The German magazine, Deutschland, in its 2008 December/January "German Cinema: Exciting, Diverse, Successful" issue, proclaimed Good Bye Lenin! as one of the most successful German films in German cinema. This 2003 film directed by Wolfgang Becker certainly deserves that title. It a unique film, both in combining genres of the historical film (the reunification of Germany), romance and a little bit of comedy all the while bringing up many provoking questions.
It is 1989 and there is much turmoil between East and West Berlin. Alex Kerner, played by Daniel Brühl is the son of Christiane Kerner played by Kathrin Sass, who is a devote member of the socialist party. When she witnesses Alex protesting in an anti government rally she suffers a heart attack and goes into a coma. Time goes by and it is now the mid 1990s. Much has changed, the Berlin wall has come down and Berlin is moving forward. Christiane wakes up out of her coma but is very weak. Alex sets out to hid all the events that have happened from his mother for fear that she would find out and that the stress could kill her. With a friend he stages fake news reports. While the outside world is becoming more and more commercialized and westernized, Alex tries to find any old relics of the old East Germany, such as food products, furniture, and clothing that his mother was used to having. The more elaborate his efforts get the more his girlfriend and family fear that he has done the wrong thing, though he is doing all this with the belief the he is saving his mother. But what happens when she can get out of bed and walk around on her own?
This film, as a film critic said perfectly "confronts the perversion of perception and the manipulation of reality." And, to add to all of this, it also tackles the confusing national identity crisis suffered by Germans when the Berlin Wall came down. This is the main focus of of the film. Some romance and comedic moments are also thrown in, but this film shouldn't be thought of as a romantic comedy. Deutschland lables it as a tagic-tale told with irony and that this film has re-awakened interest in German Cinema.
-Adrienne
"Good Bye Lenin!" is truly a great film as it was both entertaining, engaging, and thought provoking. I was quite interested in the "Sandman" television program shown throughout the movie. After looking a little bit more into the program I found out that there were two different versions of the same premise and both used the puppet stop-motion animation.
ReplyDeleteThere was one version entitled "Das Sandmännchen" for West Germany and another, "Unser Sandmännchen" for East Germany. The programs depicted great adventures, daily life, and travels. The program was perfect to be included in the film as it was something that many people had seen as children in both West and East Germany (albeit slightly different versions), giving them yet another very relate able and common connection to reconnect through. It setup a great scene between Alex and his half brother watching the show with the Sandman in space. Even though Alex referred to a spaceman as a "Cosmonaut" and his brother called him an "Astronaut" it was very easy to see their connection, yet still showing the slight differences that the East Germans had to overcome as Germany underwent reunification.
The questions I found myself asking most frequently during the film were if the mother knew Alex was lying to her and created this alternate reality, and also if Alex was doing it more for himself.
ReplyDeleteI came to the conclusion that I believe she did know, beginning with the Coca Cola banner, and even more so when she got up and went outside. As for Alex, there could have been a lot of reasons for creating this world for his mother. The surface one being to keep her from having another heart attack, but maybe also because he was fantasizing the ideal reality or that he felt power in having the control of what his mother believes. I'm sure it could be interpreted more ways as well.