Just watched The Lives of Others, and like any critically acclaimed European film, there was no escape from learning throughout its duration. The most trivial piece of information I can glean from this weighty film is that the Stasi, the East German secret police, are named after the German term for State Security - Staatssicherheit. I could go on, but I think the room may be bugged, so I'd best change the subject (holds up sign with More Stasi Information Here written on it).
The film was very good, and I'm not just saying that 'cos the director's listening in. Claire didn't like it, but that's down to her being a disloyal Westernite patsy. It's weird to think that the sort of activity shown in the film - suppression of the arts, intimate surveillance, dirty fat blokes in outsized white pants - was going on, in Germany, 20 years ago. In fact, it's still going on all over the world, but y'know, Germany, you can get there on Ryanair, so it's different. In Germany there has been a movement known as Ostalgie (a play on the German word for 'east'), where former citizens of the DDR have begun hankering for the bland food and poor-quality cars of their former nation - not to mention the full employment (if not some of the less appealing aspects of Communist life). There's even talk of a theme park in East Berlin - just make sure you're nice on the Customer Comments card.
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