Good Bye, Lenin! (2003)

Having just watched this movie again after a few years, I have confirmed how much I liked it the first time, and discovered underlying sub plots. I have not read every review but have not seen this in the ones I have read. That is that deception, from the state to the people, between the people, (even the ones you love) and in the media is flourishing. The mother withheld letters sent from the absentee father to his children. The children withheld that fact that the country she loved had failed. The state withheld about everything. And the mother's television, her only connection to the outside world, broadcast news concocted by her son. She does not discover the truth until she gets out of bed, ventures into the world, makes her own investigation, and comes to her own conclusions. It reminds me of a passage in "The Lord of the Rings" that goes something like this; "Evil has not changed since yesteryear and it is not one thing for man and another thing for elves and dwarfs. But it is up to us to discern it in the Golden Wood or in our own homes." Considering the amount of misinformation we are fed from the network owners, government, industry, it is an important lesson. And with the advent of Photoshop, the internet, truth has become much more elusive. We cannot believe what we see, hear or read. This leaves us our sense of smell as the only sense capable of determining the smell of untruth.

"Good Bye Lenin!" is a German film from 12 years ago that runs pretty much exactly 2 hours and features some of Germany's most known actors back then and today: Daniel Brühl, Katrin Saß, Maria Simon, Florian Lukas, Christine Schorn, Michael Gwisdek and Burghart Klaußner. A lot of these also received quite some awards recognition for their work here and this movie in general is among the most famous German films abroad as well, especially looking at movies made in the 21st century. I would say that only "Lives of Others" and "Downfall" are more famous from recent German films. So "Good Bye Lenin!" also scored a Golden Globe nomination and BAFTA nomination as well as tons of wins at the European Film Awards, German Film Awards and other ceremonies all around the globe.The story is a bit absurd, but as a whole they made it work I guess. A woman (devoted socialist) is in a coma and misses the Fall of the Berlin Wall and the German Reunification. When she wakes up, her children are instructed from the doctor that they have to keep any drama and tension away from her, so what is their plan? They act as if nothing happened and re-enact the GDR for her. When she leaves the apartment one day, they just make it look as if it was all the other way around: People from the FRG fleeing into the GDR so that she does not start to have doubts in her political ideals. And in the end, the fall of the Berlin Wall upside down as well. I think this is a good movie and the script is certainly the biggest strength. Well-written and as no less than 5 people worked on the script, this is finally not a case of too many cooks. Besides writer and director Wolfgang Becker, the most crucial one may be Bernd Lichtenberg and I am really surprised to see that he did not make any other scripts for movies in the last 12 years.Anyway, there are moments in terms of comedy and drama in this film that did not entirely convince me, but I don't think it was bad enough to leave a sour note on the film overall. All in all, I guess Becker found the right mixture between these 2 genres. Still I must say that I didn't feel that the acting was as outstanding in here that it would have justified all these awards. Then again, I am far from being a great Daniel Brühl fan. Still, I like some of his works, for example "Das Weiße Rauschen" or "Rush", which almost got him Oscar-nominated. My favorite scene was probably the one with him at his father's party. Great fan of Burghart Klaußner here and he was brilliant in this couple minutes. The ending with the mother's death and what they showed her finally was very good too. The film could maybe have been a bit more essential if they had done without some of the insignificant scenes. As a summary, I would say that it's a good movie, not a great one, but very much worth watching for everybody with an interest in German history. Recommended.However, I have to finish this review on a negative note. Becker and Brühl reunited recently for a new film and I read about an interview where Brühl compares their longtime collaboration with the one between Herzog and Kinski. All I can say about this is that Herzog has made brilliant films for decades and I cannot see anything in Becker's filmography that comes close to the genius if Herzog's finest works. And Brühl to Kinski is goldfish to whale. No need to further elaborate on that. Looks like his awards recognition really cost Brühl his sanity. Shame, he shows glimpses of talent in some of his works.

Throughout the entirety of the film it's clear that Wolfgang Becker is trying to express a very satirical view on the situation of East Germany at this time, yet he strays away from the real issues a bit too much and ends up making the film about the issues within a family. Perhaps this is Becker's way of adding an element of realism to the somewhat surreal situation, showing that amidst the issues that plagued an entire nation or even an entire continent, that every household, every person has their own issues. The comedic take on the issue in itself would make the film seem like a straight-up satire, yet the concept is so absurd that it almost takes away from the satirical aspects, making the film feel like a regular old comedy. Though Becker does express some of these aspects well. One of the most humorous and effective things I remember from the film was the connection between capitalist ideals and the ones of socialism. The main character's sister has a job at Burger King, which to Americans seems like a very normal job for someone struggling by to get, yet it seems very out of place here. Perhaps it's trying to make a statement on the assimilation of western capitalist ideas into a society that was plagued by socialism for so long, and how things can seem so normal to one culture, yet so foreign to another. Another thing, probably the thing Becker did the best, was how people went to such extremes to hide the western aspects of life that were quickly being introduced into their society from the mother. This is one of the best statements Becker makes, satirizing the way that the government tried to block information and censor aspects of culture and life from citizens by having Alex and his group of friends do everything in their power to make sure that the mother does not find out about the reunification. Making fake news programs, getting everyone on board, physically hiding advertisements and any thing that would hint towards a western lifestyle; this is one of the things that Becker did best. Overall, the movie did a pretty good job at expressing the environment of East Germany right before and right after the unification.

When Wall fell in 1989 we had no idea what a change would it create in the Eastern Europe, luckily without blood in most of Europe with notable exception of the former Yugoslavia.This film portrays that sudden and unexpected change in a funny and cute way. Finding pickles was some undertaking! That reminds me on how when I set off to find some piece of clothes or something else I can not find it. I find things I do not need, but what I need at that particular moment no way in hell! I loved the plot, I loved the acting, fast pace of the film. What an excellent and relaxing entertainment! I would strongly recommend that you find this film and watch it!