GOODBYE LENIN
Germany, 2002, 118 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Wolfgang Becker.
Goodbye Lenin proved to be a popular hit, not only in its native Germany, but also worldwide. It received a substantial release in the US.
German comedies, some think, may be hard to come by. The German sense of humour in this case, is a somewhat nostalgic and pleasingly ironic revisiting of the final year of the Democratic Republic of Germany, East Germany.
What if...?
If a mother, a staunch supporter of Eric Honneker's socialist government, disappointed since her husband left her for the West, trying to bring up two children and do a job for the party, were to have a heart attack seeing her son arrested at a protest and go into coma for eight months? What if these were the months of the fall of the Berlin wall, the opening up to the West, the beginnings of the Americanisation of East Berlin and the vote in 1990 for a unified Germany? What should her son do when she wakes? Tell her about how everything she cherished has changed and give her another heart attack? Pretend that nothing has changed and go to all kinds of extraordinary lengths, even to making propaganda television news that lauds the east and condemns the west? The son chooses the latter and that is where so much of the comedy, with its touches of parody lies.
But, there is more to the film than this. It deals with family and family break-up in the context of the repressive East German state. It also deals with understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation, symbols of what had to happen in the newly united Germany. This means that the film is something of a crowd-pleaser with its humour and its humane sentiment.
1. A German comedy? The German response to its history, to the separation of east and west, to the reunification? Germans trying to understand the situation and see humorous aspects of it?
2. The re-creation of 1989-90 in the east, the drab streets, the apartments, the austerity of the administration? The celebration of the forty years of the Democratic Republic?
3. The atmosphere, the look of East Berlin, the shops, the clothes, the music, the workplaces, the drab apartments?
4. The reaction in the Democratic Republic in 1989, young people, the old politicians, Secret Service and spying, the strong socialist stances, suspicion of the west? Yet the demonstrations, going to the wall, the wall eventually coming down, change?
5. The timetable of the events of 1989-90, the resignation of Honecker, Gorbachev and his influence, the Soviet Union and its attitude towards West Germany? The demonstrations, the November coming down of the wall, the freedom of movement, the changes in visa requirements, the decision in 1999 for the scrapping of East German currency, the unification with the Deutschmark, the build-up to elections, the unification within the year of the wall coming down?
6. The mother, her relationship with her husband, the lies about his going to the west and staying there, her later admitting of the truth? Her depression, morose? Coming out of it, her decision to give herself to socialist causes, her work, the children's choir? Her relationship with her friends? Her skill in writing letters of complaint? A credible character emerging from this kind of society? Her memories of her husband, her relationship with her son and daughter?
7. The son and daughter, their parents, the home movies, as children, the family unit in East Germany? The photos? The children as characters, their place within the family, their age in 1989? Relationships, work, the daughter with the baby?
8. The demonstration and Daniel going to join in, his mother going to the social function, in evening dress, seeing her son arrested, her collapse on the street in the middle of the demonstration? Daniel and his being put in the van? Her heart attack, her eight months in coma?
9. The irony of all the changes happening within those eight months? An Americanisation of East Germany, the changing of clothes, Burger King, Coca-Cola? The daughter and her changing relationships, the baby, with a man from the west? Changing the drab apartments, throwing out the furniture_?
10. The difficulty of the mother awakening at this time, the doctor's warning about a shock? Daniel and his interviews with the doctors? The fear that she would find out the truth if she remained in the hospital? The decision for her to go home, for the two children to preserve the illusion that nothing had changed? Daniel and his friend supplying the videos, the mother watching TV, looking at the past? Her wanting particular foods and their not being in the supermarkets? The truth about her money not being in the bank, its being hidden? Their finding it in the old furniture - but taking it to the bank too late and letting the notes fly over Germany? The songs from the children, the workers, her friends coming to visit, the headmaster being persuaded to come, the gifts, her celebration of her birthday - and seeing the Coca-Cola? sign - and Daniel organising television explanations?
11. Each member of the family, how well drawn their characters? The son and daughter being there, Ariane's boyfriend and Lara being there? The demands made on their having to cope? Ariane and her boyfriend, the baby, living at home, her work, growing exasperation? Lara, her apartment, Daniel going to visit her there, their affair? The build-up to the exams?
12. The mother going out, her looking around, her bewilderment, her experience of the refugees? Daniel and his providing video material to explain this? The welcome of East Germany for refugees from the west? Her generosity and wanting to offer places to the refugees?
13. Going to the holiday house, its memories, her illness? The irony that Lara told her the truth, Daniel pretending - and never knowing that his mother knew the truth?
14. The true story of the father, his going to the west, his wife refusing to go? His second marriage, his new family? The mother telling the truth? Ariane meeting him at the Burger King and the impact?
15. Daniel going to visit him, the party going on, his seeing his half-sister, his father, his new wife, the people at the party, life in the west? His father's career? Their talk, the father wondering what was being asked of him? His visit to the hospital to see his wife?
16. The ending, the mother dying, the happiness of her life in transition from her commitment to the East German state to a modification, a greater freedom? The children and the work for their mother, its effect on them? Their future?
17. The film as a critique of East Germany and its past, of the west? The political background, the coming down of the wall, the changing of the currency, a united Germany? Seen from the perspective of more than a decade after reunification?
