My top 30 films - No.12

12. Good Bye Lenin! (2003) - "The German Democratic Republic lives on – in 79 m²!"

Is it a comedy or a tragedy? The same can be said about Max Frisch's play Biedermann und die Brandstifter, which is basically about a man who believes that he will not be taken in by a group of arsonists who are burning down the town. However, the arsonists do come to his house and Biedermann soon becomes an accomplice of his own downfall. It is tragic because the audience are aware that Biedermann will become a victim of the arsonists, but also comic as he does nothing about it, even when his attic is overrun by barrels of petrol and he measures the fuse for them. You may be wondering "what the hell is this guy on?" I am not for one minute suggesting that Good Bye, Lenin! is the film equivalent of Biedermann und die Brandstifter; it is much more tragic, but also much more comic.

It starts with the main character, Alex Kerner, (Daniel Brühl (Inglourious Basterds)) reflecting on his past, particularly when his Dad fled to the West and when Sigmund Jähn became the first German in space. In 1989, he is living in an apartment in East Berlin with his sister, her baby daughter and his mother, who is a staunch socialist. However, she sees him getting arrested at an anti-government demonstration, suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma for 8 months. During this time, the Berlin Wall falls, Alex is forced to get a new job working with someone from the West and his sister drops out of university to work at Burger King. His mother finally awakens, but Alex is told that it's very unlikely that she'll survive another heart attack. Any form of excitement or shock might trigger another one, including the news that the wall has fallen. Against the doctors' wishes, Alex decides to take his mother home, but to recreate the whole atmosphere of the German Democratic Republic within their flat. That's easier said than done. This ranges from showing old/fake/re-enacted news stories on TV and bringing back old furniture/clothes, to searching in the bins outside their apartment for Communist brand pickles and buying a Trabant. Alex only hopes that his mother doesn't set step outside her room. However, there are complications, particularly when she looks out the window and sees a Coca Cola banner draped from the top of one of the neighbouring tower blocks. The thought going through Alex's head at that point - "Oh, b*******."
 

This is the second German film in my list and there is one major link between this and The Lives of Others - they are both about communism. Why is it that the best German films are about the darkest moments in German History?

Here is a quick history lesson for you. Before 1989 (we all should know what happened then), films in West Germany were about confronting the past and did question German identity, as well as contemporary social issues. However, in East Germany films had to conform to the demands of socialist society and rules of censorship were starting to become more relaxed. After Germany's reunification, the 1990s saw German filmmakers follow international trends, such as romantic comedies. Later that decade though, there were films looking back at Germany's history, including during the Third Reich and life in East Germany. Nowadays, directors such as Fatih Akin concentrate on issues such as globalisation and migration. These are two themes which feature in his film Auf der anderen Seite (The Edge of Heaven). Akin himself was born in Hamburg in 1973, after his parents came from Turkey as Gastarbeiter (guest workers).

Anyway, back to Good Bye Lenin!. I think the plot is genius. The fact this tries to recreate a world that once existed to keep his mother alive is just incomprehensible. Any normal person would told his mother the truth, but Alex knows it would kill her. Everyone around thinks it's a stupid idea, including his sister and his girlfriend. It can only last for so long, but it soon becomes deception rather than simply not telling the truth. Screenwriter Bernd Lichtenberg and director Wolfgang Becker also cleverly include a sub-plot, in which Alex discovers the truth about his father. Their use of comedy is well done as well, especially the scenes of Alex and his friend Denis (Florian Lukas) try to record their own made up news broadcasts in a fake studio, outside an office and in a public library. If I did something like that, I'd get lots of dodgy looks and kicked out.

