Good Bye Lenin

The film ‘Good Bye Lenin’ (the space in ‘Good Bye’ must be the German spelling) opened in the UK on July 25th and there is a review in The Observer. Has it been dubbed or subtitled? There must have been a fair number of cultural references there. I remember that after awaking from her coma, the mother continues to compose complaints about ill-fitting mail-order clothes, but now they go to Otto Versand (unknown to her, since she believes the GDR still exists).

I enjoyed the film more than I thought I would. East Germany offers a lot of visual interest and makes me homesick for England in the 1950s. (I don’t think Sonnenallee was distributed for English-speaking audiences but there are clips at its website – the sort of site where you press Skip Intro and get the impression you didn’t skip it). My favourite part was the story that so many West Germans had grown tired of their consumerism and meaningless lives that they begged to be allowed into East Germany.

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