Yes emphatically not to be missed, and not to be under-estimated despite its wit and good humour.
Allow me absolutely to agree:- "This is not just about nostalgia for chintzy objects that might be regarded as a German version of "camp". It is also about a growing disenchantment with the new capitalist world that they had assumed would be a kind of utopia" It is on many levels. One is the destruction of a coercive narrow idealististic society by an increasing pre-occupation with commodities. It is the commodities of the east that are mocked, although Spreewald gurken no doubt could be tasty enough. But it is the horror of the far more massive victorious consumer society of the west that indirectly is questioned. The intrusion of a massive advertisement for Coca Cola, is counterbalanced later by an extraordinary image of an admonitory statue of Lenin, being carried through the air by a helicopter, reproving the naive communist stalwart for having forgotten perhaps a deeper meaning of socialism. And perhaps a realisation that although it is the hunger for the commodities of the East Germany (the title is a pun) that is ridiculed, the more sophisticated and extensive domination of commodities is found in the society of the west. There must be something more significant to human relationships than what happens in between purchasing commodities. Its massive popularity in Germany suggests it has struck deeper chords than a remarkably good comedy film with many clever cinematic allusions. See it more than once with a gap of a few weeks. Chris Burford London ----- Original Message ----- From: "Louis Proyect" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 2:21 PM Subject: [PEN-L] "Goodbye, Lenin" opens in NYC > I reviewed this film about the phenomenon of "ostalgie" a couple of > weeks ago. It is now opening up at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas > Broadway between 62nd and 63rd. Not to be missed. > > -- > > The Marxism list: www.marxmail.org >