Customer Reviews

Good Bye, Lenin! (Special Edition)

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Goodbye Lenin takes a sliver of recent history (reunification of Germany) and weaves it into a tender, bittersweet tale of farce and romance. Presenting a world that no longer exists is hard enough, but making it convincing to the viewer with gentle hints of humour requires a stroke of genius.

We may not know of the precise nostalgia felt by East Germans when the products they grew up with were replaced by spiffy modern imports from adjoining nations. But these moments are so beautifully handled, and the son's alternative approaches so cutely frantic, that we cannot avoid relating to similar emotions from our own contexts.

The film goes on for a bit in the middle with goofy antics and knowing jokes, but it is richly textured in its nods towards other directors like Fellini and Kubrick.

Don't let subtitles put you off from seeing this heart-breaking yet oddly comforting film. One of the best movies I've seen in 2004!

Finally, a film that satisfied a lifelong curiosity I've had for people my age who lived on the other side of the Iron Curtain. Since elementary school, I always wondered what it was like for kids like me who were unfortunate to be born in the Soviet Union or East Germany, two of the harshest communist states. This curiosity led to my checking out books on the topic and reading about it, and being called a "commie" by my fellow Americans, as if curiosity about someone our government tells us is "our enemy" makes me one of them!

I was thrilled when I read a movie like this had come out, showing life in the last days of East Germany and the euphoria of a new world opening up for people who pretty much lived in a prison all their lives. Of course, the initial rush of euphoria in newfound freedom left a harsh wake up call as differences in work ethics, standards of living, and cultural references became more and more apparent after reunification of the two Germanys. In personal terms, think of what it would be like if separated twins discovered each other late in life...one a Wall Street stockbroker, the other a trailer park living low wage slave. A clash in more ways than one, right?

The performances of Daniel Bruhl as the idealistic son and of Katrin Sass as the mother who always believed in Marxism, both performances really stand out and are Oscar-worthy. The lengths the son goes to, to prevent his mother from falling into another coma over the shock of the demise of East Germany provides much of the humor. My favorite scene is when the mother, tired of being cooped up in the bedroom, decides to go for a walk outside and its like walking through Wonderland for her. The look of complete bafflement on her face as she watches a statue of Lenin fly through the air, in a salutatory departure, is pure joy to watch. Just her look alone perfectly conveys the confusion of a world being turned upside down.

This film addresses the issue of "Ostalgie" that has gripped some former East Germans in the late 1990s as they have found that the materialism of the West hasn't replaced a sense of community for them. Under the iron fisted rule of Honecker, they might not have had much, but they suffered together and had a genuine sense of community...although any one of their neighbors could have turned them in to the state for any number of "violations." Watching this film, one can see the draw of culture on a person and the void left behind when the culture is stripped away or proven false. Does longing for the familiar products of one's youth actually mean a desire to return to the way things were? I don't think so...but culture is something we'll always carry with us. It's who we are.

The brilliance of this film for me, is that we get to look at East Germans as people with no control over their form of government. In America, we were taught that the Russians and Eastern Europeans were our "enemies" and a lot of people bought into it. But in reality, they are people just like us. People who believe their government over a foreign government they're not familiar with. Are we any different? I like that this film shows an idealistic young East German and his yearning for freedom, idolizing a Cosmonaut, and who loves his mother so much that he dares not tell her the truth about what happened to their country since she fell into and out of a coma. This deception strains his relations with his sister, but provides much humorous situations before reaching a satisfying conclusion. I have no complaints about this film. It's flawless and brilliant. The acting and humor are first rate and Oscar-worthy. I would rate "Goodbye Lenin!" as the best film I've seen so far in 2004.

With films like "Good Bye, Lenin!", both the critics' and viewers' darling in Europe (winner of Felix for Best European Film and French Cesar for Best EU Film of 2003), you should put your logic to rest -- this is a black comedy which crumbles under strict common sense; but when you try to understand its point of view, you may relish in the "American Beauty"-lite distorted story with lots of truth hidden inside.

Alex (Daniel Bruehl) is a 20-something young man, whose mother, on the surface a devoted citizen of communist East Germany, suffers a heart attack, having witnessed a protest in October 1989. After she 'wakes up' eight months afterward, the communist regime is gone and the unification of Germany after 42 years of split is pending. But Alex, afraid of a crushing blow this reality would mean for her, takes great pains to persuade his bed-ridden mom that German Democratic Republic is still a reality -- he gets out-of-use groceries for her, shows her old-times video footage and gets 'enthusiastic' neighbors playing their roles to achieve the goal. Yet we feel that the moment the mother Christiane (Katrin Sass) finally finds out what's going on, is imminent.

