Good Bye Lenin part 2

Film: Goodbye Lenin!
Directed by Wolfgang Becker
Germany (2003)
Family Drama/Political Satire
12 parts/115 mins

In German with English subtitles (default)
Please be sure to turn on the CC (closed captions) button to view subtitles
Subtitles are translatable to any language and can be moved by clicking and dragging the subtitles.


WARNING: Film contains adult language, some drug use and brief nudity (Rated R by MPAA)

Time for some history kids!...Kind of. A farcical yet poignant take on one of the pivotal turning points in recent history; it's the waning years of the Cold War in East Germany, and the Berlin Wall is about to go through a large recycling campaign, while borders are broken down and people celebrate in the streets—but I will save you from any David Hasselhoff appearance. A modern-day twist on the old Rip Van Winkle tale, Good Bye, Lenin! is a humorous yet sincere story about how difficult it can be to embrace change yet still hold on to our dreams and the people we love...Imagine it is Election Day in America in the year 2000. After watching the news that evening, Al Gore is declared the projected winner and you go to bed early so you can get up for work the next morning. Only that evening, you suffer a coma-inducing stroke. You wake up ten months later to find George W. Bush is president, the economy is in ruin, and New York and Washington, DC are victims of a unprecedented terrorist attack. It sounds pretty outlandish, but German filmmaker Wolfgang Becker has co-written and directed a film based on a similar idea.

Synopsis:
The year is 1989, and East Berlin is celebrating 40 years of socialist rule by the German Democratic Republic. However, these are tumultuous times, and East Germany is on the brink of dramatic political and cultural change. Christiane Kerner is a dedicated socialist activist helping to improve the lives of those around her. But after seeing her son Alex getting arrested in a protest rally she suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Months pass, all the while the Germany she once knew is being transformed from the relentless triumph of capitalism after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Knowing that the slightest shock could prove fatal when his mother's awakens, Alex strives to keep the fall of the GDR a secret for as long as possible from his bed-ridden mother. We follow Alex through his often comical yet sincere attempts to keep a pre-Wall façade; but when his game takes on a life of its own, long buried family secrets surface as East Germans around them experience freedoms for the first time.
Review:

On the face of it, Good Bye Lenin!'s premise -- a young adult son just about managing to keep the collapse of the East German regime (and the Berlin Wall) secret from his ailing mother -- is preposterous. In lesser hands, it would be prone to cheap, unfunny laughs and, worse, insensitivity to the subtleties of massive political and cultural change. Remarkably, the film totally avoids those pitfalls to create a moving work that deftly balances not just comedy and drama, but also the political and the personal. Although the scenario strains credibility, it's done with enough finesse to make it easy for viewers to suspend disbelief, much as the dying mother does despite mounting
evidence that not all is what it seems.

Much of the amusement comes from Daniel Brühl's increasingly desperate attempts to maintain a pre-Wall facade, which finds him stooping to rooting through the garbage for old pickle jars and filming fake news broadcasts in order to keep up appearances. Along the way are pretty witty jabs at both socialism and capitalism, which finds the family, and even some national heroes and school children, scampering for new jobs and side scams in the onrush of free enterprise. Yet some ways into this satire, Good Bye Lenin! becomes something more than a mere farce. It's also an examination of how the Cold War tore apart this family in particular, with long-buried secrets finally coming to light in a manner that mirrors how long-repressed desires for social freedom were finally getting expressed in 1990 East Germany, with similar attendant pains and ambiguity.

The richest source of emotion in the film is not between the mother and son played by Daniel Brühl and Katrin Sass, though both performers are very good and the bond they create is palpable and believable. The real love story in Good bye, Lenin! is between Old Germany and New Germany, or East Germany and unified Germany. The reunification of Germany also plays a great role in "Good bye, Lenin!" but only because it is the catalyst for the conflict. The real story is how ideologies melt when it comes to affairs of the heart. In that way, the movie has an appeal that goes way beyond its country's borders.

Category:

Film & Animation

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[MrJcoons23]

do you have the English subtitles 

[alchemistkx]

@MrJcoons23 just make sure the cc button on the bottom right of the video player is on, if your not using google chrome or your watching it from a mobile device subtitles will not work.

[trippletrain77]

guys  please do not give this vid likes or dislikes, it draws attention to it and the youtube admins will ban it

[mbchoirgirl71]

Alex is really hot!!!

[SecretChannelAlex]

8:30

WHAT IS THE TITLE OF THE FILM - THE SCENE WITH THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE GIRL.

[Zacxlovex]

daniel brühl is hot!!

[kalslater]

@alchemistkx - i'm using internet explorer and it works

[psnelke1]

@KSX387 schonmal den Titel angeschaut ? wenn du jetzt schreiben willst, dass Lenin nichts mit Kommunismus zu tun hat brauchst du gar nicht erst anfangen, es käme nämlich nichts zurück.

[KSX387]

@psnelke1 Was hat dein Kommentar mit dem Video zu tun? Unter anderem war die DDR ein sozialistischer Staat.

[Lilithly]

@psnelke1 ähm...weißt du was "konstruktiv" heißt? es heißt, dass man negatives und positives erwähnt - wenn es nichts positives gibt wenigstens erklären, wie man das negative verbessern kann. und deine wortwahl war ja auch grundschulniveau :) deine meinung allen anderen aufzudrücken indem du sagst, dass jeder der kommunismus mag, nicht aufgeklärt ist, ist genauso kindisch. zu deiner frage: nein, ich bin kein fan von kommunismus, aber Demokratie haben wir auch noch nicht perfekt umgesetzt.

[psnelke1]

@Lilithly soll ich n aufsatz darüber posten

soll ich erörtern warum es das hirnrissigste politische system aller zeiten ist ?

ich dachte ich schreibs und wer mir zustimmt (was jeder aufgeklärte mensch bestimmt tut) kann mir daumen hoch geben

findest du kommunismus gut ?

[Lilithly]

@psnelke1 was für ein konstruktiver Kommentar...

[psnelke1]

kommunismus ist einfach scheisse...

[amigamii4ever]

I love this.

Gut Film :D <3