Rhapsodies

My initial idea for a theme this week was something in the way of people trying to maintain the façade of an artificial reality. Unfortunately I’d seen most of the movies that could go with the movie that had inspired me to go in this direction, Goodbye Lenin!, so I was forced to muddle along and the connection between it and my second film choice ended up being a bit of a stretch.

Goodbye Lenin! is a German Film about the end of East Germany and how, at least in one apartment complex, lasted just little longer.

We open hearing our protagonist, Alex Kerner, tell the story of how his mother Christiane, embraced communism after his father defected to the west and years later how she had a heart attack from the shock of seeing him in a pro democracy rally putting her in a coma for eight months. During that time the Berlin Wall falls letting all the joys and horrors of capitalism pour in.

When she finally wakes up, Alex is warned by the doctor that any shock could cause Christiane to have another heart attack. In order to prevent this Alex reverts the family apartment to the way it was a year ago and does everything he can to make it look as if East Germany is alive and well. This, however is easier said than done and as the movie continues the façade becomes increasingly difficult to maintain.

This is an interesting quiet film, and while the premise Is certainly comic it is played perfectly straight. The pacing seemed a bit off time most notably my favorite scene where Christiane finally walks out of the apartment and sees modern Berlin covered in loud colorful commercialism with a statue of Lenin flying by hanging from a helicopter. I would have imagined this to be the climax of the film in any other film but in this one the story went on for another 45 minutes.

While, as I said my other film selection, Human Nature didn’t fit my original theme beyond on of the characters trying to hide her true nature to her lover, but it was still quite enjoyable amusing quirky piece of magical realism. It tells the story of a man raised by apes (actually his crazy father who thought he was an ape) and a woman who abandons civilization and the quirky behavioral scientist who brings them together.

This is a flawed but fun satire that has a lot to say with some good performances, (including an early cameo from Peter Dinklage) I found myself liking some of the background material the best, most notably a pair of white mice seen throughout the film who were a lab experiment to see if mice could be taught table market. Near the end of the film they are released into the wild. As the credits go up we see them trying to hitchhike.