There are links to many other films in Good Bye Lenin!, including two Stanley Kubrick films - 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange. The 2001 reference is when Denis is showing Alex a wedding video he has been working on, which features a shot of a rotating bouquet of flowers and cuts to a man holding a cake. This is similar to the rotating bone shot, which then cuts to a spaceship. It also features Richard Strauss' Blue Danube. As for A Clockwork Orange, the scene where they are moving all of the furniture back into Alex's mother's room is sped up and features a quicken version of Rossini's William Tell Overture. I think there is a reference also to Eyes Wide Shut, but we won't dwell on that because it isn't Kubrick's greatest film, now is it? There is also a link between this film and Amélie. Both scores for were composed by Yann Tiersen and my favourite piece for this film is the one played during the opening titles, called Summer 78. There is also a piece which is used in Amélie - Comptine d'Un Autre Été: L'après Midi. At least it isn't one of the pieces with an accordion, otherwise that would just sound out of place.

This is such a beautifully made film. It is tragic the fact that Alex's mother is being lied to so she can stay alive; everything she once believed in has vanished. However, Becker does a good job in making light of a serious topic. It also a fantastic performance by Daniel Brühl as Alex and nowadays he is one of Germany's most recognisable actors. The most famous English language films he has appeared in though are still The Bourne Ultimatum and Inglourious Basterds. It would be good to see him in more films in the future. There is only one thing I don't like about the film. It features a group of Germans celebrating one of England's worst World Cup moments, which features a man famous for his mullet and the song Diamond Lights...

My top 30 films - No.13

13. Amélie (2001) - "She'll change your life."

I don't like that many romantic comedies, mainly because a lot of them aren't that good and incredibly shallow. That's why this is my favourite. Unlike most of them, it is good. I'm not an expert on French cinema, but this is the best known and most highly regarded French film ever.

It is all about a young woman called Amélie Poulain, played by Audrey Tautou (The Da Vinci Code and Coco Before Chanel). She has had an isolated childhood and created her own imaginary friends. Her mother is killed by a suicidal tourist from Quebec, so she spends most of her life living with her father. Fast forward to age 23, she works at the Café de 2 Moulins at Montmartre. On 30th August 1997, her life is changed forever, on a day the whole world will remember. She finds a tin box belonging to the previous occupant of her apartment. She returns it to him and his reaction makes her think that she should help everyone around her, such as her colleagues, her landlady and her father. However, it becomes clear that the person who needs her help the most is herself.

I do like the way Jean-Pierre Jeunet introduces the characters, mainly by describing what they like and don't like. This includes Amélie's parents, the café regulars, even a cat. This show similarities between certain ones. One of my particular favourite moments is when Amélie is still a child. She is fooled by her neighbour into thinking she has caused a car accident, but gets her revenge by messing around with his TV reception. I also love the fact Amélie tries to encourage her father to travel, mainly by stealing his treasured garden gnome and giving it to a stewardess, who takes it with her around the world, taking pictures of it in front of, for example, St. Basil's Cathedral and The Statue of Liberty. Jeunet's uses of colour, special effects and cinematography are well done, in a way that if a Hollywood director got a hold of it, they would have gone over the top. Still, it is the highest-grossing French-language film to be released in America.

This is the film that really did make a name of Audrey Tautou. She received a BAFTA nomination for her performance in this film. She does give a convincing performance as someone who wants to help everyone around her and you would want to be help by someone like her. She is in my opinion currently France's best actress, even though she hasn't won an Oscar like Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche.

The soundtrack to this film is superb. It's written by Yann Tiersen, who also wrote the music for the next film in my list. This is the kind of music you can imagine hearing only in France. Whenever I hear the last 45 seconds of the piece below, I imagine just running down the Champs-Élysées  The only way it could be more French is if there was a beret and some onions. Apparently, Jeunet originally wanted Michael Nyman to compose the score, but if he had would it be as memorable as Tiersen's?

Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of romantic comedies, especially of the modern day variety. Richard Curtis ones are sometimes amusing, mainly because it is Richard Curtis and he wrote The Vicar of Dibley and Blackadder. I did recently watch Annie Hall and I did find that quite amusing; I think it is more of a comedy than a romance film. Amélie has the right mix of both elements. You see a woman looking for the love of her life, but you also have a suicidal goldfish. You find the characters engaging; it's beautifully shot and it is perhaps the best French film ever. Well it is in my opinion. I'm not an expert on French cinema, so don't come to me if you want to know about it. I only took a module called An Introduction to European Cinema and A-Level French (which didn't go according to plan)...



