Basket.

I today had the good fortune to get my hands on a copy of Goodbye Lenin, the so-called comedy that was given an R(A) rating when it came out in Singapore last year. I watched it and wondered why; there was a scene that showed a man's exposed posterior, which lasted barely a second. That, and it gets slapped with an R(A) rating. Patently ridiculous.

The movie itself was pretty good. No classic, but rather good, nonetheless. By turns hilarious and poignant, it was in the end a skillfully-done piece that I feel would not have justice done to it to be described as a mere "comedy". While the first half or so of the movie bordered on slapstick, the second part was an emotional, deeply moving portrayal of the various experiences, difficulties and regrets of the major characters. The son, torn between ill mother and frustrated girlfriend; the mother, caught in a web of lies of her own; the daughter, at her wits' end and feeling the strain of hiding a truth that has become all but impossible to conceal. All superbly done by the German actors, who very capably dealt with the many and conflicting emotions they had to display throughout the film.

Another thing I found intriguing is that this film showed, rather realistically, the effects of Communism (or more accurately, the principles of Marxism-Leninism) on the common people. One of the twentieth century's, and human history's landmark ideologies, Marxism-Leninism impacted so many millions over seven decades - we always speak of it only in terms of the number of nuclear warheads and their awesome destructive power, or in the general impact it had on the world at large, or of the old fogeys who led it. Never about the hundreds of millions who had to deal with the daily inconveniences and idiosyncracies of the system. Here, in this film, we see how they must survive these, and how the sudden, shocking transition put into just so many words in our lecture notes impacted the common people, especially one common man seeking only to save the life of his ailing mother.

Run Lola Run was good too. German cinema is underrated.