Film: Goodbye Lenin!
Release date: 3rd September 2007
Certificate: 15
Running time: 121 mins
Director: Wolfgang Becker
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, Maria Simon, Florian Lukas
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Studio: Pathe!
Format: DVD
Country: Germany
In 1989, Germany was still divided by a great socialist wall. By the end of that year, the wall would fall, Germany would be united and East Berliners would see the flood of capitalism: new money, new styles, new ideas and new lives. Wolfgang Becker’s best known film creates the most personal account of the fall of the Berlin wall to date. Charming, comic and evocative, it is the tale not of the great political change, but of the people and the lengths to which a young man will go to for the love of his mother.
In 1979, the first Germans went into space, the same year Christiane’s husband and Alex’s father fled East Berlin for the West, for a new life and new woman. While Alex grows up dreaming of being a cosmonaut, dedicated socialist Christiane puts her love and relentless faith in her homeland into the good of the people, the country and the cause. While either side of the fence on socialism, Christiane and Alex share family love and dedication. But when they are either side of a police barricade, Christiane’s heart gives way at the sight of her son being hauled off by police at a protest against the Berlin wall.
After her heart attack, Christiane is left in a coma for a very important eight months in Alex and his sister’s life. Alex talks to her daily while she sleeps through a rapidly changing world: the fall of the Berlin wall, with the ensuing capitalism and seemingly endless possibilities for the future; amid his growing infatuation with the nurse and the blooming of their relationship; his sister dropping out of college for a fast food job and a bohemian lifestyle; and the loss of his job as so many East Berlin companies fold under the newly provided services of the West. Then Christiane wakes, still so fragile that doctors warn that she may not live long, her heart unable to take the strain of any kind of “excitement.”
So begins Alex’s task of hiding the inundation of the West that now surrounds them. From having everyone wear old fashion clothes to searching the city for an old Eastern brand of pickles his mother wants, Alex builds a world of lies around Christiane to protect her. Unaware of the changes, her faith in the socialist world is unrelenting, and while hiding the truth from her becomes more and more difficult, Alex cannot bring himself to accept that she will at some point find out what happened to the society she so loved. Wilder explanations for the appearance of coca-cola adverts and the sounds of western TV next door lead Alex and Christiane deeper into a fairytale world until there is just too much to hide. Alex is forced to find a way to gently reveal the new world to his mother, while Christiane too realises that secrets of her own, kept for many years to protect her children, must finally give way to the truth…
The film starts out fantastically, with a sincere tone of warm, family nostalgia through a home video of a father and this children playing. Becker very successfully mixes this feeling with that of comedy and drama to create a wonderful emotional experience, from laughing at scenes of a drunken old professor trying to remember his lines to holding back tears as Christiane reveals the secret and her deep regrets about their father’s leaving. The film seems to lose its way for a few scenes in the middle, where pacing becomes an issue and some scenes feel drawn out or repetitive, but the tone and emotion sees you through to the end keeping you from turning away.
Alex is what holds the film together, portrayed with such talented subtlety by Daniel Brühl that it is no surprise he has gone on to work with great directors, in Hollywood and beyond. From the very beginning, it is clear Alex adores his mother, but it is still shocking to see that he is willing to do so much throughout the film, even seeking out a father he believed had abandoned him to give his mother peace before she dies. The progression of character throughout is well written, each bigger step he takes into the lie showing more dedication and belief in his cause that echoes his mother’s passion. He is clearly less embracing of the capitalist changes as his sister, the Burger King employee and consumer of Western goods, and there are times when Alex finds himself appreciating the old life, leaving you wondering if he is trying to keep it the same for his mother only, or trying also to preserve his life of the past. Inevitably, when Alex crafts a new ending to the German Democratic Republic for his mother, one of honour and pride, it allows him to give his mother and his motherland the send off he feels it deserved.
It is almost ironic that while it spends much of its time preserving a socialist life, the film style is very westernised as Becker, clearly passionate about film, references many great directors and Hollywood films. However, at times, the film feels long and monotonous. The scenes with the father at the end are overly drawn out, and arguably add very little to the film since Alex has already proved his devotion to his mother many times over. Certain jokes are overused and become repetitive, perhaps because Becker feared it would be too heavily sentimental drama, but it is this sentimentality that keeps bringing you back into its strong, relentless heart.
For a film about such a culture specific event, it has succeeded in touching audiences around the world. Certain in-jokes may be beyond wider western audiences but the themes at its heart are universal and carry across any culture or language borders. Countless films mark history’s greatest moments, but few focus the account on such a personal experience. CM
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