Went to the Uni film club last night (have a staff card) and saw Das Leben der Anderen for the third time. Though a little overblown in places, I still find it an excellent film and chillingly illustrative. The depiction of  Stasi system shows how combining zeal and efficiency you can get complete tyranny. It also shows that the zealous true believers in the system were exploited by it in a way as much as those that were its obvious victims. Ulrich Mühe has some incredible expressive eyes when depicting Wiesler's path to both the destruction of his own career and his confirmation as a good man. There is a happy ending, of sorts, but one that underlines rather than undermines the almost perfunctory nastiness of what has gone before.

Then we had beer and chatted in high german and I woke up this morning with a hangover after one pint so I guess the aversion is still holding.