I thought Ulrich Mühe was absolutely stunning as Captain Wiesler. His performance was so subtle. Everything was conveyed with a raising of an eyebrow, the tilt of his head, the tightening of his forehead. And he takes the audience right along with him with these signals.Interestingly, Mühe discovered in his own Stasi file after the German reunification that his second wife had been informing on him. He said his experience was helpful in preparing for this role.
Mühe died in July of stomach cancer.
4 comments:
He WAS stunning. Very subtle. Very nuanced in all the ways you mentioned.
I thought the scene with the Teutonic tart was quite telling, too. He wanted her to stay longer but she had another "date." He wanted something from her besides a sexual release — companionship, affection. That's a point where he seemed quintessentially different from his ilk, i.e., the minister who seemed happy enough to coerce a weekly sexual encounter out of Christa with no other involvement beyond the purely animal. That's where, to me, Wiesler really started to seem more like the playwright than the partyniks.
Magnificent performance.
You know, for our one-year anniversary, maybe we need to issue some "best of" awards. Muhe would be one of my best-actor picks. (Oh ... but then there would be Burt Lancaster! John Wayne! What would one do?)
I agree. Stunningly good, but in a transparent way that entertains rather than beats you over the head with his skill.
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