Good Bye, Lenin!
2003 · Directed by Wolfgang Becker
Original language: German
- comedy
- drama
The story
Alex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.
What it’s like
Warm, bittersweet and quietly absurd, with a golden-brown, slightly faded look that suggests 1990s Berlin photographs and home-movie memory. Much of the frame is domestic: cramped flats in soft window light, lace curtains, kitchens crowded with old GDR packaging, and an evident pleasure in period detail, from ration-style jars to Trabant exhaust in the streets. The camera moves with an observant, handheld ease, lingering on faces and small rooms, while the score is a light, wistful melody that gives way to pockets of near silence. Its emotional register is melancholy softened by comedy: a son improvising ever more elaborate fictions for a mother who wakes to a changed country, and in doing so rebuilding a family and a sense of home. Pacing is brisk and playful in the middle, slowing to tender stillness near the end. The intensity is low: some medical tension and a brief scuffle, no gore, and no graphic sex. It suits a rainy Sunday or a reflective evening, and fits viewers who enjoy gentle, humane comedy about history, family and the stories people tell to protect each other.
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