3 Case study: Goodbye Lenin

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Online chapter

In this case study we will cover:

the themes and issues raised in

Goodbye Lenin

the ways in which people, places and events are represented

the style and genre of the fi lm

possible creative responses.

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Case study: Goodbye Lenin

1 Promotional poster for Goodbye Lenin

Country: Germany

Production year: 2003

Director: Wolfgang Becker

Certifi cate: 12A

Main awards:

Berlin International Film Festival, 2003 – Blue Angel

Directors Guild of Great Britain, 2004

César Awards, France, 2004 European Film Awards, 2003 –

Audience Award, European Film Award

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turmoil. Christiane has been a lifelong member of the communist party and when she sees Alex taking part in an anti-government demonstration she has a stroke and falls into a coma.

During the eight months Christiane is unconscious, the Berlin Wall that had divided communist East Berlin from capitalist West Berlin is knocked down and both ‘halves’ of Berlin become united once more.

When Christiane wakes up, Alex and Ariane decide to keep the political events of the previous eight months a secret, fearing the shock may cause another stroke. It is this decision that creates the comedy as the family desperately try to explain and hide away the new westernised world of fast food, fashion and advertising by creating an increasingly fake world surrounding their sick mother’s bed.

AO3: Demonstrate planning, research and presentational skills

In small groups fi nd out what the Berlin Wall was, when it was built and when it was demolished.

Activity 1

Introduction

Berlin is the capital city of Germany. It had a turbulent history and became the focus of divisions within Germany itself after the Second World War.

In 1961, the city was divided into two parts by a wall that became known as the Berlin Wall. This wall was seen to separate communist East Germany (the German Democratic Republic (GDR)) from capitalist West Germany (the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG)). Life for the Germans who lived in East Germany was very diff erent from those who lived in the West. There were none of the ‘trappings’ of western culture, for example, fast food chains like Burger King, furniture chains such as IKEA, or clothes stores like Marks and Spencer. Some families living in East Berlin became separated from close relatives, or friends, living only a short distance away in West Berlin, on the other side of the wall. The East German government (GDR) controlled people’s lives much more rigidly than in the West and although many East Germans preferred the communist system, lots of others on both sides of the wall longed for a united Germany.

Wolfgang Becker, the director of Goodbye Lenin, had close links with East Berlin. He was anxious to give audiences, who perhaps knew very little about Berlin’s history, an insight into the diff erences between the two halves of this great city in the late 1980s. He decided to do this by focusing on one family, the Kerners, in his fi lm. He does not give the audience an entirely positive representation of the West or an entirely negative view of

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AO3: Demonstrate planning, research and presentational skills

Find out as much as you can about the story of ‘Rip Van Winkle’. Who was he? What is his story?

Several critics have called Christiane a ‘German Rip Van Winkle’. What does she have in common with this fairy tale character?

Activity 2

AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how fi lms communicate AO2: Explore, respond to and refl ect on a range of fi lms and topics

Watch the sequence which includes the family celebration of Christiane’s birthday and ends just after Alex and his mother have watched the ‘news’ together. (55.38 to 104.32)

How many lies are told during this sequence?

What is the reaction of friends and family to the way in which one lie rapidly leads to the need for another? Is there a sense that Alex is becoming increasingly isolated from everyone else?

How does Alex attempt to explain away the unfurling of the massive Coca-Cola logo from the multi-storey building during his birthday speech for his mother?

How does he try to ‘prove’ that he is telling Christiane the ‘truth’?

Alex says in this sequence ‘the truth is a dubious concept’. What motivates his lies? Do you think they are justifi ed? Are there times when lying can be morally justifi ed?

Activity 3

Themes and issues

Truth and lies

Political change Hopes and dreams Family relationships Old and new 2 Themes and issues in

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3 Don’t believe everything you see in the news!

into the West and twists the truth by creating a new commentary. This commentary explains that the footage shows people desperately rushing from the West in order to

escape from their narrow, materialistic lives. Although we smile, he shows just how easy it is for us to believe what we are told, or shown, in the media. The deeper Alex gets into his fi ctional world, the more convinced his girlfriend, Lara, and sister Ariane are that he is doing the wrong thing. But Alex is not the only member of the family who has been ‘bending the truth’. Christiane has been living a lie for many years and it is not until almost the end of the fi lm that the family are told that it is she who abandoned their father by refusing to join him in the West. He did not leave her for another woman or turn his back on his children.

