A Critical Review - the ‘ins and outs’ of Censorship in Goodbye Lenin!

Sébastien Reed

1338471

Censorship & Social Transformation

Ksenia Robbe

Words: 1039

Good Bye Lenin! – A Critical Review; the ‘ins and outs’ of Censorship

The 2003 film, Good Bye Lenin!, summons its audience onto the streets of the Berlin as few know it; under the administration of the Soviet brainchild of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik (DDR). Shadowing the trials and tribulations of adolescent protagonist, Alexander Kerner, a life-long citizen of Ost-Deutschland, the screenplay grapples with themes of rapid socio-political transformation, deception, and the refurbishment of historical dialogue, all shafted through a contextual overcast of German reunification at the drawing-back of the great “iron curtain” i.e. the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 (without giving too much away!) The significance of such has undergone vigorous documentation with regard to its impacts upon the political world order, though analyses and creative interpretation at the level of the individual have been left comparatively untouched. Whilst the film succeeds in providing a highly convincing existential perspective on the conundrums of reunification and its related renovations, it more specifically, both implicitly and explicitly, builds upon the notion of censorship at various levels of abstraction. Whether these intricacies regarding the representation of censorship were deliberately incorporated by director, Wolfgang Becker, to problematize human relationships in the context of paradigm change, or simply necessitated for accurate portrayal of said storyline, censorship, in all its (available) forms, will constitute the primary focus of this short, critical review.

            First, let’s rewind back to the eve of the ‘naughties’, September 11^th 2001. Etched into the minds of some people, and undoubtedly all western people, as the date that an enormously ‘provocative’ act of terrorism was executed on the World Trade Centre in New York City, USA, also known as the September 11 Attacks. But what relevance does this hold to something that happened on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean 14 years earlier? Good question. I think Good Bye Lenin! climaxes with Alexander’s fantastical realisation of East/West co-existence, a form deceit essentially imposed upon his mother. This idealism of collective action and people uniting in the name of mutual freedom, articulated through Alexander’s self-determination is juxtaposed with the political paradigm of the time. Good Bye Lenin! was released in the fallout of the September 11 Attacks in 2003, an era of realist power politics and impending terrorism in which the liberal victories of 1989 are but a mere déjà-vu in the cognition of the west. In other words, depictions of social transformation in the film are sugar-coated; overrepresented in the temporal episteme of the film’s release where more dire concerns are at play.

            For reasons of primacy to the subject of censorship, I’m drawn again to Alexander’s re-writing of the fall of the Berlin Wall. When we consider that the principal narrative of the film unravels with Alexander pursuing an alternative reality for his mother, which in itself is a form of censorship, we’re met by a rather interesting thought. Alexander’s relationship with his mother, post-coma, is largely characterised by deceit, effectively a charade used to defend her from what is described as a second, imminent heart attack. Alexander’s endeavours constitute a construction that is further embedded within the construction of the film Good Bye Lenin! What implication does this hold? The inescapability of construction at each plateau reifies a sense of how pervasively the notion of censorship has rooted itself into human society. It seems that censorship has established itself as an accepted and integral component of the respective discourse, and as Michel Foucault postulates, all meaning lies enveloped within the discourse (Hall 43). One can only attempt, but one cannot escape censorship.

            Homing in further, the mechanics through which Alexander misleads his mother, Christiane, are almost unequivocally emblematic of state censorship, but paradoxically reversed under exceptional circumstances. Christiane assumes the symbolic role of the volatile communist subject, though her political experience post-coma is largely parochial. The dissonance lies in the need to string out the perception of an oppressive regime in an era of newfound freedom. By providing his mother with a filtered and constructed capitulation of political events articulated through staged news reports, and supplemented with the tiniest ‘Mocca Fix’ details, Alexander assumes the position of ideological and moral arbiter between western capitalist democracy and communism all for the sake of defence, protection of the communist subject. His objective, “to strike a balance between opposing interests” and ultimately realise his utopic dream with as little volatility as possible (Coetzee 195).

            Labelled as a black comedy, it’s no lie that the film delivers humour in abundance. From Christiane’s profound bewilderment at the sight of the Coca Cola banner advertisement, a result of her uncanny dedication to an anti-capitalist ideology, to Alexander’s on-going crusade for soviet pickle jars, Good Bye Lenin! doesn’t refrain from extorting the opportunity of a cheap laugh. The humour does well to alleviate certain tensions typically associated with the portrayal of an oppressive regime, however I can’t help but feel that Becker maybe got caught up in the glossiness provided by certain whimsical inclusions. The semi-slapstick quality of some of the film’s humour seems to compromise the frantic reality of social transition, upheaving an immense irony to the film that, eventually, becomes moderately estranging, forcing me to pose myself the questions, ‘should I really be laughing at this? Should I really break loose from the encoder’s intentions?’ Fortunately, circumstances permit me to do so with minimal repercussions, however, Alexander would likely have faced graver consequences given the same reaction.

            All in all, the motion picture penetrates the dynamics of censorship from various angles and levels of obscurity. The time frame in which the film emerges offers a contrasting backdrop to the hopeful idealism expressed in Alexander’s boldness. Irony finds itself seeping from the crevices of the politicised familial relationships and the rather ambiguous humour (in)appropriated by Becker. For me, the ultimate, concrete message to be taken home from a viewing of Good Bye Lenin! is that censorship can be unsheathed from a near infinite number of scenarios. It lurks in the darkest corners of society, hounding the spaces between truth and subjective reality. Whether is exists to save a fragile life from impending demise, like in Good Bye Lenin!, or to secure popular uniformity, as in many autocratic regimes, censorship well and truly is.

Works Cited:

Coetzee, J. M. "The Work of the Censor: Censorship in South Africa." Giving Offense: Essays on Censorship. Chicago: U of Chicago, 1996. 185-203. Print.

Good Bye Lenin! Dir. Wolfgang Becker. Warner Home Video, 2003.

Hall, Stuart. "Power, Discourse and the Subject." Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Sage in Association with the Open U, 1997. 41-45. Print