The hurt of history

Lola 2021-11-18 08:01:26

This is really a movie that should be highly recommended. At first glance at the name of the movie, I thought that a German film about 1924.1.21, the Soviet Union after Lenin's death. I remember Lenin’s death so clearly. However, after looking at it, I realized that it was not like that at all. The reunification of Germany from 1978 to 1990, the changes of an East German family during that period. The mother has always hidden a huge secret from the two children, about their father. In the mother's mouth, the husband left their family and went to West Germany for the love of West Germany, and never returned to East Germany. Then the story slowly came from the protagonist's mouth, there are also many monologues, and many black and white images that record historical disturbances... All these seem to be the usual methods of German movies. A family that lost a father might be able to spend the turbulent years in this way, but the parade in 1989, when the mother became comatose due to excitement after seeing her son detained, the originally peaceful family was completely changed.
Her mother was a typical representative of East Germany's efforts to defend socialism, but during the eight months she was in a coma, the Berlin Wall fell, and East and West Germany were interoperable until the reunification of the two Germanys. She still didn't know what happened when she woke up. The son is afraid that his mother will be stimulated again and guards such a secret: wearing old clothes, using East German food packaging, and even TV shows are specially made by friends about the division of East and West Germany. In fact, it does not look heavy, but funny and humorous. Finally, before his death, the mother told them that they had hidden a secret for many years: the father's departure was due to political issues. But even her mother didn't know that East and West Germany were already a unified country.
The soundtrack of Aiji "Goodbye Lenin" is soothing and fascinating. One of the sections is exactly the same as that of the heroine of "Angel Emily". The soundtrack of this film is the French master Yann Tierson who is responsible for the soundtrack of "Angel Emily". Those old days settled in the movie with music, and the turmoil in Germany, the vicissitudes of reality from division to unity, were also artistically softened and softened by beautiful images and music. What is left is only a slight sadness and suitable for recalling that turbulent history in the original soundtrack.
The city of Aiji Berlin, I remember a magazine introduced that it is the most Beijing-like city in Europe, with ancient buildings and ruins, as well as cranes under construction. It really doesn't have the romance of Paris, the sentiment of London, or the enthusiasm of Madrid, but it has an endless sense of historical vicissitudes, which is so distressing. It was once divided, but it is still scarred after the baptism of time. Although the Berlin Wall fell, the memory still occupies people's hearts.
I always think of Sanmao's experience of passing the Eastern and Western Germany barrier in the 1960s, the discriminated people who went from East Germany to West Germany, and the black and white photos in the history textbook...the movie says 90 The German team's victory in the World Cup in 1991 brought the two peoples together for a short time, but today, the contradictions buried in history continue. This is why such a movie depicting the changes of a family at that time still appeared so many years after the reunification of the two Germanys. It is not difficult to find that the movie is full of deep attachment to East Germany. After all, it has existed for 41 years.
Maybe it's because of the richer feelings recently, and I often shed tears when watching movies. When the father and children meet again after many years, they can only be speechless, only a stinging strangeness. Although they loved each other, he had written so many letters hidden by his wife, and she was so crazy to find the letter and hid in the corner crying, but time was so ruthless to change the forced separation of people who should have been intimate. To be alienated. If it were not for political and historical reasons, they should have been happy. I hope there are fewer such families in the world. After all, it is not their intention to suffer such harm in such a situation.

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Extended Reading

Good Bye Lenin! quotes

  • [last lines]

    [spoiler]

    Alexander Kerner: [voiceover] My mother outlived the GDR by three days. I believe it was a good thing she never learned the truth. She died happy. She wanted us to scatter her ashes to the winds. That's prohibited in Germany, both East and West. But we didn't care.

    [launches rocket]

    Alexander Kerner: She's up there somewhere now. Maybe looking down at us. Maybe she sees us as tiny specks on the Earth's surface, just like Sigmund Jähn did back then. The country my mother left behind was a country she believed in; a country we kept alive till her last breath; a country that never existed in that form; a country that, in my memory, I will always associate with my mother.

  • Denis: Denis

    [handing Alex a video cassette]

    Denis: It's my best production ever. A pity your Mom will be the only audience...