L’affaire Martin ! Occupe-toi de Sophie, Par la fenêtre, Caroline ! Le mariage de Spengler. Christine est en avance

The Lives of Others, a reality soap

Crisis in the Henckel von Donnersmarck home! While the one is wallowing in a nostalgic yearning for home, the other is conceiving a plan to restore the lustre of this aristocratic family’s dusty coat of arms. There’s plenty of door-slamming, oratory and playing the oracle amongst the chandeliers and ebony writing tables. Until a solution suddenly presents itself: the family decides to make a film about ‘the lives of others’. But there is a problem. Who are these ‘others’?

L’affaire Martin! etc. by the author and director René Pollesch – who was at the Kaaitheater with Pablo in der Plusfiliale two seasons ago – squares up to the so-called authentic images shown in film, on TV and in the theatre. These media are more than ever the heralds of neoliberal thinking and Pollesch generously exposes them. He boisterously denounces the controversial film Das Leben der Anderen / The Lives of Others (2006) by the director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck and flirts with the popular vaudeville theatre of Feydeau.