, this twisty noir worries at your mind with ironies of how the machine of oppression creates its own opposition, creates its own enemies. Will our AI watchers someday fall in love with us, want to be us, like we see here? (Read my 2007 review.)
US: stream on Mubi (via Prime); rent/buy on Prime and Apple TV
UK: rent/buy on Sky Store
See The Lives of Others at Letterboxd for more viewing options.
