Film Review: Good-Bye Lenin!
German Movie and DVD Reviews
Recreating the GDR
DVD: Good Bye Lenin!
US DVD: August 10, 2004
German DVD: PAL, Region 2
GOOD BYE, LENIN!
2003 Germany, 100 min Color 35mm
DIRECTOR: Wolfgang Becker
SCREENPLAY: Bernd Lichtenberg
GENRE: Tragicomedy
AWARDS: Deutscher Drehbuch 2002 (Best Screenplay), Blauer Engel (Best European Film) 2003, European Film Academy (Best European Film) 2003
In German
German Release: Feb. 13, 2003 (DVD: Sept. 18, 2003)
US Release: Feb. 27, 2004
GERMAN DVD: Sept. 18, 2003
US DVD: Aug. 10, 2004, German with English subtitles
US Release 2004
Over a year after its original German release, GOOD BYE, LENIN! appeared in US cinemas on February 27, 2004. US DVD Release: August 10, 2004.
European Film Academy (Best European Film) 2003
Up against very strong competition, GOOD BYE, LENIN! was the big winner—with a total of 6 awards—at the 16th annual European Film Academy (EFA) ceremonies in Berlin on December 8, 2003. The German film garnered prizes for best film, best actor (Daniel Brühl) - More...
Good-Bye, Lenin!
It's 1989. Alex Kerner (Daniel Brühl) and his single, divorced mom Christine (Katrin Sass) live in a tiny 79 sq.m. apartment in East Berlin. Shortly before the Berlin Wall falls and East Germany (the "DDR") becomes history, Alex's mother, a dedicated party activist and DDR supporter, has a heart attack and falls into a coma—and misses the triumph of capitalism. Eight months later, her miraculous awakening and recovery present Alex with a dilemma: How to protect his mother's weakened heart from the shock of Coca-Cola, Burger King, Audis and Mercedes.
Daniel Brühl has to
recreate the DDR.
Photo: X Verleih
His efforts to protect her arise partly out of guilt. After all, his loyal communist mother collapsed after seeing him participating in an anti-DDR demonstration. But he quickly discovers that his plan to protect mom by creating an artificial "DDR" within their small apartment faces huge obstacles. One of them is a huge Coca-Cola banner hanging within sight of their apartment window. (Talk about product placement!) Another is where to find all the old East German products that vanished within months of the demise of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. His efforts to keep all the historical changes from his mother are both funny and poignant. In the process, Alex reinvents history and creates an entirely new version of what happened while his mother was in a coma. One of the funnier tricks Alex uses to do this is a fake TV news broadcast.
Alex gets a friend to
do a fake DDR newscast.
Photo: X Verleih
I saw this movie in its German DVD version, and it's a good bitter-sweet film. Not an all-time great film, but a very good one. Daniel Brühl does his usual fine work in the role of Alex, and the rest of the cast is also above-average, particularly Katrin Sass as his mother. The US R-rating is idiotic (the film was rated for ages 6 and up in Germany!), but teachers should know that there is some violence (riot police scene) and brief male frontal nudity (tanning bed scene). But these are very minor elements in a film that students should see for its unique historical perspective. German teachers will be glad to know that the producers of GOOD BYE LENIN! have made teaching materials available for this film. Both print and online versions for classroom use are available. (See the links below.) There is also a book with the entire screenplay that will make German teachers happy.
GOOD BYE LENIN! was sold for release in other countries, including France, the UK and the U.S., but its U.S. release was delayed until late February 2004. It did well for a foreign film in the UK in the summer of 2003. The film is out on PAL DVD/video in Germany, but the US DVD release (with English subtitles) was not until August 10, 2004. Streaming video trailers in German and English are also online (see links below).
Daniel Brühl also appeared in Vaya con Dios (2002), an underrated German comedy that deserved more attention than it got. Wolfgang Becker directed the very successful German film, DAS LEBEN IST EINE BAUSTELLE (1997). The film music (see the soundtrack CD below) for GOOD BYE, LENIN! is by the French composer Yann Tiersen.
CAST: Daniel Brühl (Alex Kerner), Katrin Sass (mother), Chulpan Khamatova (nurse Lara)
European Film Academy (Best European Film) 2003 (Continued)
Up against very strong competition, GOOD BYE, LENIN! was the big winner—with a total of 6 awards—at the 16th annual European Film Academy (EFA) ceremonies in Berlin on December 8, 2003. The German film garnered prizes for best film, best actor (Daniel Brühl), best screenplay (Bernd Lichtenberg), and three "People's Choice" awards: best actor (Brühl), best actress (co-star Katrin Sass), and best director (Wolfgang Becker). The EFA awards are sometimes called the "European Oscars." German film director Wim Wenders, president of the European Film Academy, commented: "European films are so much better than their reputation in theaters around the world." Some 360 films from 47 countries were considered for the EFA awards. "It's just incredible that more than 300 million people in Europe have picked a German film in the German language, this ugly German language," the film's producer, Stefan Arndt, said in jest.
GOOD BYE, LENIN! came away empty-handed at both the Golden Globes and the Oscars.
DER FILM/DVD - DAS BUCH UND DIE CD ZUM FILM
DVD: Good Bye Lenin! (US/Canada, Region 1)
> Buy this DVD
DVD: Good Bye Lenin! (German PAL, Region 2 DVD)
Note: This is the German PAL DVD. It will not
play on a normal U.S. Region 1 DVD player.
> Buy this DVD (German only)
BOOK: Good Bye, Lenin
by Michael Töteberg (in German)
Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf
> BUY this book from Amazon.de
> BUY the SOUNDTRACK CD from Amazon.de (DE)
> BUY the SOUNDTRACK CD from Amazon.com (USA)
DER FILM
WEB > Good Bye Lenin! - Sony Classics - official U.S. site (Flash)
WEB > Good Bye Lenin! (official German site)
WEB > Music - Trailers/Teasers (RealAudio/Video)
WEB > Movie Trailer (from X Verleih)
WEB > Unterrichtsmaterial (as PDF for teachers)
Über die DDR (GDR History)
WEB > Die DDR im WWW
WEB > DDR-Alltagskultur
WEB > Wende - DDR-Zeitungen
WEB > DDR-Geschichte
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