Goodbye Lenin !!!!!!

Good Bye Lenin! (2003)

Directed by
Wolfgang Becker

Writing credits
Wolfgang Becker (co-author) and
Bernd Lichtenberg

Genre: Comedy / Drama

Synopsis: In 1990, to protect his fragile mother from a fatal shock after a long coma; a young man must keep her from learning that her beloved nation of East Germany as she knew it has disappeared.

Cast overview, first billed only:
Daniel Brühl .... Alex
Katrin Saß .... Mutter (Christiane Kerner) (as Kathrin Sass)
Chulpan Khamatova .... Lara
Maria Simon .... Ariane Kerner
Florian Lukas .... Denis
Alexander Beyer .... Rainer
Burghart Klaußner .... Alex' Vater

Good Bye, Lenin! is a generally sweet nostalgia piece set in the years before and right after the fall of the Berlin wall. Daniel Brühl plays Alex, an East German teen, who grew up rooting for his country’s one cosmonaut and under the rule of only one parent, his father having fled to the other side when the opportunity presented itself. Meanwhile, Alex’s mother Christiane (the lovely Katrin Sass), after mourning the loss of her expatriate husband, “remarries” the state of East Germany itself, burying the pain of geographical bereavement to become a model socialist citizen and champion of the working man.

With life back on track, then, for Alex and his family, which includes dear sister Lara (Maria Simon), there’s no way to go but downhill, and here, that reality manifests itself when Christiane suffers a freak heart attack and winds up in a coma, which lasts just long enough for the wall to come down and the scourge of capitalism from the West to enter into the former economically-restricted state in leaps and bounds. Trouble is, after Alex’s mom returns from her dream state, the doctor explicitly warns Alex that any shock would likely serve to kill her. So, the teen decides to do what any loving, industrious son would do in the situation – he hatches a plan to turn back the clock on capitalism. Alex, with the help of his sister—who has, since mom went under, quit college, got shacked up with a “Wessie” and starting working at Burger King—transforms the old family apartment into the old family apartment, throwing away all the vestiges of a post-broken-wall world and replacing them with all the furnishings mom was accustomed to. To top it off, Alex subsequently has to jump through a seemingly endless series of hoops of lies and trickery to keep mom believing that East Germany is still getting its orders from the Kremlin. To further the plot, Alex enlists his new, Russian girlfriend, Lara (Chulpan Khamatova), as well as his work comrade Denis (Florian Lukas), a budding director. This pal provides the most useful services for Alex as he creates various fake news films on video to trick mom into believing that the old ways still exist.

Co-writer (along with Bernd Lichtenberg) and director Wolfgang Becker does a lovely job of telling what ends up feeling—with the help of maybe a tad too much narration care of Brühl’s Alex—like a very personal story. While the concept here sometimes feels a little too convenient (Alex, just so happening to be friends with a would-be director is a real coincidence) for its delicate tale about the passage of time and the change that comes with it, overall this is a hopeful picture that, if it’s sometimes long on cuteness, it’s never far away from having a big heart. (Sony Pictures Classics, R)

Also Known As:
79 qm DDR (Germany) (working title)
Goodbye Lenin! (International: English title)
MPAA: Rated R for brief language and sexuality.
Runtime: 121 min / Argentina:112 min
Country: Germany
Language: German
Color: Black and White (archive footage) / Color
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Mambo Italiano

Genre: Comedy

2004

Plot Outline: The son of Italian immigrants to Canada struggles to find the best way to reveal to his parents that he's gay.

Cast overview, first billed only:
Luke Kirby .... Angelo Barberini


Ginette Reno .... Maria Barberini
Paul Sorvino .... Gino Barberini
Mary Walsh .... Lina Paventi
Peter Miller .... Nino Paventi
Claudia Ferri .... Anna Barberini
Sophie Lorain .... Pina Lunetti

MPAA: Rated R for language and sexual situations.
Runtime: 88 min / Canada:92 min (Toronto International Film Festival)
Country: Canada
Language: Italian / French / English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital

Sinopsis
Angelo (Kirby) es un joven italiano que vive todavía con sus padres (Reno y Sorvino) y su hermana (Ferri). Angelo decide irse de casa y un día se encuentra con Nino (Miller) su mejor amigo de la infancia con el que entabla una amorosa union. Cuando todos se enteran de que son gays la relación entre ambos se irá deteriorando.

Crítica
Puaf, hacía tiempo que no me reía tanto con una película. Esta película es como ver un cartoon animado ya que los diálogos son muy ingeniosos, irónicos y mordazes. Todo el reparto está bien y tiene oportunidad de lucirse en escenas tan hilarantes como cuando las madres de los gays intentar convercerse mutuamente de que es el hijo de la otra el que se folla a su hijo y no al revés, jajaja; o la hermana visitando a los psiquiátras; o la lesbiana que llama a la línea de apoyo gay y siempre la cuelgan. En fin, de lo más divertido que he visto en lo que va de año.

Peter Miller

Yossi & Jagger

Yossi & Jagger

(2002)

Directed by: Eytan Fox
Writer: Avner Bernheimer
Genre: Drama

Synopsis:

Based on a true story, Yossi & Jagger portrays the love affair of two Israeli officers in a remote army base on the Israeli-Lebanese border. They are commanders, they are in love, and they try to find a place of their own in an oppressing and rigid system, which sends them to defend a cause they do not necessarily believe in.

