Wilhelm (Bruno Ganz), a Stalinist, dyed-in-the-wool communist apparatchik, turns 90 in the final stages of the German Democratic Republic. The year is 1989, and thousands upon thousands of people are deserting the GDR for a better life in the capitalist west. The movie is basically about Wilhelm's birthday party where friends, family and party officials come together one last time to pay their tributes. But there is an elephant in the room, some inconvenient family news, that is about to break. Suddenly, the old party veteran is confronted by his past and that of his generation of antifascists. This is a quiet little film, carried by the minimalist but precise performances of Ganz and Evgenia Dodina, who plays the heavily drinking, Russian daughter-in-law messing things up at an otherwise much too rigid and stiff birthday ceremony. You will probably enjoy this film more if you haven't already read Eugen Ruge's novel, like me, because it focuses on more or less one single day out of this 500-pager. Still, it has a "real GDR" feeling about it, comparable to Lives of Others, which is quite an achievement in itself. Some reminiscence of Vinterberg's Festen without the shaky hand-held camera. Plus there are moments of that old Downfall madness evoked by Ganz, only this time at the other end of history. So I recommend it for a rainy Sunday afternoon when you are not in the mood for all-out action but for thought provoking and sometimes painfully funny storytelling.
4 Reviews
Pues esperaba más de ella. Well, I expected more from her
Andres-Camara10 February 2019
Warning: Spoilers
Cuando escuche de ella, me pareció muy interesante y me entraron ganas de verla de verdad. Ahora la he visto y bueno, si se ve, pero esperaba mucho más. Es una película conseguida, te la crees, pero se desinfla pronto. Ves, lo que ya sabemos todos, lo mal que se vivió en aquella época en esos sitios donde estaban ese tipo de regímenes, pero es que una vez que ya lo has visto, la película se cae.
Los actores están muy bien, ese no es el problema. Están todos estupendos.
La iluminación ayuda a meterse mucho en la historia, te traslada a aquella época, pero no es del todo buena. Hace a la película lejana. No es que la haga fría que también, es lejana.
La parte de arte, vestuario y maquillaje, esta fenomenal. Parece que se han trasladado en el tiempo.
El director, no llega a mantenerle el pulso a la película. No se da cuenta, que llega un momento en el que te da un poco igual. Cuenta la película desde fuera, no se mete en ella, no sabe usar la cámara. La hace demasiado larga, hay cosas que no me interesan, quizá demasiados personajes, con el tiempo que conllevan.
Para ver el momento histórico sí, pero poco mas.
When I heard from her, I thought it was very interesting and I really wanted to see her. Now I have seen it and well, if it is seen, but I expected much more. It's a movie made, you believe it, but it deflates soon. You see, what we all know, how bad it was at that time in those places where those kinds of regimes were, but once you've seen it, the movie falls.
The actors are very good, that's not the problem. They are all great.
Lighting helps you get into history a lot, it takes you back to that time, but it's not all that good. It makes the film faraway. It is not that it makes it cold that is also far away.
The part of art, costumes and makeup, is phenomenal. It seems that they have moved in time.
The director does not manage to maintain the pulse of the film. He does not realize, that there comes a time when he gives you a little bit the same. Tell the movie from outside, do not get into it, do not know how to use the camera. It makes it too long, there are things that do not interest me, maybe too many characters, with the time they entail.
To see the historical moment, yes, but little more
Los actores están muy bien, ese no es el problema. Están todos estupendos.
La iluminación ayuda a meterse mucho en la historia, te traslada a aquella época, pero no es del todo buena. Hace a la película lejana. No es que la haga fría que también, es lejana.
La parte de arte, vestuario y maquillaje, esta fenomenal. Parece que se han trasladado en el tiempo.
El director, no llega a mantenerle el pulso a la película. No se da cuenta, que llega un momento en el que te da un poco igual. Cuenta la película desde fuera, no se mete en ella, no sabe usar la cámara. La hace demasiado larga, hay cosas que no me interesan, quizá demasiados personajes, con el tiempo que conllevan.
Para ver el momento histórico sí, pero poco mas.
When I heard from her, I thought it was very interesting and I really wanted to see her. Now I have seen it and well, if it is seen, but I expected much more. It's a movie made, you believe it, but it deflates soon. You see, what we all know, how bad it was at that time in those places where those kinds of regimes were, but once you've seen it, the movie falls.
The actors are very good, that's not the problem. They are all great.
Lighting helps you get into history a lot, it takes you back to that time, but it's not all that good. It makes the film faraway. It is not that it makes it cold that is also far away.
The part of art, costumes and makeup, is phenomenal. It seems that they have moved in time.
The director does not manage to maintain the pulse of the film. He does not realize, that there comes a time when he gives you a little bit the same. Tell the movie from outside, do not get into it, do not know how to use the camera. It makes it too long, there are things that do not interest me, maybe too many characters, with the time they entail.
