Monday, April 23, 2012

Goodbye Lenin Flash Site

Hey guys! While browsing around the internet looking for something interesting to read about Wolfgang Becker's Goodbye Lenin, I came across this nifty site!



Along with having bits about the cast and director himself, there's a "Director's Note" section which I found particularly interesting. The first section, "An Important Character of German History," is as follows:

I was fascinated by the idea of a son trying to save his mother's life, trying to keep death at bay with a lie and getting more and more entangled in his lie about an East Germany that no longer exists, and that he wants to make his mother continue to believe in. This is something that's universal and could be totally separated from this specific past, this whole East German story and the fall of the Wall and reunification. I was excited by the idea of combining both aspects and relating an important character of German history as well, or least having it as a background. That's what's so wonderful about this topic. It's a slice of German history, but it's told incidentally and not placed in the forefront of the story.


He also gave little snippets of insight into other aspects of the film.
--each of the main characters
--The Narrative Quality of Props
--A West German Take on an East German Topic
--Use of Existing Archival News Material
--On Comedy
--Tragicomic Element
--Bad Luck on the Set
and X Filme

If any of these topics spark your interest, I'd suggest checking out the site. The graphics are cool, the quotes are short, and all that beguiling jazz.

1 comment:

  1. In response to that quote pulled off the website--I thought one of the most interesting themes in this movie was how history (not just German history, but all history) has a huge element of human construction attached to it. Obviously, it is much more literal in the film, but I think that it was somewhat of an allusion to this bigger theme.

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