MovieChat Forums > Das Leben der Anderen (2007) Discussion > Why did Christa Do it .... Spoilers

Why did Christa Do it .... Spoilers

posted 12 years ago by lamont-hard
9 replies | jump to latest

Before she was brought in I did not understand why she did not set him up or rat out Hempf. He would have had a hard time explaining himself to his bosses if word got out what his real motives were. He would have been a easy target with a recorder or camera. Did anyone else feel she may have been into him but just got caught up in more than she could handle. Was Hempf right about him being able to satisfy her.

On another note her boy friend felt after all those years she removed the typewriter herself, It was weird because why would she have killed herself if there was nothing there, It seemed She would have just been covering her tracks. Remember he did not know she was questioned and threatened.

If she was going to kill herself why would she have cooperated in the first place.

[–] justxme 12 years ago

"Hempf. He would have had a hard time explaining himself to his bosses [...]"

There were no "bosses". Hempf was the minister/secretary for culture. There was only one man above him: the Chairman of the Council of State, the head of state (Erich Honecker both in reality as well as in the movie). Hempf was a member of the government and probably one of the most powerful dozen or so of people in the GDR. Everybody would think twice before challenging such a man. You could do that in the West but not in the East or you would end up in prison.

As a "normal" person you couldn't just go to the Chairman and tell him you have compromising photos of one of the ministers. You wouldn't even get close enough to the Chairman to talk to him.

And then you have to keep in mind how those comunist states worked: they would never admit they had faults or problems like the "decadent" western states. Even though everybody inside and outside the GDR knew that it was short on money, raw materials and everything else that is important to a state: the government tried to keep the apearance of a healthy economy, powerful military, happy population. The shops in East Berlin, where a western camera might apear every now and then, were full with merchandise but in 90% of the rest of the state, the shops were short on anything (except for basic food items).

To make it short: the Chairman would never have fired a minister/secretary for having sex with a woman he might have extorted because that would have looked bad for himself and the state system.

There was no mischief happening in the GDR. That would only happen in the West. Period.

About the second point:

Christa had given away the hiding place of the typewriter. As she had cooperated I guess she actually believed things might work out okay for them somehow. When the Stasi officers came back to search the apartment again she was sure the Stasi would find it there and severely punish Georg. She couldn't stand that it was her fault and that's why she chose suicide. But that choice was only made at that moment.

Of course Georg didn't know that Captain Wiesler knew all about him and the essay he had written for the western magazine. That's why he was completely shocked by what Hempf told him after the reunification and by what he read in his Stasi files (that actually Wiesler had saved him).

[–] danconia 12 years ago

For a moment I thought she might have recognized Wiesler and trusted that he was an honest person who would somehow protect her. He did protect her but the fact that she went and essentially committed suicide kinda opposes that theory though.

Kinda sad that she gave him up but in a dystopic society good people are pushed to do bad things, and they don't always resist.

[–] lamont-hard 11 years ago

I still feel she was kinda into it herself, Hempf felt he and she was good in bed so for him to say he felt her man was not satisfying her she must have actually gotten into the sex with him. Or made it seem to him she was into it to satisfy his ego. I am not saying she cared for him but as actresses go she may have been able to separate good sex and protection without getting emotionally involved. Or letting it come between her and her guy.

[–] piapaya 10 years ago

Hmmm. Not sure if you're joking, but where did you get the impression that she was into the sex? Look at the expression of repressed disgust on her face when Hempf paws her in the limo. And then the defeated way she stands on the sidewalk after she exits the limo, shamefully tying up her coat again. And the way she cries in the shower. I don't think it was good sex. AT ALL. It was coerced sex, absolutely nothing consensual about it. Essentially it was rape. No, he didn't force himself on her violently, but it was not sex she wanted to be having. He had leverage that he used to force her to have a sexual relationship with him.

As for Dreyman not being able to satisfy her... I think that was clearly an exaggerated lie by Hempf. Every couple sometimes experiences an instance when the sex isn't enough to get off (usually for the woman). He was just provoking Georg and rubbing it in his face.

[–] liberalmedia 10 years ago

I think you have it just right.

As for Christa and her motivation, the screenplay emphasizes that it takes very little to ruin a career or indeed a life. Christa goes along to get along, but she hears more than once what a great artist she is, and I think in her heart of hearts she does love Georg. What she does amounts to betrayal not only of her lover but of herself.

[–] dustypistol 10 years ago

She was NOT into it. Period.

I don't even feel like I have to give evidence from throughout the movie, it's just so blatantly obvious.

And it's incredibly sexist, I'm sorry but it is. That's always being said about women when they're pressured into something like that.

Would you say that about the men in the movie? Like, "I kinda got the sense that they were actually all about being bullied and spied on by the government and under constant threats of death and torture, don't you? I don't know, they went along with it all when the government guys were around and watching, so they must have actually been into it."

Riiiiiight.

Anyway, "she likes it way better with me than with you, only I can really satisfy her" etc. is often said by men who are trying to make the other man jealous. It has nothing to do with what the woman wants or who she cares about.

Him saying that to Dreyman was just to add insult to injury: 'I raped your girl, and she liked it.'

Since he wasn't in danger from the GDR anymore, I really didn't understand why Dreyman didn't punch that guy's lights out in that part, in the theater... he should have.

[–] mike-848 9 years ago

I felt the same way. I was hopin Dreyman would kick the fat Commie in his nuts.

There shoulda been a trial for murderin rapin creeps like that. But I remember readin they let most of em off the hook.

Yet they chase down 90 year old Nazis still.

[–] 9 years ago

[deleted]

[–] nutsberryfarm 11 years ago

she's just a huge fan of limo sex.

Where there's smoke, there's barbecue!