Emile Kusturica danced wildly in his Yugoslav underground with a stupefying stride; George Balefi slashed his dagger with an indescribable machete in his Hungary. Human statues; and Wolfgang Beck, with the unique German humor, romance and feelings, shattered the thin but indestructible brick wall of the motherland. Perhaps in our eyes, these directors are telling nothing more than the same history, but they also seem to be different; each of them has a different mirror in their hearts and a different understanding of love, friendship and family. "Goodbye Lenin" has enough power to make people laugh, it's a joy to unearth precious memories buried deep in history, and it can also be sentimental, because those things that should continue to exist are now far away out of reach.
Why so far away? This is a long story. If we have to explain it clearly in one sentence, let’s go back and ask: what can we do with one year less? The answer to this question itself is crucial, because it is not only about the direction of the entire plot of the film, but also more than that; the structure and way of answering this question also directly determines the logic and style of a film. Here, "Goodbye Lenin" does not remove this year vividly from a person's life, but embeds this year so deeply in historical nodes that time must be measured in seconds, and every minute that passes , in an hour, the whole world will undergo tremendous changes. In the middle of the year, the line between East and West Germany suddenly disappeared, people's beliefs changed suddenly, and even Spreerlin's pickled melon was suddenly put on another label; especially unfortunate, the protagonist Alec Sri Lanka's communist mother suffered a myocardial infarction at this time, and has been unconscious for eight months since then.
When she opened her eyes again and woke up, nothing seemed to have changed; however, she didn't realize that everything she could see around her was actually Alex trying to prevent this "woman married to the Republic" Emotional agitation again MI is carefully planned and set up as an illusion. Behind all such sensible plots, we are gradually discovering that this mother does have some kind of connection with the Republic that does not fit very well: both can be called "mothers", and both suddenly fall ill , both of them eventually irreversibly died; however, specifically, the death of the mother was later than the fall of the republic. The "time difference" or "dislocation" generated here can be said to have created the most core and essential problem of this film. It caused a lot of inconvenience to the Alex family on the one hand, and it gave Alex time on the other hand, an opportunity to re-learn the ideas of the Republic he hated and the beliefs of his mother.
The occurrence of "time difference" does not make people feel deliberate, because it does have a meaning: specifically, the collapse of the republic actually means the demise of a country as a political entity, it may represent a sense of "No longer exists", but it seems a little ethereal for a concept to be erased. However, the death of my mother represents an era, a belief and the gradual erosion and swallowing of the real ideas that once existed in people's hearts. Undoubtedly, only the demise of the spirit can make a country (or even a country) truly annihilated. It is based on this point that the "net" of illusion that Alex is striving to weave and create in this vacuum can be said to involve both parties: it is not only a manifestation of his love for his mother, but also an emphasis on the ideal of the Republic. Kindly miss.
Of course, the beliefs and ideas he himself conceived and even indulged in seemed to transcend both the "oppression" of people in the "democratic" republics of East Germany, and the competition for cause and money in the federal republics of West Germany. However, no matter how tender this recollection and nostalgia for the ideal is, it is still sad, and the belief that can never be achieved can only exist forever in videotapes and fake news, in the In true love for the socialist system and beliefs. Alex clearly understands that, for whatever reason, there will come a day when he will no longer be able to deceive himself into believing in the myths he has created; The hatred for his father, who was gone forever, suddenly collapsed to the point where not even the scum was left. One day, Alex learned that his father was not such a merciless person. He once wrote a letter, and he once insisted that the so-called "dealing with the enemy" was just a lie made up by his mother; on the contrary, his mother had no news because of fear. , The image of the mother, who was once beautiful as a dream and as innocent as water, was completely sullied. Hatred and belief are all gone in an instant, and everything can only end here.
Just then, just when we can be sure that the sentimental softness has enough weight and that the film has enough to finish, the director and writer seem to be telling us that there seems to be something missing here. Thinking about it carefully, we can't help but ask, is it true that my mother didn't notice anything about the Lenin who was walking away, waving goodbye, and the advertisements and things of those capitalist countries? Obviously not possible. There are various indications that the mother has not only noticed, but has already known the truth at all. The film understates the fact that Alex's girlfriend Laura told the truth to her mother, and at the end it understates the expressions and eyes of her mother who already knew the truth when she saw the fake news - I think that It's the place where you really feel the warmth. Because the mother is not a machine lying on the bed, she has intelligence and emotion, she understands the republic, and she also understands her son. When she was endlessly given and deceived by good intentions, she even gave her all she could - even though her all was only to give her son's pure and kind heart the comfort it deserved. Until then, we finally understood another meaning of "Goodbye Lenin" narrated in Alex's first person: how many mother and son were condensed in the sentence "We let it survive until the last second of mother's life" The common comfort and gratitude condensed how much mutual goodwill and secrets, and how much love and faith. Those who gradually disappeared have also been compensated for, and those that should have been lost are now enriched.
If there is a metaphor for the faith and love that once existed in everyone's heart, I think fireworks are the best. Moving and fleeting, beautiful and fragile.
Mom is gone. She rose to the sky with a rocket. The republic is gone too, and it disappears into the air with its mother. Even the sky is gone, taken into the taxi of capitalist countries by the fake astronaut incarnate as the president. In Alex's eyes, her mother took away the faith she had been seeking; in her mother's eyes, the most worthy of her nostalgia was Alex, who worked hard to create a dream.
"She's probably floating somewhere in the air right now, watching us."
Goodbye Mom, goodbye Lenin.
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