On the notes of: why sometimes dosing yourself up with medication so you can do your duty can be worth it: today in Berlin I met Florian Henckel von Donnersmark, aka the director of The Lives of Others, Das Leben der Anderen, aka my favourite movie in 2006. We talked about Los Angeles, Lion Feuchtwanger (he said he must be the only one to have the original first edition of each volume of the Josephus trilogy, I smiled smugly and said, "no, you're not!") and I did ask about that dreaded thing, an American remake of his film. He said he has nothing to do with it, though they keep him posted on the stages etc., and it's definitely going to be made. Quoth I: "Is it still going to be set in the GDR?" Said he: "No, they're going to set it in the US of today, just a touch more paranoid than it already is. Which, you know, could result in an interesting movie in its own right."

I'll say. Also, to put a remake of a movie originally set in a Communist dictatorship in the US under Bush is one of the most angry cinematic commentaries on American politics I can think of. Considering I read today in the papers the Attorney General to be refuses to classify "waterboarding" as torture, it's sadly not even satire in many ways.