"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.