My top 30 films - No.14

14. The Lives of Others (2006) - "Before the fall of the Berlin Wall, East Germany's Secret Police listened to your secrets."

Yes, it is in German, but this film is set during one of the most infamous periods of German history. No, not the war.

During the 1980s, everything was nice for people in the UK. Oh wait, we had mass unemployment, mass riots, the Falklands war and Margaret Thatcher in office. Could have been worse. You could have been living in East Germany, where the Stasi (East German Secret Police) could have bugged your house without you knowing. That's socialism for you.

This is probably the shortest review in this countdown, but there isn't much to say, other than this is one of the most important and best films ever made in the history of German cinema.
In 1984, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe) is ordered by his superior, Anton Grubitz (Ulrich Tukur), to monitor Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), one of the country's most successful playwrights. This is because the Minister of Culture (Thomas Thieme) questions Dreyman's allegiance. Plus, he does fancy Dreyman's girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Grubitz, thinking that the success of this mission will earn him a promotion, selects Wiesler and others agents to hide microphones in the light switches, place a camera outside, and bug the phone in Dreyman's flat. Wiesler monitors Dreyman from the attic. To start with, Dreyman looks clean, but he soon learns about Christa-Maria's affair with the Minister and her drug addiction. Meanwhile, Dreyman's friend Albert Jerska (Volmar Kleinert), who was blacklisted by the Stasi, hangs himself. This provokes Dreyman to write a report on the number of unaccounted suicides in East Germany since 1977, when the country had the second highest suicide rate in Europe. However, he wants to publish it anonymously in Der Spiegel, a periodical published in West Germany. This means using a West German typewriter (all East German typewriters were registered) and hiding in under his floorboards. This outrages the East German authorities and Wiesler's professionalism is called into question.

Mühe unfortunately died in 2007, after being diagnosed with stomach cancer. He was already seriously ill when the film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. During the 80s, when he was in the theatre, the Stasi had him under surveillance. He later discovered that his wife and four other actors were informants. He does play a very powerful and confusing character. Wiesler is someone who seems to be in control, calm, emotionless and professional. An example is the opening scene, when he interviews a man about his neighbour escaping to the West. He asks for him to sit in a certain way and when he interviews him again notes that the answers are exactly the same. He also collects the cloth from the seat as an odour sample for the dogs. However, even though he works for the Stasi, Wiesler comes to see that the system is flawed and sympathizes with Dreyman.
This film was the feature film debut from Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who recently directed The Tourist. It is fair to say that the former is the better of the two. He was born in 1973, in Cologne, even though both his parents were from East Germany. It is a dark subject to put across on the screen, but there are some comic elements to it. This includes a scene where a student makes a joke about Erich Honecker in front of Wiesler and Grubitz. But, there are also some quite moving/powerful scenes. Near the end (I hope I am not giving too much away), a group of people are working in a sorting office. This is over 4 and a half years later and they hear on the radio the news that the Berlin Wall has collapsed. They simply get up and walk out.

There are plans for an American remake of this film, to be released in 2013. However, I don't know who is involved in it. The Americans will always see a foreign language film and think "What if we remade it, but got rid of the subtitles so everyone understands". One of the most recent examples was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. In 2009, there was the Swedish version, starring Noomi Rapace and directed by Niels Arden Oplev. It only cost $13 million to make, but took just took over $104 million worldwide. It won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language. Then late last year came the American version/remake directed by David Fincher, starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. This one cost $90 million and took over $232 million. So, the original was more commercially successful, even if Mara was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Actress.  Apparently, the remake is more violent than the original, but I haven't seen it yet. Another film originally in Swedish but had an American remake was Tomas Alfredson's Let The Right One In (you'll know it as Let Me In). The original won the 2010 Kermode Award for Best Film; when he reviewd the remake he famously said "I've already Let The Right One In. Why would I let you in?" Last year, Alfredson directed Tinker Tailor Solder Spy.

Unfortunately, this isn't a true story, but is inspired by true events. It is superb in displaying what life was like in East Germany during the 1980s. It was probably also the influence for Rebekah Brooks and News International...