Somewhat by default, we saw two movies this weekend. On Friday, we saw _Goodbye Lenin_ for my history class. It's a charming film about the transition from communism to capitalism in E Germany, a gentle story about caring for family amidst retrospective ideas of communism right after the fact. (Wright Morris: "anything processed by memory [however recent] is fiction.")
I may see it again this week with my neighbor, who is trying to brush up on her German language skills.
Last night, we saw _Europa, Europa_, which pits self-identity against staying alive during the sweep of Nazis through Europe. B. was bothered by the convenient coincidences that kept Jozef alive, but it's still an incredible story that deals with the very embodiment of identity. Since I usually think of identity as an intellectual abstraction, this was a good reminder that sometimes it's a lot more basic. (A good parallel might be _The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man_ by James Wheldon Johnson.)
I am seriously thinking of taking the advice of some of my readers and starting a new blog for prelims/dissertation. See March 28 entry for the background to that...and stay tuned!
Posted by otto0114 at April 4, 2005 06:16 PM