With the talk of penalty shootouts and European constitution referendums this summer, it was difficult not to let the mind wonder beyond the Channel and onto the soil of Germany. A seemingly familiar country, what is easily forgotten is that it was West Germany that won the fateful penalty shootout during Italia '90 to knock England out of the World Cup — not the unified country we know today. With the fall of the Berlin Wall far enough back in history to be revisited safely, Goodbye, Lenin!, the surprise hit film that took Europe by storm, charts the fall of socialism in East Germany, the resulting reunification of east and west and the effects of the political upheaval on one ordinary family.
Alex (Daniel Brühl) is a young, disenchanted East German living with his sister Ariane and active Socialist party member mother, Kathrin (Katrin Saβ). When he is arrested at a demonstration protesting against the current state of affairs, Kathrin suffers a heart attack and falls unconscious for eight months. Suspended in a coma as the clock in Alexanderplatz measures the passing of time, Kathrin misses the fall of the Berlin Wall and the onset of the free-market capitalism of the west, with its logos and corporate symbols lying around the old city. After her recovery, Alex is warned that any more shocks could kill her, causing him to construct an elaborate ruse to convince his mother that her beloved Socialism and East Germany is still intact.
Goodbye, Lenin! is a wonderful evocation of an unknown — or unremembered — way of life. The East Germany that is recreated is a world in which people wait for years for a Trabant and many of the customs seem backward. The industrialised surroundings are drenched in saturated colors — the life of things almost literally bleached out of them — and the drab greys, pastel blues and greens are reminiscent of walking into a charity shop: East Germany feels like a living history. The evocation is neither sentimental or judgmental in its recollection — and neither does it dress up in a shining light the socialism that seemingly inhibits everyone. In more ways than one the East Germany of Goodbye, Lenin! recalls the tale of Rip Van Winkle as he sleeps through the American Revolution. The only difference being that this is a dream from which all the citizens of East Germany will eventually awake.
For Alex and the rest of his family, the Socialist cause is necessary for it has taken the place of the missing father figure: that their "mother was married to the Socialist fatherland" was only for a lack of a husband, who has given up on the east and started a new life in the west. Beyond this, however, lies frustration: Alex's childhood dreams of space exploration disappeared with his father and were replaced by a feeling of inertia, aided by the smothering effect of his mother's political beliefs. Perhaps the recreation of the east in his mother's bedroom will allow him to confine his anxieties about his family and his country to one focal point and therefore let him get on with his life and the opportunity to explore the universe? Assuming such a thesis, the theme of space exploration is an important one, becoming a complex metaphor that brings together the many thematic strands of Goodbye, Lenin!: at once, it represents the aspirations of those that to the Socialist cause as well as a potential goal for Alex and all the young people he represents. It also represents the unknown world — beyond the wall — that has suddenly become available: after all, if socialism feels like a different planet — floating away from real life and the benefits of capitalism — then the ability to explore the universe negates its gravitational pull.
As the hero, however, Alex is not an innocent party. Deception as a manifestation of love is understandable but as a result of his elaborate ruse, Alex effectively creates a mini-state in his mother's bedroom in which notable negative attributes of a Communist state are present: control of the media, manipulation of individuals to please a "leader" and an ignorance of family values. In effect, Alex has become the controlling prime-minister acting on behalf of an ageing, debilitated monarch. On balance, perhaps, that is a little unfair: for all his attempts, these are circumstances that he cannot control — Alex, it seems, is helpless to do anything whilst the plaster-cast of the east restricts him.
Fittingly, it is through the colour red — as much Coca-Cola as it is socialism — that Goodbye, Lenin! explores the movement of East towards the West. From the red riding hood symbolism of Kathryn lying on the floor before the wolf of capitalism, to the red dots that mark old furniture for the dump, red is a potent symbol that permeates Goodbye, Lenin! throughout. That is, it permeates every image until an arresting, magnificent sequence in which Lenin's statue is removed from the city (in a passage lifted directly from Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita). Pointing to his greatest disciple Kathrin as she wanders outside, we finally see in the statue all Socialist influence removed from the East, and — in its absence — the capitalist philosophy of the west that has replaced it. For Kathrin — and for the viewer — it is the literal chance to say goodbye to Lenin.
Goodbye, Lenin! is not the raucously funny film marketing executives would have you believe; it does, however, have a subtle comic side which teases award-winning performances out of Daniel Bruhl and Kathrin Sass as Alex and his mother respectively — Alex's industrial turns of phrase being the likely humourous highlights (the falling of the Berlin Wall, for example, is "a unique recycling project"). The film itself picked up 9 Lolas, the German equivalent of the Academy Awards (including two audience awards), showing its appeal to critics and viewers alike. Such success proved surprising to its writer and director, Wolfgang Becker:
I would never have dreamt this film would touch a nerve the way it has. You don't have to know a thing about German history to understand it. A son who loves his mother — it's a story you find everywhere.Of course, a knowledge of German history helps a viewer's appreciation of Goodbye, Lenin! But remember: the history is a long one which has been difficult for many Germans themselves to come to terms with. There are signs, however, that they are slowly doing so with the first films about Hitler beginning to be made and welcomed in Germany. Whereas German Expressionism — that darker, surreal genre which accommodated horror so easily — provided some opportunity to escape, Goodbye, Lenin! is a different extension of the German art form, providing an expression of the history that Germany has experienced and the reactions people have had to it. It is a delightful, intelligent picture which provides a sense of history large enough to allow us to appreciate how far Europe has come in the short years of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Directed by Wolfgang Becker • imdb and