Director Wolfgang Becker skilfully and un-pathetically intertwines two layers of a story -- the real fate of this particular family is far from happy and is in a strange, thought-provoking contrast with the comedian bulk of the story. The film's sober bitter-sweetness confirms that almost nothing in this world is only black or only white.

Although the potential of the movie to let outsiders feel what it really meant for ordinary people to live on the wrong side of Berlin Wall is a bit questionable (although favored, "Good Bye, Lenin!" was snubbed at Oscar nominations), it's already one of the definitive film (and artistic) statements of Germany's unifying process and may well prove essential for students of German and maybe even Eastern Europe's history in the 20th century.

I am originally from East Germany. I lived there in 1989. I saw the demonstrations happen in my hometown (not Berlin), I felt the tension, but also the excitement and insecurity of the days following the fall of the wall.

I watched the movie last year in Germany, watched in in December again when it was released on DVD in Germany and am planning to show it to my students in a politics class. That is how much I love this movie. I love it because he shows something very simple ... the things a person wants to go through for the love of his mother. But also because it quite adequately portrays the time of 1989 and 1990. It shows how excited people became if they already got their car after waiting "only 3 years" when it was normal to wait 10+ years. It shows also how proud East Germans were about some of their achievements, how attached they were to the system and I know how hard it was and still is for some to deal with the demise of the GDR. It gives a bit of an insight in the problems and ways of thinking from that time.

The movie is fascinating on many levels and entertaining and humorous on so many others. Katrin Sass, an actress from East Germany, and Daniel Bruehl who plays her son, make a great cast for the movie. Katrin Sass, because she can portray the die-heart communist with such credibility, not overdone nor distorted, and Daniel Bruehl because he plays this young man so well. The movie comes with high recommendation from me.

Good Bye, Lenin! is a movie set in East Germany that starts in the late 70s. We watch a family, in the opening credits, in which the father has escaped to the West, leaving behind his wife, and two kids. Alex, the son, is the character who tells the story and we watch as the mother, broken and in pain from her husband dumping them, embraces socialism to the point where she is totally loyal to its ideals.
In 1989 she has a heart attack, falls into a coma, and misses the most important eight months in world history. The fall of the Berlin wall, the collapse of communism, frankly everything she believes in dies a swift, total death. Then she comes out of the coma and her son is warned by the doctor that ANY shock might bring another heart attack. Any shock. So her son has to make her think that NOTHING has changed.
The film is one of the funniest Non-English flicks I have EVER seen. The son has to find food she likes (that no longer exists), has to set up the TV with a VCR so she only watches shows from before the collapse and even has to organize her birthday with people who know that they have to pretend that history hasn't passed her by. Yet it has a serious underlining message about the importance of family that is touching (and sad at the same time) and I think a slight poke at materialism. Coca-Cola must have paid millions to get its name in so many scenes!
But Alex is not the only one making up lies. The mother has woven some lies of her own which end up coming out. The truth about their father.
The extras are great and this is a movie you should get at all cost, used or new.

`Good Bye, Lenin!' is a fascinating German film that was for unclear reasons denied a best foreign film nomination in the recent Oscars, but I consider it one of the best films I've seen this year. `Good Bye, Lenin!' is an entertaining and surreal black comedy, that doesn't really stand the test of logic and reality, but beneath the surface it's really a very socially conscious film, that gets across very well the atmosphere and problems of the post-communist East Germany.

The story is of Alex, whose mother, a devoted member of the Communist Party, suffers a heart attack which sends her into a coma - through which she sleeps throughout the months of revolution and the fall of the communist regime. When she awakes, the doctors warn Alex not to cause his mother any anxiety or excitement; therefore, he goes to ludicrously immense lengths to keep her convinced that communism in East Berlin is still alive. Not much of it, once again, stands the test of reason, but it's incredibly witty and entertaining, and manages, throughout, to get across some powerful statements.

`Good Bye, Lenin!' is both fun and important, a film which I recommend to everyone. Don't be afraid of European cinema; even though the film might be difficult to come by, it's very rewarding and well worth your time.

Before the Berlin Wall fell, East Germany is ruled by Communist Russia and its citizens were forced to live a lie- a society that is supposed to be based on equality and social justice. Alex Kernel (played by the amazing Daniel Brühl) is a young disillusioned young man who, together with his fellow East Germans, are on the verge of a revolution and social change.

While walking together with fellow rallyist, Alex was arrested and his mother, who witnessed the scene, suffered a heart attack. While his mother survived, it left her in a coma and for 8 months, Alex and his older sister Ariane took care of her. As East Germany became no more and the reunification of his homeland was completed, his mother woke up. What follows is a hilarious, amusing and at times serious and thought-provoking attempt to shield his mother from the sweeping changes and their altered life as citizens of the newly unified Germany.

