Reves Center for International Studies Events
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Reves Center for International Studies
[PAST EVENT] Filmserie: Good Bye, Lenin!
April 10, 2012
7:30pm - 9:15pm
Good Bye, Lenin! (dir. Wolfgang Becker, 2003) successfully mixes comedy and tragedy, disappointment and joy, despair and hope. Set against the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the film extracts much humour from the language and ways of the (rapidly disappearing) German Democratic Republic (GDR?East Germany). It is, however, essentially a story about the strong bonds of love that bind parents and their children?and in this case, particularly, the love of a son for his dying mother.
The film captures the struggle of the devoted Alex as he fights to keep up his mother's failing health. In 1989, just before the fall of the German Democratic Republic, Christiane sees her son beaten by police during a riot. She falls into a coma, and then the Berlin Wall -- and all it stands for -- collapses. ''Mother slept through the relentless triumph of capitalism,'' Alex notes. Any sudden shock could kill Christiane, a committed woman of the left, so Alex contrives to keep her convinced that things are still the same.
The film captures the struggle of the devoted Alex as he fights to keep up his mother's failing health. In 1989, just before the fall of the German Democratic Republic, Christiane sees her son beaten by police during a riot. She falls into a coma, and then the Berlin Wall -- and all it stands for -- collapses. ''Mother slept through the relentless triumph of capitalism,'' Alex notes. Any sudden shock could kill Christiane, a committed woman of the left, so Alex contrives to keep her convinced that things are still the same.
Contact
akschroer@wm.edu