THE READER
UK, 2009, 123 minutes, Colour.
Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin, Bruno Gantz, Alexandra Maria Lara.
Directed by Stephen Daldry.
Given the controversy about the themes and the treatment of these themes in this film, which has been written and designed for a mature and reflective audience, not everybody will find it as moving as this reviewer did, one of the best films of 2008.
It is a film where any judgement (moral or aesthetic) made before the final credits is in danger of being peremptory and wrong. This could be the case for some audiences who might find the nudity and sexuality of the first half (in fact, more than is normally seen in a mainstream film) too much to watch. However, this contributes to the meaning of the themes when the second part of the film is seen.
Playwright David Hare, whose films often have political perspectives (Via Dolorosa, Gethsemane), has adapted the very popular (even extending to Oprah Winfrey's TV Book Club) short novel by German lawyer and writer, Bernhard Schlink. The film has been directed by Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot, The Hours). It has a very strong cast with Kate Winslet giving one of her best performances. David Kross is effective as the 15 year old Michael Berg. Ralph Fiennes is the older Michael. (Though the make-up for Kate Winslet as she grows older is convincing, it is hard to accept the transition from Kross to Fiennes in the plot short span from 1966 to 1976.)
The first half almost immediately plunges the audience into an affair between a schoolboy and a 36 year old Berlin tram conductor and the effect on each of them of the attraction, the sexual awakening and experience and the unusual feature of the relationship that the conductor wants the boy to read to her, his choice including Homer, Twain and Chekhov.
The narrative and Daldry's direction and the performances enable the audience to understand the behaviour as psychologically credible whether they approve of what is happening or not.
The second half of the film changes tone completely and the book and the film raise uneasy questions about the Holocaust and the guilt of Germans who were adults during the Nazi period and the war as well as how the children of those adults dealt with the memories (and suppression of memories) and the inherited guilt. There are several memorable and disquieting court room sequences which also raise the question of responsibility for the atrocities, the choices made by, for instance, security guards at concentration camps and the consequences – and the prison sentences they received. By focusing on 'ordinary' Germans instead of the authority figures, the film is a reminder of the 'banality of evil' embodied in people who seemed to live by ordinary moral standards but who were capable of alarming evil, of physical and psychological brutality.
Another question the film raises is that of judging and understanding, some commentators emotionally criticising book and film for being too understanding of and, therefore, too lenient on the war criminals. In a late scene with Lena Olin as an Auschwitz survivor and the older Michael Berg, the objectivity of judgement and the subjectivity of experience are well dramatised and seem to remain irreconcilable, a mystery of human nature and human behaviour.
Underlying this is the theme of illiteracy and the limiting of life choices for the uneducated. Books which tell stories or offer poetic insight into the nobility of human nature are offered as a symbol of what might have been, of what could be.
Since we have only one life to lead, then choices mean honour or dishonour, savagery or nobility. And the book and the screenplay do not offer any easy thoughts or ways of redemption, reconciliation or healing.
The Reader might be seen in retrospect as an archetypal story of 20th century Europe, the tragedy and horror of what was, with deepest regrets for what might have been.
1.The impact of the film, its acclaim? The status of the novel? The accompanying controversies? The screenwriter as a dramatist, adaptation of the novel for the screen?
2.The title, the reference to Michael, to reading, to literacy, illiteracy and the consequences for life choices? Books and themes, the range of books quoted? The impact of reading, the imagination? Spoken novels, recordings? The books and reading as a symbol for culture a human spirit?
3.The structure of the film: the opening in the 90s, the main action taking place in the 50s, the reversions to the 90s, the court case of the 60s, the imprisonment and contact of the 70s, prison and the 1980s? The effect of this time-shifting? Hannah’s ageing? The two actors for Michael?
4.The setting of the scene, Michael and the young woman, his casual attitudes and relationships, his preparing to meet Julia, going to the court, his marriage history, his daughter finding him distant, his taking responsibility for this?
5.The 1950s, Michael, his age, on the tram, in the rain, being sick? The encounter with Hannah, her cleaning up? The scarlet fever, with his family, his sister, isolated in the room, his reading? His devoted mother? His demanding father? The later sequences of meals, his birthday absence? The revelation that he did not come back for his father’s funeral? Visiting his mother, bringing the young Julia, telling her about the divorce?
