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Comedy Is the breathing ground for satire, a style of putting a funny spin on political matters and Germany’s history is rife with significant events in politics so much so that has impacted the history of the world. You can’t mention the ass’s or ass’s without mentioning Germany’s political standing of the time, they acted out of desperation and poverty under the leadership of a man with questionable motives and morals and committed some atrocious acts on the people of the world.
Hitler was your classic super villain bent on world domination and years later would be perfect ammunition for satirists and comedy writers alike. Germany didn’t just have the ass’s to fall back on when they needed inspiration they also had the ass’s because up until the late year of 1989 when the whole western world had started to become the ultra capitalist, technology hungry people we are today there was still a slice of old school thinking in East Berlin which in effect was the largest open air prison of it’s day. With so many political points of reference Its easy to see how the Germans have worked satire to a fine art.
I will be using three films to highlight and compare the comedic satire found in German film. Good Bye Lenin! (2003) By Wolfgang Becker. The destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989 was a historically significant event not just for the people of Germany, but also for much of the rest of the world. Aside from reuniting two vastly different political systems. This remarkable Incident marked a turning point for the capitalist uprising occurring within many of the other socialist states. Filmmakers worldwide have since explored the causes and effects of the German Reunification. D even today. They continue to bring new Insight and a fresh perspective to an event that occurred nearly twenty three years ago. Wolfgang Backer’s Good Bye, Lenin! Is among the best of them and the most modern of the three films set after the wall fell. Rather than charging head-on at a specific political standing, Good Bye, Lenin! Uses carefully controlled satire to poke fun at the absurdities of both communist and capitalist societies. And despite criticism from supporters of either system, Becker Is careful not to take sides or appear sympathetic toward any political institution.
Instead concentrating on one family and their struggle to divide the two systems or rather protect his coma stricken mother from waking up In a world she can’t handle. This film is similar in It’s satire to One, Two, Three or (Ins, Ewes, Dire) (1961) By Billy Wilder These two films have more in common with each other than the third one as these two focus solely on the divide between capitalism and communism as its core concept but the difference with Ins Swell Dreg is it’s set earlier during the height of the Cold War another turbulent time in German history.
Although “One, Two, Three” was made at a tense and crucial point in the Cold War standoff, It is very funny and has aged well. The performances are top notch, particularly those delivered by Canned, Bucolic and Arlene Francis. The satire is thick in every scene, with particularly sharp quips aimed at the behavior and attitudes of very funny. Chaney’s makeover of the committed young Communist is brilliant. The whole film has a very fast tempo but doesn’t become too much to handle. A great scene to show the tempo of the piece is the interview scene with Piffle.
It like Goodbye Lenin has reference to Coca-Cola which is the perfect brand used to symbolism the capitalism takeover of the world. Go For Sucker (2004) By Danni Levy This film is a big ball of all the satire in Germany, although its about a Jewish sports announcer who feels he got the short end of the stick after the wall fell the film is not entirely about the divide of East and West it’s actually harps back to an early political event, the persecution of the Jewish people in Germany.
It mainly deals with a Jewish family divided by the wall who eventually reunite to find they have taken very efferent paths and in this way it is similar to the other films because of the “two sides of the coin” philosophy but here the film is Just a pale social commentary, and it never gets even close to the subtlety and human dimension of a film like ‘Good-bye, Lenin’. It is more focused on the satire of the Jewish people, sometimes feeling a bit in poor taste, with the two brothers representing East and West Germany. It was my least favorite of the three but the satire is still there it’s Just not as poignant as the others.