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.

It's a rare thing that live tv makes me shout with joy, but it did when The Lives of Others won for best foreign language. That was my movie of 2006, and I love it to bits, as I have rambled on quite a bit in this journal before. And I was so afraid that with all the Pan's Labyrinth hype, it would not get a vote. So very happy!

The rest of the results are pleasing, too, though poor Peter O'Toole, not getting it for an eighth time. When Coppola, Spielberg and Lucas all came out as presenters, I knew Scorsese would win - no way they'd choose the 70s trio and not give it to him. Mind you, while I liked The Departed I think Letters from Iwo Jima is the better movie, but Eastwood has won twice in the recent past (and once against Scorsese when Marty should have won, for Aviator), and I've got a soft spot for the Italian motormouth, so that balanced each other out.

Also? Graham King lauding Leonardo de Caprio to the skies was a) deserved and b) a great thing to do.

Back to work now.

Ah, fannish memes. Who can resist them? Not me. Here's my pick. Some spoilers for the fandoms in question, inevitably.

1) Battlestar Galactica: Caprica Six, aka the original Six from the miniseries, wakes up after downloading... and finds out she has a Baltar in her head. Best BSG mindfuck moment ever, still.

2) Das Leben der Anderen (which I was thrilled to learn finally made it across the Atlantic at least in terms of fannish recognition and is called "The Lives of Others" in English, nominated under that title for the Emmy for best foreign language film): my choice for film of the year in any language. For more detail why it is so great, see here.

3) "My Sarah Jane." SJS returns to Dr. Who. School Reunion is full of great moments, but if I have to pick one, it's that hug at the end. The joy and the sadness in the Doctor/Companion relationship encapsulated in that one scene.

4) Tie between two Astonishing X-Men issues with very different emotional resonance: #14, in which Emma for reasons more complicated than they appear at first really pulls of a, there's the term again, mindfuck with Scott (if I have to pick one moment out of that, it would be the Emma/Jean/Scott/Logan switcheroo early on, and note that Scott does kiss her before noticing the last transformation and well after the others), and #18, in which Scott gets into Emma's mind in quite a different way and demonstrates just what two women (and their clones) see in him. The awesomeness of that moment of grace is entirely unrelated to Mr. Whedon commenting later on the essays of resolute, likeadeuce and yours truly for all the world to see.

5) Simon Callow's second volume on Orson Welles. IMO, Callow is the best biographer O.W. had so far, because a) he's neither idolizing nor bashing, b) he's an actor who can describe theatre productions in a way that makes you feel you're there, and c) he takes Welles seriously (meaning in this second volume, which covers the years post -Kane and pre-Europe, you get more on what Orson thought about and did for Roosevelt than about Rita Hayworth)

6) Transamerica: terrific movie, and the scene that sums up the greatness, fun, and humanity? Teen hustler Toby, on the road with prim lady Bree whom he doesn't know is a) a pre-operation transsexual and b) used to be Stan and as Stan was his biological father, tries to impress her by analyzing Lord of the Rings ("totally gay").

7) Dexter graces the screen, and turns out to be a well-written, well-acted ensemble wonder of a show, from pilot to season finale. I've raved about the characters and their three dimensionality etc. enough already, so let me praise the deadpan black humour (which never downplays the character's real emotions) for this list. Random favourite absurd moment picked: Dexter, about to kill his victim of choice, finds out his victim's wife is into the human slave traffic, too, so he improvises and captures her, too. About to kill both of them, he's struck by the fact that despite being Cuban refugees-exploiting-and-murdering scum, i.e. killers like himself, they love each other and managed to have a successful marriage... and asks for dating advice.

8) PotC: Dead Man's Chest: "Pirate." Elizabeth Swann ties Jack Sparrow and leaves him to the kraken in order to save Will, the rest of the crew and herself. While she's at it, she also kisses him and tells him she's not sorry. This action immediately promoted her to my favourite character in the franchise, which I suppose says something about me.

9) Dr. Who once more: The Runaway Bride, recently praised on these very pages. Favourite moment: the farewell scene. "Because I think sometimes you need someone to stop you." (Or, on the comedy side of things, early on: "that friend of yours, before she left, did she punch you in the face?")

10) "Bond, James Bond." The franchise is revitalized, Daniel Craig turns Bond into someone you believe kills people, Judi Dench actually gets something to do, and astolat is inspired to write terrific Bond/M. Also, we get a shower scene with both characters in the shower which isn't about sex but death and allowing yourself vulnerability instead and presents a level of raw emotion unheard of in a Bond movie (with the possible exception of the final scene in Her Majesty's Secret Service).

After a long slump, German cinema isn't doing badly at all these last few years. Yesterday I watched what is easily the best film, no matter which language, I've seen in a while, "Das Leben der Anderen" (literary translated "The Life of the Others", though who knows what they're going to call it when it gets released abroad - and make no mistake, this one has Oscar nomination for best foreign language written all over it!). Set in East Germany in the 80s, it has a simple story at its core: one of the higher-ups in the party falls for an actress who is involved with a writer. This being a dictatorship, the VIP tells the Stasi (= East German secret police) to put the writer under surveillance and to find something that implicates him as a traitor. The Stasi officer in charge of the surveillance begins to get more and more emotionally involved with both the actress and the writer the longer he spies on them....

( Spoilers )