destined to be a Mother's Day classic
Jun. 1st, 2004 01:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
e_clareIn answer to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
auntyem's query, yes, there are actually many Good Things about being home. Topmost: the free movies. Last night I finally got to see Goodbye, Lenin!, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (First time in a long time a movie's received higher praise than "not bad" from me.)
The writers did a nice job of including enough background information for those of us whose memories of the fall of the USSR are a little bit fuzzy (to say the least). I feel like I would have appreciated it more had I known more about that period, its politics, and the events leading up to it...but I could still try to relate to it on the human scale.
I'll come back and add a more detailed summary later, since I need to go clean my room (I just love living at home some days, let me tell you).
EDIT: 6/03 So basically, this is a story about the great lengths a boy will go to for his mother. (In a strictly non-Oedipal way, thankyouverymuch.) It's funny, it's touching, and it's a window into a time and culture that's almost unimaginable from my modern American perspective.
More than just a coming-of-age story. The concept (woman falls into 8-month-long coma, during which the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain come down; her son recreates socialist life down to the smallest details to save her from the shock of the change) is strikingly original, and allows for some beautiful contrasts between East and West.
Currently out on DVD. Highly recommended.
auntyem's query, yes, there are actually many Good Things about being home. Topmost: the free movies. Last night I finally got to see Goodbye, Lenin!, and thoroughly enjoyed it. (First time in a long time a movie's received higher praise than "not bad" from me.) The writers did a nice job of including enough background information for those of us whose memories of the fall of the USSR are a little bit fuzzy (to say the least). I feel like I would have appreciated it more had I known more about that period, its politics, and the events leading up to it...but I could still try to relate to it on the human scale.
I'll come back and add a more detailed summary later, since I need to go clean my room (I just love living at home some days, let me tell you).
EDIT: 6/03 So basically, this is a story about the great lengths a boy will go to for his mother. (In a strictly non-Oedipal way, thankyouverymuch.) It's funny, it's touching, and it's a window into a time and culture that's almost unimaginable from my modern American perspective.
More than just a coming-of-age story. The concept (woman falls into 8-month-long coma, during which the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain come down; her son recreates socialist life down to the smallest details to save her from the shock of the change) is strikingly original, and allows for some beautiful contrasts between East and West.
Currently out on DVD. Highly recommended.
