In the movie "Goodbye, Lenin", its success lies in its traditional and innovative style. As we all know, German cinema has always been a tradition of serious criticism and reflection on history and politics. However, after the German reunification in 1990, the film works on related themes were not released. It was not until more than ten years later that such films came out. This is because people need a certain distance to calmly look at this history and its social impact brought about. On the other hand, for more than ten years of unification, the two countries have never truly integrated. Many East Germans have become "second-class citizens" and cannot receive equal treatment and Respect and nostalgia spread. (Harper, 2008) In this context, the emergence of "Goodbye, Lenin" should be natural. Throughout the German film tradition, excellent filmmakers will reflect on history with their own perspectives and methods. Director Wolfgang Beck’s commendable innovation is that he does not simply describe history, but it reflects the impact of historical changes on personal life. Besides, he does not describe big historical facts, but only describes the experiences of ordinary people, and turns serious themes. By telling the family stories of ordinary families and the personal growth process, the audience will be moved with the true affection between mother and child, and they will cause the audience to think deeply about the historical and political issues that lead to family tragedies and comedies. German movies with life and philosophy. This article attempts to analyze how the film combines personal growth, family changes, and historical and social development, turning the individual into a political metaphor, and the family as the epitome of historical changes, thereby revealing the historical and political fables behind the growth story.
In the context of this grand historical narrative, the movie "Goodbye, Lenin" gets rid of the serious historical and political film routines in the past with a personal daily narrative. It projects history and politics on the back of ordinary people's daily lives, concealing the strong ideological color with the light of human nature. The audience's attention to social changes shifted to the impact of changes on their personal lives. The film cleverly integrates history and family, connects the destiny of the country with the destiny of the family, and even embeds historical and family characters together. For example, the mother who used the special effects of the film was used as an advanced representative by the top leader of East Germany. Honecker's handshake scene after the reception. Family figures have become metaphors and symbols of historical politics: mother and father represent East Germany and West Germany respectively, and son Alexander is the epitome of East Germans. The relationship and contradiction between them allude to the joys and sorrows of East and West German society.
In the late autumn of 1989, the "Iron Curtain" Berlin Wall was overthrown. That night, the people of the two Germans who embraced and wept shed hot tears over the hard-won peaceful reunification (Miller, M.2019). For the first time in history, two countries with different ideologies were merged without a single shot. "Goodbye, Lenin" does not have a hint of impetuousness and abruptness in the memories and ridicule, warmly and helplessly extending the lens to a territory where there is no answer to the end. Therefore, the statues of Lenin that can be seen everywhere in the movie are the external objectification of this belief. And when the ideology collapsed, the statue that was once worshipped will eventually disappear. In the movie, Christina moved out of the room with joy. She wanted to feel the sunset that she saw outside the house for the first time since she was unconscious. She looked up and the huge statue of “Lenin” was moved away from the city by a helicopter. The black statue "stretched" a painful questioning hand to her, but it used to be a calm and wise posture, but now it seems to be asking where he is going. Christina was bewildered and stared blankly, just for a time when her gaze was intertwined, the stone statue was turned gorgeously and slowly disappeared into the sky without a word. Whether it comes from the heart or the situation, socialism has long become the mother's belief. After her husband left, she poured the greatest effort and enthusiasm into her society and her faith; Alex never seemed to be under the control of this faith. After his mother was in a coma and the two Germans were reunified, his life And the world has also changed; the mother has passed away, and the virtual socialist East Germany built for her has become meaningless. It is time to say goodbye to the old world and ideology. Mother’s beliefs will follow. He left, and his son's hope for a new life had just begun. Like the statue of Lenin, the Berlin Wall is also an ideology that is "materialized".
From 1961 to 1989, a wall, two heavens, the barbed wire that has been "tough and high-pressure" for the past 30 years was separated by blood relatives and love. Overnight, the "wall" came and went in a hurry, no trace, but there were beliefs, emotions and stories pinned on the "wall". "Goodbye Lenin" did not deliberately show the scars of history. It just allows people to look back at family love from the disputes of the great age, and warmly wrap this "very political" topic with family love. It has its own touching power. Enough to make it break through the restrictions of a sensitive Germanization issue. Slow economic growth, declining national competitiveness, inflation, fiscal booming, high unemployment rate, and increasing hostility between East and West Germans have plagued the reunified Germany (Nelson, A. 2008). It should be said that when the German people examine the very real contradictions and conflicts after reunification, they can gradually understand that the long journey of German reunification is far from over. The reunification process is not a past that ends with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but a lasting national task. . The last ruins of the Berlin Wall have been auctioned off by the German government, and everyone cherishes them. In the history of Germany, there have been many invisible constructions and demolitions of the Berlin Wall. If you can't let go of the Berlin Wall in your mind, a unified Germany may only be another piece of history. This film implies that what the Germans must do is not to dwell on the bitterness of the past, but to welcome the dawn of a new day.
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20170419d ekmy0chiy0110 ea. (n.d.). The Berlin Wall. [electronic resource] : a world divided, 1961-1989. Harper Perennial.
Miller, M. D. (2019). Divided Berlin and Cold War Aesthetics: Mediating the Wall in Literature and Film. Seminar -- A Journal of Germanic Studies, 55(3), 266–295. https://doi-org.ez.xjtlu.edu.cn/10.3138/seminar.55.3.4
Nelson, A. (2008). Cold War Ecology : Forests, Farms, and People in the East German Landscape, 1945-1989. Yale University Press.