Director Wolfgang Becker spared no expense to capture a time and place that now exist only in old, yellowed newspapers and history books. The finished product, a film that is not only a realistic social commentary but also a love story between a son and a mother, and the journey a young restless soul need to travel to discover himself.

Yes, this movie is really that good, with some unforgettable scenes and some very moving ones. It is unforgettable when Alex's mother manages to leave the apartment and encounters a world entirely changed. There are other ideas the movie presents, as well, without ever beating the viewer over the head. Watch the final scenes and see how brilliantly Katrin Sass communicates volumes without speaking a word. Unfortunately, those who don't understand the East German/West German situation prior to 1989 might not get quite as much out of this movie. I still recommend seeing it! -- or reading something really brief about the events prior to and up to 1989, then seeing it. It's basically the story of a family, and a son who loves his mom so much that he -- quite literally -- changes the world for her.

"Godbye Lenin" was one of the best foreign films released in 2004, which combined a love story and farce against the backdrop of the last days of the German Democratic Republic. The plot is ingenious: to prevent his frail mother, a mid-level loyal appratchika, from suffering a second and fatal heart attack, her son must create a historical "bubble" in her appartment to keep her convinced that the Communist regime is alive and well, and the universe has not changed.

The fantasy world created by her son reflects the actual paper-mache universe that was East Germany. The Wall must stay up; dumpsters must be scoured for old food cans with the right labels, and mediocre laminate furniture recovered. His job is made more difficult as the real world and its billboards inevitably intrude, to which he and a friend respond by taping fake talking-head broadcasts which look like the real dull as bricks productions. I had always suspected that Coca Cola was invented in the GDR and stolen by the West....

Some have unfairly criticised this movie by being too "soft" on the East German regime, and in its sympathetic portrayal of the mother as a loyal adherent to the system. That was not the point of this movie. Waking up on a November 2000 morning to find that Bush, and not Gore, was declared president was significant enough; the millions who saw the Wall collapse and have their entire society change must have been thousands of times more traumatic. Many, many people who were not ideologues still had a stake in the old system, such as university professors, teachers, and factory workers. Their world, like that of the East German astronaut, was turned upside down without any fault of their own. This film succeeds in describing this trauma in a gentle and thoughtful way.

It's October 1989, and East Berliner Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl), the teenage son of Communist Party stalwart Christiane (Katrin Saß), is arrested during a peaceful demonstration in the streets approaching The Wall. On her way to receive an honor for her service to the German Democratic Republic, Mom witnesses her boy's apprehension and has a heart attack that thrusts her into a coma, which lasts until June 1990. By then, The Wall has effectively been breached, Western capitalism has invaded East Berlin with a vengeance, Christiane's teenage daughter Ariane (Maria Simon) has dropped out of the university to get a job at the new Burger King, where she's taken up with a "Wessie" (a West Berliner), and Alex has fallen for Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), a student nurse from the USSR.

After Alex insists that his mother be released for at-home convalescence, the doctor makes clear that any shock to the patient's system will likely kill her. Since Communism is all that Christiane has ever known, Alex contrives an elaborate scheme to shield his bed-ridden mother from all evidence of The Wall's collapse and the West's victory of materialism over her socialist world. What is she to think of that gigantic Coca-Cola advert hanging from the apartment building opposite her window?

The improbable prospects for the con's success aside, GOOD BYE LENIN is a witty, clever, and sometimes poignant look at the wave of change which swept through East Berlin after the surprisingly sudden meltdown of Die Mauer, carrying forward the young and resilient with the flow, but leaving many bitter, old guard stranded in unfamiliar territory .

Bruehl, resembling a young Christopher Reeve, is enormously engaging as the young man trying to do the right thing for his Mom, especially as it was his civil disobedience that catalyzed her physical debilitation in the first place. Christiane elicits much sympathy from the viewer. But she, too, has a secret that she's been keeping from her children for years.

As a child of the Cold War era - born in 1949 - I gazed transfixed at the TV images in the closing weeks of 1989 as Die Mauer was danced upon and assaulted by raucous Berlin crowds from both the East and West. After all, I'd grown up with The Bomb, the Evil Empire, and Nikita's shoe-pounding at the U.N., and had myself navigated Checkpoint Charlie on a couple of occasions. GOOD BYE LENIN is a glimpse of The Wall's demise from the other side, and with a humorous twist. One only need visit the Berlin of today, pass through the once off-limits Brandenburg Gate, and walk down the Unter den Linden to witness the startling transformation enabled by that event.