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The Reader
The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
2008 · Directed by Stephen Daldry · 124 min · Drama · Romance · Screenplay in the scene database · 17 frames
Tagline
Behind the mystery lies a truth that will make you question everything you know.
Plot
In 1958, 15-year-old Michael Berg becomes sick on a tram ride in an unnamed provincial city. He is helped by 36-year-old tram conductor Hanna Schmitz. Weeks later, he has recovered from scarlet fever and at his mother's insistence visits Hanna with flowers to thank her for her help. They proceed to have a secret summer love affair, and Hanna often asks Michael to read to her. They have a brief cycling holiday in the country where Michael starts to notice some oddities in Hanna's behaviour. However, as their sexual relationship deepens it grows more tumultuous, when his attempts to form a deeper connection are rebuffed by her secretive nature. As a good reliable worker, Hanna is soon promoted, whereupon she abruptly leaves without explanation. Michael visits Hanna to apologize following an argument, but is confused and devastated to find her apartment vacant.
In 1966, Michael is a student at Heidelberg University Law School and observes a war crime trial of several former female SS guards accused of letting 300 Jewish women and children perish in a burning church during a death march near Kraków in Poland. He is horrified to learn that Hanna is one of the defendants. Survivor Ilana Mather provides testimony, including that Hanna forced some of the prisoners to read to her. Hanna admits that she and the co-defendants each chose 10 women monthly for extermination at Auschwitz in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Ilana's mother Rose testifies that when the church caught fire during a bombing, the guards refused to unlock the doors. The official SS report stated that the guards did not know about the fire until the following day, but Hanna reveals that they in fact kept the doors locked so that the prisoners could not escape. Her co-defendants all state she was in command and wrote the report, but she denies this, insisting they agreed on the contents of the report together. When the lead judge asks for a handwriting sample, Hanna quickly condemns herself by admitting she authored the report alone. Recalling their time together, Michael is initially confounded by her testimony, finally deducing that she is deeply ashamed of being illiterate.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: David Hare
- Cinematography: Roger Deakins, Chris Menges
- Edited by: Claire Simpson
- Music: Nico Muhly
- Production design: Brigitte Broch
- Produced by: Donna Gigliotti, Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Redmond Morris
Cast
- Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg
- Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz
- David Kross as Young Michael Berg
- Lena Olin as Rose Mather
- Bruno Ganz as Professor Rohl
- Jeanette Hain as Brigitte
- Hannah Herzsprung as Julia
- Karoline Herfurth as Marthe
- Volker Bruch as Dieter Spenz
- Alexandra Maria Lara as Young Ilana Mather
Production
- Country: Germany, United States of America
- Language: English, German, Greek, Latin
- Studios: The Weinstein Company, Mirage Enterprises, Studio Babelsberg
- Budget: $32,000,000
- Box office: $108,902,486
- Themes: based on novel or book, germany, war crimes, world war ii, women's prison, trial, female prisoner, reading aloud, love affair, cynical
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