Family relationships

When the fi lm begins we see a close family made up of very diff erent characters. As the narrative develops, relationships become more and more strained, mainly because of Alex’s increasingly controlling behaviour. The deception that began for the best of reasons – to protect Christiane – is carried to ridiculous extremes aff ecting what Ariane does for a living, which nappies her baby wears and even who was responsible for inventing Coca-Cola!

Yet in spite of all these lies, the strong bonds between mother and children remain. Love leads to forgiveness and the chance for a new beginning. Alex and Ariane forgive Christiane for her deception.

It is also clear that Christiane initially suspects, and then fi nally learns about, Alex’s lies. Certainly, when he walks into her hospital room after her second stroke it is clear that Lara has told her something of what is happening. Her fi nal moments with him when she pretends to continue to believe his fantastical lies also underline the strength of their love.

Hopes and dreams: dreaming of space

The fl ashbacks to Alex’s youth show his desperation to make the world right for his mother and to make her proud of him. He dreams of becoming East Germany’s second man in space. He joins the Young Rocket Builders – footage of his achievements is

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Watch the sequence which begins 3.37 (Chapter 1) and fi nishes 4.27.

What does the sequence tell you about Alex’s relationship with his mother when he was young? What do you learn about his hopes for the future?

Focus carefully on the mise-en-scène in the shots that mark the transition from Alex as a child to ‘10 YEARS LATER’. What do these shots tell you about the diff erence between childhood dreams and adult reality for Alex?

Think carefully about what you learn about the astronaut Sigmund Jahn in the new reunifi ed Germany. Can you think of any connection between Jahn’s fate and Alex’s own experiences?

Activity 4

Carry out some research on Lenin and who he was.

Re-watch the sequence where Christiane walks outside for the fi rst time. (1.19.00–1.23.30) List the things that surround her that she would not have seen in the ‘old’ East Berlin.

The statue that fl oats through the air is of Lenin. Why do you think his statue is being taken away? How does Alex try to explain away what Christiane has seen?

Activity 5

Old and new

As Alex, Ariane and Christiane look at Berlin through their apartment window, Alex says, ‘The GDR I had created for her had increasingly become the one she had wished for.’ Alex and Christiane are very alike, both have big hopes and dreams. Each of them believes that these can be achieved by creating a fi ctional world. Each of them fi nally fi nds there is no such thing as a perfect world, but they do have the love and support of family and friends, and perhaps that is enough for anyone to hope for.

Political change

Alex’s search for the old foods, such as ‘Spreewald pickles’, has a clear narrative purpose. These foods were produced and sold in the old East Germany where often it was impossible to produce enough to meet demand. The director, Wolfgang Becker, juxtaposes shots which invite us to compare both systems of government. Alex threads his way through the old furniture which has been dumped out on the street in order to make way for the IKEA invasion. Coca-Cola banners hang from old apartment blocks. The supermarket shelves have been ‘invaded’ by new brands from Holland and the rest of the world.

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The diff erences between the two halves of the city are highlighted by a montage sequence where we see in muted, washed out colours the empty shelves of old East Berlin supermarkets. A single, defrosting, bloody chicken lies at the bottom of a huge chest freezer; this shot is juxtaposed with the vibrant colours of the brightly packaged goods cramming the shelves of shops in the new westernised Berlin.

These kinds of images, together with Alex’s manic attempts to obtain pickles and other equally grim foods, make us smile. Each system is shown as lacking – the emptiness and lack of choice in the East is contrasted with the overwhelming choice (the same products branded diff erently), excess and waste of the West.

Genre and style

Although Goodbye Lenin deals with some serious themes and issues, Alex’s attempts to recreate an East Berlin that has already vanished are comical. It is the way that these changes are highlighted as Alex tries to hide them that creates much of the humour in the fi lm. Goodbye Lenin combines elements of satire with a central love story – the story of Alex’s love for his mother. It is the contrast between the serious political background and the emotional turmoil of the family’s response to Christiane’s life-threatening condition that makes this fi lm a tragicomedy – comedy which deals with tragically sad situations in a humorous way. The fact that we laugh at Alex and his desperate eff orts to protect his mother from the ‘real world’ does not mean we are not moved by her death, or aff ected by the strength of the mother–son bond between the two central characters. There are references and ‘in-jokes’ that only a German audience can understand; but equally there are others that make us smile, or even laugh out loud.

