Goodbye Lenin! (2003)

“Goodbye Lenin!” is not an easy movie to write about. In overall it comprises the usual looks and technicality involved in most european  independent films, such as “Julietta” (2001). Nothing much about it. The story evolves as Alexander´s (played by Daniel Bruhl) mother, a hardcore communism supporter, develops a heart attack followed by a deep coma condition just before the fall of the Berlin wall. They are eastern berlinians and when she recovers the country is already reunited again.

The plot then comes to a point where the doctor tells the young sibling his mother can afford no big emotions at all, or else she will most probably suffer a second, and fatal, seizure. Alexander, then, begins to reenact inside her mother´s tiny bedroom the entire leftist regime, so as to prevent her from learning her more than esteemed way of life was completely obliterated. This effort involves finding discarted pickle jars, from the old regime, to be filled with imported norwegian cucumbers, refitting her bedroom with its old furniture, and even recording fake news programs resembling former state television.

 

Truth emerges looking over the shoulder 

This provides an enjoyable comic element to the movie, and, most importantly, it allows the audience to take notice how the old form of living was, in comparison to the new democratic one. Thus, forgivable is the eventual viewer´s misperception on thinking the main purpose of the movie on depicting communism is confined on these many material efforts Alexander is pulling together. “Goodbye Lenin!” goes beyond that. A strong argument discreetly reveals itself within another cognitional layer which holds an intelligent metaphor about communism. The main character unveils itself as a skilled deceiver, capable of luring even his most loved one on behalf of a final good that, in the end, is acknowledged to be non existent. Indeed, near the end of the movie the audience (and Alexander himself) learns that the mother had a great yearning for quitting the regime and start a living on West Germany. Even so, although knowing his schemes were somehow pointless, the sibling insists on a new transitional deception scheme in order to finally present his mother with the actual current state of a single Germany. Only that by this time his own parent, the very object of the deceit, already knew all that was going on, even the boy´s meddlings, and didn't bother to make this awareness known to him.

Those things that are no more

Therefore, by the end of the show we are presented with the perception that the movie´s biggest and most solid representation of communism was Alexander himself. He, just like East Germany, was responsible for creating a false representation of just about everything around the human being. Even if he aimed for good ends, implying communism can be well intentioned, his effort was groundless and unsustainable, as his mother by all means seemed to live in terms with the former regime only to restrain and cope with her own frustration. Although the character´s insistence on an untenable lie may prevent the viewer from establishing a good link of identification with his fortune, due to its good argumentation “Goodbye Lenin!” is well delivered and worth seeing.

Shame (2011)

Much has evolved on Steve McQueen´s filmmaking since “Hunger” (also reviewed on this blog). Hunger is unhelpfully divided into sections, as if there were three different short films, binded by a intermingled story. Now, with “Shame”, the director presents us the argument as a whole, so the movie remains serious as the subject requires, but that kind of documentary dullness is past. No wonder the accumulated praises “Shame” has collected during the past year, to which this review only intends to add.

The main character is single, almost past the usual wedding age, and has a office job, meaning he is not a boss, neither is materialistic well succeeded. He could pass as a usual guy, unless for his good looks. The important fact for the developing story is that Brandon (played by Micheal Fassbender) is addicted to sex, to an extensive degree. He has to practice onanism at waking, at the office´s bathroom, and, when he doesn´t hire a prostitute, also at home at night. The audience begins to capture the evil consequences of this addiction when he is called upon his sister Sissy (played by Carrey Mulligan), as she is homeless and in need of a shelter. From this point onwards Brandon begins to show that what matters for him is keeping his routine, which depends on a fragile balance his sister does not belong. The (just) argumentation against such an addiction ranges from the incapability to have a  regular affair to the beating after having courted (using quite foul language) a committed woman.

 

He wants her out

Sex addiction is even more difficult to expose and consider, because, unlike alcoholism, it´s often taken as normality or, at most, as a machismo excess. This is why Steve McQueen got it right when he decided to depict an addiction seldom discussed. The only major slip he committed was on setting the main character to sniff cocaine by the middle of the projection. This is so because besides being artistic creations, when movies are about addiction (such as Zemecki´s “Flight”) they have the important role of exposing the human misery that comes along, as a warning for everyone. “Shame” is well accomplished with the exposure. But in associating Brandon with cocaine the director somehow fell short on the warning, erecting a barrier preventing the audience from feeling itself exposed to sexual addiction: very few people consider themselves capable of consuming illegal drugs.

Good looks isn't all

On the other hand it provides a detachment from the characters plight, thus providing a more comfortable (and psychological safe) experience. Still, if the cocaine scene were not there a bigger number of people would consider their own way of life (personal “mores”) more lengthly , becoming more aware and less susceptible to the depicted scourge of sexual addiction.

Empire of The Sun

Humanity. That’s the biggest tone in Spielbergs movies. He has the ability to shove inside most of his movies human tones and variations that makes us feel and identify with the main character. With “Empire of The Sun” there is no difference. The boy portrayed by the infant Christian Bale makes remarks that now and then resemble our own childhood, as when he meets character Frank and keep telling him his abilities (like writing a book), albeit them being of no use for the occasion.

Located at Shanghai just before Pearl Harbour attack, the film depicts a rich boy’s life changing abruptly due to the Japanese invasion.  The atmosphere changes from the safety granted by wealth on a former colony to the  anxiety of living on concentration camp, apart from any relative.  Yes, Bale’s character, Jim, gets lost from his parents, right at the beginning of the movie. Thus, inside the camp the movie adopts the usual prison Hollywood dynamics: the character acquires knowledge of all the places leaps, sometimes even luring the captors, as if there could be fun times here and there when in captivity. Impossible not to resemble McQueen’s “The Great Escape”.

Another noticeable aspect is the hollywoodian rather usual reconciliation with the Japanese.  The movie shows the Japs as being capable of in-war mutual friendship, even of great acts of valor towards their captives. This pattern somehow resonates on other movies, like “Karate Kid”, for an example, where there is pride shown towards Myagi’s War Medals.  

The two main and almost only substantial characters are Christian Bale’s and Malkovitch’s . The latest, as always, acts his most repeated role, as the clever guy in the room. Nothing more than this.  On the other hand, Jim is very well acted. The boy doesn’t slip any bit from the emotions he is enacting, ranging from content, through fear, to excitement. Seeing him nowadays as a child we can notice many of his adult acting expressions, with the same convincingness he pours these days.

This movie, as with almost all Spielberg’s, has a positive and beautiful message. This time it’s about leaving behind our possessions, griefs, hopes and guidance principles in order to adapt the way life presents itself, or, as the movie shows, just to survive.  It is truly worth seeing.

@jpvbm