6.The credibility of the affair, the 1950s, Germans, Michael and his age, his recovering from the illness, taking the flowers to thank Hannah, meeting her, walking with her, seeing her change, the touch of the voyeur? His embarrassment? His returning, shovelling the coal, covered in the dust, the bath, both being naked? The affair, the sexuality, the sensuality? The effect on each of them? The awakening? The amount of time the film gave to the sexual and sensual scenes? Michael and his love, Hannah and her love? The scenes of the baths, the washing – before Hannah left? Michael and his family and the lies?
7.Michael and the reading, the range of books, Hannah unable to read? The visit to the country, bike-riding, the meal and Hannah not being able to read the menu, the comment about Michael’s mother enjoying the meal and the subsequent kiss? Hannah unable to read the map? Listening to the choir, Hannah’s tears – and Michael later burying Hannah in the churchyard?
8.Hannah as illiterate, the joy of listening to reading, her work on the trams, her severity about Michael in the other carriage, his apology, the discussions about apology? Love? Her severity, the promotion, her having to leave because she would have to work in an office, and read, her disappearance?
9.Michael at school, his friends, the girlfriend, the class, going swimming in the summer, his birthday and going to Hannah, the absence from the family, his return? The effect of Hannah’s disappearance?
10.The older Michael, his memories, the photos, the catalogue of the records, the different places? His divorce from his wife, his love for his daughter?
11.The eight years passing and his going to law school, the role of the professor, the discussions about law? The small group of students? Philosophical issues, legal issues, moral issues? Their going to the courts to observe the trial? The professor aware of what was happening to Michael, being tough and objective? The puzzle about Michael and Hannah?
12.The courts, the group on trial, the nature of the case, Hannah and the interrogations? The effect on her, Michael watching? The horror of the truth, a sense of pity, the illiteracy issues, the women lying about Hannah and writing the confession, Hannah as a scapegoat, her being ashamed of not being able to read, her accepting the guilt? The long sentence? Michael going to the prison, getting permission, his turning back, Hannah waiting?
13.Michael and his life, study, the discussions of law, the girl, the abrupt sexual encounter, wanting to sleep alone, the clashes with the professor, the arguments about guilt and the Nazis, the parent generation, knowledge about the concentration camps?
14.The case, the accused women, their seeming indifference, one of the accused knitting? The contrast with Hannah as straightforward, telling the truth, the others lying? The behaviour of the judge, his questions? The story of Auschwitz, the guards choosing the victims to go to the ovens? The testimony of the mother and daughter, the daughter surviving, writing the book? The story of the march, the endurance? The prisoners being locked in the church, the bombing, the fire, the women not unlocking the church, the prisoners dying? Hannah and her explanations, not allowing the prisoners to escape, that being her job? The horror of the deaths?
15.Hannah and her story, her work, volunteering for being a security guard? The training, the regime? Her having favourites, people reading to her? The reaction of the people in the court, their abuse? The scapegoating of Hannah? Michael and his knowing the truth about the confession, his inability to explain this to the professor, his keeping quiet? His motives?
16.Hannah in prison, Michael weeping, going on with his life, marriage, daughter, taking his daughter to see his mother, the divorce? Hannah and the years passing, her age?
17.Michael and his deciding to send Hannah the tapes, the memories, the list, recording The Odyssey and the other books? The effect on Hannah? The letters? Hannah and her decision to learn to read, the letters over the years to Michael, his not replying?
18.The years passing, the 1980s, the governor, phoning Michael when Hannah was to be released, his visit, talking with her, the plan, his questions about what she felt, her seeming indifference, the dead remaining dead?
19.Hannah’s final days, packing the books, hanging herself? Leaving the message for Michael? The money in the tin to the Auschwitz survivor?
20.The Auschwitz survivor, as a little girl in the camp, her book, testifying with her mother? Her receiving Michael? The severity of her talk, on the issues of guilt, forgiveness? Her attitude towards the money? To a charity for literacy? Her keeping the tin?
21.Michael and Julia, her coming back from travels, their going out to the meal, his dropping her, the trip, the surprises, the church, Hannah’s graveyard? His beginning to be honest and tell his story to her?
22.A film of the 20th century? The horrors, the tragedies? Guilt, possibilities for healing – or not?