Farce

Alex’s lies and pretence become more and more outrageous as the fi lm continues and his actions become increasingly frenzied and bizarre. His improbable situation is made even funnier by the use of running jokes, for example, the recurring references to Spreewald pickles. The plot speeds up until it is fi nally ‘resolved’ with Christiane’s confession and last stroke.

Throughout the fi lm we are made to smile at situations that are quite sad. Without realising it Alex becomes more and more controlling of his friends, family and environment. He does, in fact, use the methods of the old communist state; the irony Key terms

Satire: a method of highlighting human or individual faults or shortcomings by making them seem ridiculous (often used to attack something that the fi lm-maker disapproves of )

Tragicomedy: a fi lm that combines aspects of tragedy and comedy

Key terms Farce: a comedy which uses improbable situations, verbal humour and a plot where the action speeds up to a climax and resolution

Running joke: an amusing situation or line that reappears throughout a fi lm

Irony: a device which highlights the diff erence between what is intended

AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of how fi lms communicate

Watch the sequence which begins 39.00 and ends 45.30.

How is the contrast between the shops in the old East Berlin and the new united Berlin underlined? What do you think the Giant Duck’s purpose is in this sequence?

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Conventionally in a farce the main protagonist gets away with what he/she was trying to hide at all costs. Does this happen in Goodbye Lenin?

Farce and satire often go hand in hand in this type of comedy. Can you pick out any incidents or ideas in the fi lm that are satirical?

The farce is often a very fl exible genre and combines with other forms, including the romantic comedy. Which elements of the romantic comedy have you noticed in Goodbye Lenin?

Activity 7

As Christiane fi nds out more about the world she has woken up to, Alex is forced to resort to ever more complicated methods of covering up, or explaining away, what she has discovered. In order to do this he distorts and manipulates the media, and forces people to act against their real natures and principles using a mixture of bullying and emotional blackmail. He manipulates their loyalty to him and to his mother in order to control their actions. Goodbye Lenin is a farce based on dishonesty and as such could be seen to parallel the old regime in East Germany.

Certainly this fi lm is not as heavy as it may seem at fi rst. It is fi lled with many light comedic moments. There is the development of the relationship between Alex and Lara (his fi rst love). Alex times his visits to see his mother in order to coincide with Lara’s hospital shifts. They make love in an abandoned apartment formerly occupied by a government offi cial. Their relationship is tender, loving, hopeful but even this is threatened by Alex’s imaginary world.

Christiane’s death could be seen as sad but the fi nal sequences are fi lled with hope: Alex’s childhood dreams are rekindled, the family are reunited and the future is fi lled with promise.

Representation

There are several interesting recurring motifs in Goodbye Lenin. The wonders of space and space travel are referred to repeatedly. We learn about Alex’s childhood and his

obsession with space travel early on in the fi lm.

When Christiane fi rst ventures into the outside world after her stroke she sees Lenin drifting off into the sunset. As his statue passes in front of her, his hand at the front of the frame seems to beckon to her but she does not follow.

For Christiane, coming out into the ‘real world’ means letting go of the imaginary world that she has spent years inhabiting and facing up to the truth of her situation. Facing up to the fact that she had abandoned her husband and 4 Christiane discovers the

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collapse sooner or later.

Review the fi nal sequence.

Make a note of the number of times space travel is referred to.

The fi lm’s director, Becker, uses archive footage to begin the fi lm and the fi nal sequence shows Alex and his family launching their homemade rocket containing Christiane’s ashes into ‘space’. Why do you think he has chosen to open and close the fi lm this way?

Sigmund Jahn, the fi rst East German in space and Alex’s childhood hero, is shown driving a taxi in the new reunifi ed Berlin. What do you think this might say about the diff erences between East and West Germany?

Activity 8

Wolfgang Becker interweaves archive footage of real events into the narrative. These are really important. This technique encourages the audience to consistently remember that he is talking about real events. It also allows him to play with ideas about ‘truth and lies’. He demonstrates just how easy it is to manipulate footage of real events in order to create a particular kind of response. The fake Berlin Alex builds in order to protect his mother was, in many ways, the ideal Germany some may have dreamed of. Letting go of this amounted to letting go of former heroes. For Alex this meant Sigmund Jahn, for Christiane this meant Lenin. One drives away in a taxi cab, the other is removed from his plinth and transported through the air towards an unknown destination. Goodbye Lenin explores these issues while at the same time telling a story that is both funny and emotionally involving.

Additional resources

Goodbye Lenin Study Guide: Film Education Goodbye Lenin: Wikipedia