Good Bye, Lenin!

Good Bye Lenin!
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Wolfgang Becker
Written by	Wolfgang Becker Bernd Lichtenberg
Produced by	Stefan Arndt
Starring	Daniel Brühl Katrin Sass Chulpan Khamatova Maria Simon Alexander Beyer
Cinematography	Martin Kukula
Edited by	Peter R. Adam
Music by	Yann Tiersen Claire Pichet Antonello Marafioti
Production company	X-Filme Creative Pool
Distributed by	X Verleih AG (Germany)
Release date	13 February 2003 (2003-02-13)
Running time	121 minutes
Country	Germany
Language	German
Budget	DM 9.6 million (€4.8 million) (approx. $6.5 million)
Box office	$79,384,880

Good Bye Lenin! is a 2003 German tragicomedy film, directed by Wolfgang Becker. The cast includes Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova, and Maria Simon. The story follows a family in East Germany; the mother (Saß) is dedicated to the socialist cause and falls into a coma in October 1989, shortly before the November revolution. When she awakens eight months later in June 1990, her son (Brühl) attempts to protect her from a fatal shock by concealing the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism.^[1]

Most scenes were shot at the Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin and around Plattenbauten near Alexanderplatz. Good Bye, Lenin! received numerous honours, including 2003's European Film Award for Best Film and German Film Award for Best Fiction Film.^[2][3]

Plot[]

The film is set in East Berlin, in the period from October 1989 to a few days after German reunification in October 1990.

Alex Kerner lives with his mother Christiane, his sister Ariane, and her infant daughter Paula. Alex's father purportedly abandoned the family for a mistress in the West in 1978. His mother joined the Socialist Unity Party and devotes her time to advocating for citizens. While Christiane believes socialism can improve Germany and the world, her children are cynical. Alex is disgusted with the celebration of East Germany's 40th anniversary and participates in an anti-government demonstration. There he meets a girl but they are separated by the Volkspolizei before they can introduce themselves.

Christiane, seeing Alex being arrested and beaten, suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. Visiting his mother in hospital Alex finds that her nurse, Lara, is the girl from the demonstration. She and Alex begin dating.

Erich Honecker resigns, the borders are opened, the Berlin Wall falls, East Germany holds free elections, and capitalism comes to East Berlin. Alex begins working for a West German firm selling and installing satellite dishes. He befriends a western coworker, aspiring filmmaker Denis Domaschke. Ariane's university closes and she works at Burger King. She begins dating the manager, Rainer, who moves into their apartment.

After eight months Christiane awakens from her coma. Her doctor warns her family that she is still weak and any shock might cause another, possibly fatal, heart attack. Alex resolves to conceal the profound societal changes from her and maintain the illusion that the German Democratic Republic is just as it was before her coma. He, Ariane, and Lara retrieve their old East German furniture from storage, dress in their old clothes, and repackage new Western food in old East German jars. The deception is increasingly complicated as Christiane witnesses strange occurrences, such as a gigantic Coca-Cola banner on an adjacent building. Denis and Alex create fake news broadcasts from old East German news tapes to explain these odd events. Alex and Ariane fail to find where Christiane keeps her life savings (in East German marks) in time to exchange them for West German marks before the deadline.

Christiane gets stronger and one day wanders outside while Alex is asleep. She sees her neighbors' furniture stacked in the street, new West German cars for sale, advertisements for Western corporations, and a statue of Lenin being flown away by helicopter. Alex and Ariane take her back home and show her a fake newscast explaining East Germany is now accepting refugees from the West following an economic crisis there.

At the family dacha Christiane reveals her own secret: Her husband had fled not for a mistress but because his refusal to join the ruling party had made his life and job increasingly difficult, and the plan had been for the rest of the family to join him. Christiane, fearing the government would take her children if things went wrong, decided to stay. Contrary to what she had told her children their father wrote many letters which she hid. As she declares her wish to see her husband one last time to make amends, she relapses and is taken back to hospital.

Alex meets his father, Robert, who has remarried, has two children, and lives in West Berlin. He convinces him to see Christiane one last time. Under pressure to reveal the truth about the fall of the East, Alex creates a final fake news segment, persuading a taxi driver (who resembles cosmonaut Sigmund Jähn, the first German in space and Alex's childhood hero) to act in the false news report as the new leader of East Germany and to give a speech about opening the borders to the West. However, unbeknownst to Alex, Lara had already recounted the true political developments to Christiane earlier that day.

Christiane dies two days later, outliving the German Democratic Republic by three days after German reunification. The family and friends scatter her ashes in the wind using a toy rocket Alex made with his father during childhood.