To see the historical moment, yes, but little more
A family's reality check before the Wall came down
denis-2379113 September 2020
Artful mixture of different characters' views on the socialist reality of the last days of the GDR. Well played and beautifully shot. The film's key message seems to be left in the eye of the beholder, also regarding the unexpected turn at the end as well as the different side stories that are merely insinuated. I found it a bit confusing and unoriented, and therefore unsatisfactory.
The state of things in East Germany briefly before the Fall of the Berlin Wall
Horst_In_Translation7 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
"In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts" or "In Times of Fading Light" is a recent German movie that runs for 100 minutes and is based on a novel by Eugen Ruge. The director is fairly famous German filmmaker Matti Geschonneck and the adaptation is by Wolfgang Kohlhaase, a writer in his mid-80s and he has been working on movies since the early 1950s, so almost 65 years already. Yep he started that young. I have not read the book this is based on, so I cannot discuss which one is better book or movie and I also cannot elaborate on parallels and differences between the two versions. But I can say a lot about this movie. First of all, lead actor Bruno Ganz is once again the heart and soul of the film and these scenes when he disappears for a longer while were when the film was slightly weaker. Winkler and Grossmann were wasted a bit, even if the latter at least delivered with his strong physical presence. Other known cast members here are Fehling, Groth and Schmeide. But all in all, it is all about Ganz really, who also scored a German Film Award nomination for his turn here.
He portrays a man on the day of his 90th birthday, a very established communist in the final days of the GDR and it's all a struggle between paying him respect while at the same time everything crumbles around them. I think the greatest metaphor in this film is the boy destroying the tables that Ganz' character put together. The youth gets the GDR to collapse. There are other good scenes too, like for example early on when we find out a Soviet politician gets replaces by another Soviet politician and the dead guy is 78 and the new guy is 79. There is no prospect anymore, no future really. Anyway, as much comedy there may be, there is at least as much tragedy when it comes to basically every single character. Be it women without men, children without fathers, unlucky relationships without love etc. etc. The ending with the poisoned tea may have been a bit harsh, but I guess it was the same in the book. I personally found it did not fit too well though as the entire film was basically a depiction of the current situation. Nothing was really happening. We saw things the way they were, not the way they developed and such a huge event at the end (especially as it came out of nowhere) only resulted in cheap thrills in my opinion. The very ending that explains the title of the film as well as the very beginning also were a bit on the pretentious note if you ask me. The title could have been explained perfectly fine with Ganz' character' life slowly ending together with the GDR ending at the same time.
Anyway, as a whole it is probably the performances who make this film worth watching. The script is sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sadly in terms of the comedy it is sometimes also pretty desperate, like the toilet scene with the one guy who really needs to go, but just can't get in. In addition, I think the film could have turned out better, but also worse. It's decent and it needs to be said that while Germany really struggles with good comedy movies these days (compared to France for example), they keep delivering solid and convincing family drama or history drama or just drama movies on a monthly basis or even more often. This is one of them. I suggest you check it out if you have an interest in the subject of German politics back in the late 1980s. And if not, you can still appreciate it from the family drama perspective. Give it a go I say.
He portrays a man on the day of his 90th birthday, a very established communist in the final days of the GDR and it's all a struggle between paying him respect while at the same time everything crumbles around them. I think the greatest metaphor in this film is the boy destroying the tables that Ganz' character put together. The youth gets the GDR to collapse. There are other good scenes too, like for example early on when we find out a Soviet politician gets replaces by another Soviet politician and the dead guy is 78 and the new guy is 79. There is no prospect anymore, no future really. Anyway, as much comedy there may be, there is at least as much tragedy when it comes to basically every single character. Be it women without men, children without fathers, unlucky relationships without love etc. etc. The ending with the poisoned tea may have been a bit harsh, but I guess it was the same in the book. I personally found it did not fit too well though as the entire film was basically a depiction of the current situation. Nothing was really happening. We saw things the way they were, not the way they developed and such a huge event at the end (especially as it came out of nowhere) only resulted in cheap thrills in my opinion. The very ending that explains the title of the film as well as the very beginning also were a bit on the pretentious note if you ask me. The title could have been explained perfectly fine with Ganz' character' life slowly ending together with the GDR ending at the same time.
Anyway, as a whole it is probably the performances who make this film worth watching. The script is sometimes good, sometimes bad. Sadly in terms of the comedy it is sometimes also pretty desperate, like the toilet scene with the one guy who really needs to go, but just can't get in. In addition, I think the film could have turned out better, but also worse. It's decent and it needs to be said that while Germany really struggles with good comedy movies these days (compared to France for example), they keep delivering solid and convincing family drama or history drama or just drama movies on a monthly basis or even more often. This is one of them. I suggest you check it out if you have an interest in the subject of German politics back in the late 1980s. And if not, you can still appreciate it from the family drama perspective. Give it a go I say.
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