Yossi & Jagger portrays the tragic structure of life of young Israelis today. The film presents an enchanting ensemble of young men and women that were supposed, in this time of their lives, to dance, study and love. Instead, due to the mandatory army service and the complicated situation in the region, they have to devote their most beautiful years to their country, to be soldiers, to kill and get killed.

Without flag-waving or ideological posturing, this film tells the story of young people trying to survive in an impossible world.

Reviews
"Ohad Knoller y Yehuda Levi son dos soldados israelíes destacados en un punto bastante remoto y nevado. Yossi (Knoller) es el teniente incrustado en el armario, mientras Jagger (Levi, una estrella en Israel) es el desenfadado soldado raso que hace arder su corazón. Aunque es un poco desigual, cuenta todo en apenas una hora y tiene un final cantado desde casi el principio (cualquier persona familiar con el género bélico sabe por dónde van los tiros), pero tiene un aire trágico e íntimo bastante sobrecogedor."

Reviews

"Dos jóvenes comandantes que prestan sus servicios en una base del ejército hebreo, uno
de los mejor preparados y exigentes del mundo, donde la homosexualidad no está muy bien vista. Ambos viven su amor a espaldas no sólo de sus superiores, sino incluso también de sus propios compañeros, lo que hace que la tensión aumente a cada instante.

Para complicar aún más las cosas, su destino será la frontera libanesa, un lugar bastante convulso al que son enviados los protagonistas junto con un heterogéneo grupo de adolescentes que realizan su correspondiente servicio militar obligatorio y que no creen en las guerras.

El director de esta película, Eytan Fox, ya había realizado con anterioridad incursiones en el terrible drama que viven los 'gays' dentro del ejército ('Time Off'), así como en la dura vida que soportan hoy en día los adolescentes de su país ('Song of the Siren')."
Cast:

Ohad Knoller ...... Yossi
Yehuda Levi ....... Lior Amichai 'Jagger'
Assi Cohen ........ Ofir
Aya Steinovitz .... Yaeli
Hani Furstenberg ... Goldie
Sharon Raginiano ... The Colonel
Yuval Semo ........ Psycho
Yaniv Moyal ....... Samoncha
Hanan Savyon ...... Adams
Erez Kahana ....... Yaniv the Cook

Also Known As: Yossi VeJager (Israel: Hebrew title)
Runtime: 65 min / Israel:67 min
Country: Israel

Language: Hebrew
Color: Color
Sound Mix: Stereo

FILM REVIEW; Israeli Officers In Love, Trying To Elude Death And Detection

By STEPHEN HOLDEN
Published: September 24, 2003, Wednesday

The pressures and privations of military life have rarely been portrayed in as much telling detail as they are in ''Yossi and Jagger,'' Eytan Fox's compact (71-minute), touching portrait of a group of bored Israeli soldiers stationed at a cramped army base on the Israeli-Lebanese border. The area they're patrolling is a rutted, snow-covered no-man's-land that appears almost completely lifeless until the moment that enemy firepower explodes out of nowhere.

In the opening scene the soldiers, clutching handkerchiefs to their noses, bury a stinking cache of meat that has rotted since their last visit to the area. When away from the base, they subsist on a combination of beef jerky and chocolate.

Amid this desolation, love has flowered between two young commanders, Yossi (Ohad Knoller) and Jagger (Yehuda Levi), who are carrying on a passionate but discreet affair. Although the other soldiers refer to them as a couple, they view the bond between the men, who are both well liked, as nothing more than a special friendship. When the lovers need time alone, they steal away on a bogus lookout mission and make love in the snow, observed only by rabbits.

The affair is not without its tensions. Yossi, the more macho and closeted, is not entirely comfortable with his sexuality and disapproves of his partner's fondness for ''diva music'' and other nonmanly tastes. The handsomer, more free-spirited and playful Jagger is a shameless coquette who pressures Yossi to consider leaving the army and living with him. Emotionally needy, Jagger petulantly hounds Yossi to put his love into words and deliver the Hollywood romantic fantasy he craves.

When two attractive female soldiers, Goldie (Hani Furstenberg) and Yaeli (Aya Koren), arrive at the base, the suppressed sexual tensions among the soldiers intensify, and you worry that the lovers will be found out and disgraced. For the blond, sexually aggressive Goldie, the visits offer a welcome opportunity for hot, recreational sex. The dark-haired, moony-eyed Yaeli is a romantic who nurtures schoolgirl fantasies of a Champagne-and-roses affair with Jagger, whom she recognizes as special because of his sensitivity.

Even after her forlorn inquiries about Jagger's tastes in women elicit discouraging responses, Yaeli refuses to give up her dream. One soldier, Ofir (Assi Cohen), pines for her. When she rebuffs him, he focuses his resentment on Jagger.

If the situation has all the ingredients of a shrill, tearful melodrama, the filmmaker, working from a taut screenplay by Avner Bernheimer that doesn't waste a word or a gesture, keeps the emotional lid firmly in place. And this restraint lends the psychological undercurrents among the characters a resonance they would not otherwise have.

Each of the soldiers, from the playful cook, Yaniv (Erez Kahana), to a tough, war-mongering colonel (Sharon Regniano), who pays a surprise visit, is incisively drawn. And the performances of Mr. Knoller and Mr. Levi (a leading Israeli soap opera star) distill the emotional chemistry of their precarious relationship.

''Yossi and Jagger'' may be a gay love story. But the movie, which ends with a wallop, is an unusually subtle and convincing study of group psychology and fluctuating morale among professionals under stress in close quarters.