Cast[]

Soundtrack[]

The film score was composed by Yann Tiersen, except the version of "Summer 78" sung by Claire Pichet. Stylistically, the music is very similar to Tiersen's earlier work on the soundtrack to Amélie. One piano composition, "Comptine d'un autre été : L'après-midi", is used in both films.

Several famous East German songs are featured. Two children, members of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation, sing Unsere Heimat (Our Homeland). Friends of Christiane (living in the same building) follow with Bau Auf! Bau Auf! (Build Up! Build Up!), another anthem of the Free German Youth. The final fake newscast with Sigmund Jähn features a rousing rendition of the East German national anthem, Auferstanden aus Ruinen.

Ostalgie[]

Alex creates fictional newscasts to reminisce about his earlier East German lifestyle as well as a communist environment. He goes out of his way to use East German products to fool his mother such as Spreewald gherkins and although this is for his mother, there is also a hint he himself is creating a fantasy in which he would like to live. Alex lived his whole life with this barrier; therefore the drastic change is hard for him unlike his older sister Ariane. Ariane quickly adopts the new Western ideals and lifestyle, but Alex experiences nostalgia for their former way of life. Ostalgie is a neologism for the nostalgia for a communist past which is a common theme in Good Bye, Lenin!^[4] Alex shows signs of ostalgie when he begins to increasingly criticise the Western changes in themselves.^[4]

In 2004 the New York Times commented on "Ostalgie" which was embodied in the town of Eisenhüttenstadt.^[4] It became popular because of Good Bye, Lenin! which imitated Christiane's bedroom. This put a lot of light on the ostalgie situation, in addition to the film.

Reception[]

The film received strongly positive reviews, and has a rating of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Empire magazine gave the film four stars out of five, saying: "An ingenious little idea that is funny, moving and—gasp!—even makes you think."^[5] The magazine also ranked it 91st in "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.^[6]

Good Bye, Lenin! is frequently contrasted with The Lives of Others, which was released three years later, in 2006. Both films portray the legacy of East Germany, but with decidedly different tones.^[7][8][9]

Accolades[]

Good Bye, Lenin! was submitted for consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but not nominated.^[10]

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Result	Ref(s)
BAFTA Awards	15 February 2004	Best Film Not in the English Language	Wolfgang Becker	Nominated	[11]
César Awards	February 2004	Best Film from the European Union		Won	[12]
European Film Awards	6 December 2003	Best Film		Won	[13][14]
		Best Director		Nominated
		Best Actor	Daniel Brühl	Won
		Best Actress	Katrin Sass	Nominated
		Best Screenwriter	Bernd Lichtenberg	Won
German Film Award	2003	Best Fiction Film	Wolfgang Becker	Won	[15]
		Best Director		Won
		Outstanding Actor	Daniel Brühl	Won
		Outstanding Actress	Katrin Sass	Nominated
		Outstanding Screenwriter	Bernd Lichtenberg	Won
		Outstanding Editing	Peter R. Adam	Won
		Outstanding Music	Yann Tiersen	Won
		Outstanding Production Design	Lothar Holler	Won
		Outstanding Supporting Actor	Florian Lukas	Won
		Outstanding Supporting Actress	Maria Simon	Nominated
Golden Eagle Award	January 31, 2004	Best Foreign Language Film	Wolfgang Becker	Nominated	[16]
Golden Globes	25 January 2004	Best Foreign Language Film		Nominated	[17]
Goya Awards	31 January 2004	Best European Film		Won	[18]
London Film Critics' Circle	11 February 2004	Foreign Language Film of the Year		Won	[19]

See also[]

• Spreewald gherkins, one of the foods Christiane wants
• Ostalgie, nostalgia for East Germany
• La dolce vita, origin of helicopter statue sequence.
• List of submissions to the 76th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of German submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
• Dookudu - Indian-Telugu film with similar plot

References[]

Further reading[]

• Kapczynski, Jennifer M. (2007). "Negotiating Nostalgia: The GDR Past in Berlin is in Germany and Good Bye, Lenin!". The Germanic Review. 82 (1): 78–100. doi:10.3200/GERR.82.1.78-100. S2CID 144623662.

External links[]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Good Bye, Lenin!

• Official website (US)
• Good Bye, Lenin! at IMDb
• Good Bye, Lenin! at AllMovie
• Good Bye, Lenin! at Box Office Mojo
• Good Bye, Lenin! at Rotten Tomatoes

Awards
Preceded by The Pianist	Goya Award for Best European Film 2003	Succeeded by Head-On