Post No. 200: Kim loves Godzilla (and Clint and Whitney)

For the 200th posting on this blog, I take -- well, pride probably isn't the right word in this context. Amusement, maybe? In any event: Kim Jong Il may not be able to get new films from Netflix after all if President Bush has his way. And that's a pity, because, as the Associated Press reports, Kim "is said to own an extensive movie library of more than 10,000 titles and prefers films about James Bond and Godzilla, along with Clint Eastwood's 1993 drama, In the Line of Fire, and Whitney Houston's 1992 love story, The Bodyguard." Maybe somebody will slip him a DVD of Casino Royale in return for a promise not to build nukes? (That is, unless Kim soured on 007 after seeing Die Another Day.) Or perhaps all great dictators really prefer Mickey Mouse?

Hitler speaks!

From the Telegraph, yet another item I wouldn't dare make up: "New computer software that can read lips at almost any angle has helped make sense of one of the Second World War's lingering mysteries —Hitler's home movies."

No, really -- I didn't make this up.

"The technology allows the dialogue to be dubbed on to the silent films, many of them made by Eva Braun at Hitler's mountain retreat, the Berghof. With the new soundtrack, Hitler can be heard encouraging young children towards a life in the military, criticising even his closest henchmen and flirting with Braun... The film shows very different Hitler from the strident orator who led Germany into war. At ease among his guests, he cracks jokes and talks animatedly about his love for cinema — his tastes included Mickey Mouse.

"He is also seen teasing Braun about a screening in his cinema at the Berghof. 'I understand you didn't like the movie last night," he says. "I know what you want. You want Gone with the Wind.'"

But I want to know: Who's the actor who dubbed Der Fuhrer? And could the dubbed home movies be any more unsettling than a German-produced comedy about Hitler?