October 1989 was a
bad time to fall into
a coma if
you lived in East Germany-and this is
precisely what
happens to Alex's proudly Socialist mother (Katrin
Sass). Her
heart is so weak that any shock might kill her. And what could be
more shocking than the fall of the Berlin Wall and the triumph of
Capitalism in her beloved East Germany? To save his mother, Alex (Daniel
Brühl)
transforms the family apartment into an island of the past, a kind
of Socialist-era museum where his mother is lovingly duped into
believing that nothing has changed. But, as time passes, so does
the effect Alex created, and he soon has to come to terms with
telling the truth.
CRITIQUE
Good Bye, Lenin! tells a heartwarming story and features a great
set of characters, not to mention it takes place during an extremely
pivotal time in Germany. The characters come alive through realistic
dialogue and the great performances by the actors, specifically
Daniel Brühl and
Katrin Sass. Director Wolfgang Becker stages the important scenes
well, and he (as well as the technical team) expertly transform the
part of Berlin that was formerly East Germany.
The story centers mainly
on Alex, but it takes great care to divide his attention between a
variety of people and duties. First, there's his love relationship
with Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), the nurse who cares for his mother.
Alex also lives with his sister Ariane (Maria Simon), which isn't
always easy. His friendship with Dennis (Florian Lukas) is realistic
and serves the story well, which is helped by a very good performance
by Lukas. And lastly Alex must find his long-lost father (Burghart
Klaussner). In short,
Good Bye, Lenin! tells an
involving story that's worth following.
The script is smart and
original, featuring good jokes, realistic dialogue, and drama. On the
technical side, the visual effects, although you may not even notice
them (except for one obvious scene), look great. Cinematography and
editing are well done, especially the former. Composer Yann Tiersen's
film score - he did the great, memorable score for Amelie -
is great, and even though some notions and themes are repeated, the
music fits the mood of the film. It's a really good soundtrack (I
bought it). Well, so as not to say too much, let me conclude by saying
this film is a very safe bet. I really liked
Good Bye, Lenin!, although I should say I'm from Berlin so my
reaction may be a bit biased.
THE VIDEO
Columbia presents Good Bye, Lenin! in 1.85:1 anamorphic
widescreen. Colors look bright and well-saturated. Some images are a
bit darker, but softness is no big issue. There's a bit of grain in
the picture, but I didn't notice compression artifacts. Dark tones and
black levels look good. Overall, a fine presentation. Optional English subtitles are available.
THE AUDIO
Columbia presents Good Bye, Lenin! in German 5.1 Dolby Digital
Surround. Dialogue is clear and easy to understand - it's never buried
beneath the soundtrack. Yann Tiersen's music score is and sounds
great. Sound effects are effectively reinforced by the surrounds
during the bigger sequences. Most of the presentation is located in
the front, however, with some good bass thrown into the mix sometimes.
Overall, a good presentation.
THE EXTRAS
Columbia takes the extras (or most of them) from the German DVD release and makes them
available to Region 1 users, which is a great effort on the studio's
part, thanks! Plus the extras are subtitled in English, except for the
deleted scenes and optional commentary.
There are two audio
commentaries, one by director Wolfgang Becker, which covers
good background information and scene-specific comments, and the other
by actors Daniel Brühl, Katrin Sass, and Florian Lukas (but
they don't introduce themselves), which offers a more
conversational tone despite some silent spots, and general information
from the production and some off-topic comments as well.
My favorite extra,
though, is the "Lenin Learns to Fly"visual effects
featurette, which lasts about twenty minutes and offers a cool
look at the special effects. Some effects in the film I didn't even
notice. The interviews here are not the "it was great" or "everything
went fine" types. Instead, we find out the work was really demanding
and the main special effect, the helicopter and the Lenin stature, was
reworked many times at the request of the director. Overall, a solid
featurette on the visual effects.
Then there are
deleted scenes, about ten of them that run a combined 23 minutes.
They're pretty good, I think, as they add more background to the
characters and story, yet it's obvious they were cut for time. The
optional director's commentary runs a little over 40 minutes and
features introductions/discussions for each deleted scene from
director Wolfgang Becker and director Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run).
Their dialogue is not subtitled, though since I understand German I
gathered that the reason for the cuts was time. Some of their
discussions tend to run on, but it's interesting to know the film's
rough cut was 165 minutes long.
The saddest extra is the
"Mini-Making of" featurette as it runs a mere minute and twenty
seconds. There are no interviews at all, just behind-the-scenes
footage of the crew filming scenes. I'm sure there was more footage
than what runs here. Uncut "Aktuelle Kamera" Broadcasts is just
all the TV footage that appears in the film, running a combined four
minutes or so.
Rounding out the extras
is the film's theatrical trailer and a number of previews
for other Columbia titles. A paper insert promotes other Sony Pictures
Classics titles, including Run Lola Run, Big Girls Don't Cry,
What to do in Case of Fire, Broken Wings, Monsieur
Ibrahim, and Triplets of Belleville. The 121-minute feature
is divided into twenty-eight chapters.
FINAL THOUGHTS
The film may be in
German in its politics may not speak to everyone, but that's no reason
to discount Good Bye, Lenin!. It's one of those really good
foreign films that presents an involving story, here about a broken-up
family that must come together during a life-changing time. I highly
recommend it. The DVD presentation is very good, too.
