Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Goodbye Lenin

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Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 12-27-2003, 02:24 AM:

Attendance: Cameo Cinemas Belgrave Cinemas 4 (new cinema just opened yesterday in what formerly was the Cameo Coffee Pot).

Nice to be back at the cinema which has just re-opened under new management and now will be showing arthouse product.

Goodbye Lenin is a german comedy set just after the fall of the Berlin wall. The pretext of a loving son pretending that the DDR still exists (and going to great lengths to prove this to his mother) is great and the actors, directors and everyone else involved with the production of this film should be justifiably proud of what will be remembered as a classic of german cinema.

Peculiarly viewers of this film will recognise some music from the French film 'Amelie' which was an unusual choice.

The film is not a belly laugh film but at times is comedic, happy then sad and is always genuinely touching. The film also contains a subtle message about the nature of lies and the failure to tell the truth.

I couldn't help wonder at the end whether the mother knew the truth at the end of not.

Verdict 8.5 out of 10 (must see film)

cheers Peter

Posted by Christian Appelt (Member # 1067) on 12-27-2003, 03:02 PM:

Yeah, it's a nice movie, and to anybody who liked it, I'd recommend an older film by the same director called DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (Life Is a Construction Site), I heard that there was an english DVD coming.

Posted by Elena N. Solovyova (Member # 1636) on 12-28-2003, 04:02 AM:

"Goodbye Lenin" is a second German film in recent years that has really good box office in Russia ("Lola Rennt" was the first one).

Both idea and its development are crafted very thoroughly here. I found amasing that the little signs of "socialist" society shown here and there were so common between DDR and Russia. The film plays on feelings of people past without deriding or reckoning on them.

The only annoyance was Ian Tiersen music, at times virtually undistinguishable from "Amelie" sountrack. Odd choice or sloppy composer? Go figure [Mad]

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 03-19-2004, 11:46 PM:

And now a word about a screening in the U.S.A.:

Although this film is a comic farce, satirizing political ideologies and life styles, some scenes have a documentary quality, with both actual historical footage and events recreated with comic authenticity. Some scenes were filmed to resemble home movies, while crowd scenes, military parades and police and protestor confrontation scenes were well directed and convincing.

The family split-up parallels that of the country, and attempts at unification of both make for both comedy and emotional impact.

I attended a 7 PM showing on the first day of wide distribution (March 19,’04; the U.S. Premier was February 26th) with about 30 others, all middle-age or seniors. My wife and her friend, both of whom lived many years under communism, laughed out loud at many details of ideological satire. How I would love to see this film again with a German audience!

Although this film is rated R for brief shots of innocent male nudity and a couple of expletives, it deserves a wider audience, and the love relationships of the young characters should appeal to young adults and teenagers.

I found the ending , with its upbeat idealism, very satisfying.

This film, by Wolfgang Becker, was an official entry at Sundance and Toronto Film Festivals, nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at Golden Globe, and won many German and European film awards.

Viewed at the Kew Gardens Cinema, Screen 5. Show about 2 hrs 15 min. Following the usual slide show, two commercials were shown, plus trailers for Broken Wings (Israeli) and My Architect (documentary.) Policy trailer clean for once (Film-Guarded, or a new Replacement?) No cap code (natch.)

I enjoyed this film.

Posted by Peter Berrett (Member # 672) on 03-26-2004, 06:25 AM:

It is a sad indictment of American society that most patrons would probably prefer to go and see Scooby Doo 2 than watch a quality foreign film.

Mind you Australians are not much better. [Frown]

cheers Peter

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 03-27-2004, 09:19 PM:

It's good and I expect it will do well; it's a real crowd-pleaser. The show I saw tonight nearly sold out.

The trailer makes it out to be a light comedy, but it's actually quite a bit more substantive than that. I'd be interested to know how this was received in Germany.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 03-29-2004, 03:21 AM:

I think it was very successful. I didn`t see it when it played in Germany because I was sick and tired of the "Ostalgie" wave that had set in in the late 90s. "Ost" means "East" and the word means "Eastalgia". A lot of people had expected that after the reunification everything would become simply fantastic. And of course it didn`t. Many people in the East reacted by romanticizing their memory of the "good old East".

Anyway, I finally went to see this movie here in San Diego. I have to say I was very surprised. It is an excellent movie, not only in the precise reconstruction of the GDR lifestyle, but also in how sensitively it captured the athmosphere of the time. The story of the mother

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER

encapsules the tragedy of many. After all, it turns out that she hadn`t been a convinced socialist at all. She was merely afraid after the defection of her husband and played the role of the convinced socialist so well that it became her second nature.