Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12036 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-03-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: German
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Contemporary comedies rarely stretch themselves beyond a bickering romantic couple or a bickering couple and a bucket of bodily fluids, which makes the ambition and intelligence of Goodbye, Lenin! not simply entertaining but downright refreshing. The movie starts in East Germany before the fall of communism; our hero, Alex (Daniel Bruhl), describes how his mother (Katrin Sass), a true believer in the communist cause, has a heart attack when she sees him being clubbed by police at a protest. She falls into a coma for eight months--during which the Berlin Wall comes down. When she awakens, her fragile health must avoid any shocks, so Alex creates an illusive reality around his bedridden mother to convince her that communism is still alive. Goodbye, Lenin! delicately balances wry satire with its rich investment in the lives of Alex, his mother, and other characters around them.

On the DVD: Though the DVD extras for Goodbye Lenin! include a detailed featurette on the digital effects used in the movie (particularly intriguing because they had to be completely invisible--many viewers won't realize there were digital effects until they see this featurette) and a convivial cast commentary (in German with English subtitles) with Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, and Alexander Beyer, the star of the DVD is director Wolfgang Becker himself. Not only is his commentary rich with historical information and thoughtful notes about the making of the movie, for the deleted scenes (including two lovely scenes that expand on the relationship between Alex and his girlfriend Lara) he and Tom Tykwer (director of Run Lola Run and part of the X Filme collective that produced Goodbye Lenin!) have an insightful conversation about the editing process, storytelling, and the essence of watching a movie. Utterly fascinating, and invaluable to any aspiring filmmaker. --Bret Fetzer

DVD Description
The year is 1989 and East and West Germany are still divided. Alex (Daniel Bruhl) and his sister Ariane (Maria Simon) live in East Germany with their single mother, Christiane (Katrin Sass) who is a staunch Socialist. When Alex’s mother witnesses his arrest on a protest march, she suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma for eight months, just enough time for the Berlin Wall to come tumbling down, along with all of East Germany’s ideals. Eight months later, Christiane wakes up and things have changed. The doctors warn Alex that any shock could bring on a fatal heart attack. He then realizes he must convince his mother that her beloved Communism has not been overthrown but is in fact triumphing over Capitalism. Alex then sets out to recreate every detail of the old East inside the four walls of their tiny council flat … what begins as a little white lie soon turns into a major deception with hilarious consequences!

Special Features

• Running Time: 116 mins approx.
  
• Language: German
  
• Subtitles: English
  
• Region Code: 2

Customer Reviews

Delightful movie
I discovered Daniel Bruhl in Ladies in Lavender - he played the displaced young man taken in for a while by the two ladies who turns their lives upside down. Goodbye Lenin is another moving yet sometimes very funny story in which the young hero is trying to keep his mother from finding out the Iron Curtain has fallen and the East German leader of the time (of course I can't recall his name when I want it) that she so admired and worked for has been discredited. Hilarious things ensue as he thinks up ways to keep her in the dark.

Charming...
A charming film, the core values of family speak true in every language. One of my personal favourite foreign language films. This DVD is discounted because of the non-optional English subtitles, but for a non-German speaking Brit this was absolutely fine for me, and so the DVD was a steal.

Recommended movie, DVD to avoid
The reason why this DVD version of the movie is currently discounted at 3 GBP is probably that it only has german sound with non-optional english subtitles.

So it's a frustrating experience for both those who don't understand german (they have to read subtitles) and those who understand german (they can't make the subtitles disappear).

This technical limitation is OF COURSE not indicated on the Amazon product page and only in 1mm letters on the back cover.