Learning to Lie

"" Sometimes when I drive through the city or walk down a street, there's a man standing in the corner. He's just standing there, and looks - but when he feels someone looking at him, he thinks himself caught in the act. You can also see them in front of gymnasiums or bus stops - completely normal men who just stand there and look. But what do they think about? What are they looking for? The past, maybe? On September 26, 1998, I once again noticed one of these men. But this time it was different than usually. For that man was me. And as I knew later, this was to be the end of my life as a cowardly slacker incapable of connecting. From this moment on, I was to be released from the curse, and become an adult at last.""

- --Helmut, Opening Narration

Learning To Lie (Liegen Lernen) is a 2003 German movie based on the book of the same name, taking place in the decade before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall and narrates the Coming of Age Story of Helmut, a young man whose life took a different turn one day, years ago, in high school. Nothing to do with actual lies ("liegen" means "to lie down, to be lying down" in German), or The Invention of Lying.

Similar in tone and message to (500) Days of Summer in its Deconstruction of classical romcom love and showing the darker sides of idealising a love interest, it's also reminescent of The Spanish Inn in its description of student life - despite preceding them both

This film contains examples of the following tropes:

 * Anachronic Order
 * The Bartender
 * Book Ends
 * Cake Eater
 * Everybody Smokes
 * How We Got Here
 * Love At First Sight
 * Love Hurts
 * Once More, With Clarity
 * One True Love: Brutally deconstructed.
 * Really Gets Around: Helmut.
 * Smoking Hot Sex
 * Smoking Hot Sex