Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide after he had sacked the famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit, and many were the nations with whose manners and customs he was acquainted; moreover he suffered much by sea while trying to save his own life and bring his men safely home; but do what he might he could not save his men, for they perished through their own sheer folly in eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the god prevented them from ever reaching home. Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know them. - Homer's The Odyssey, Book I
~~~~~
The Reader starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Lena Olin, and Bruno Ganz. Directed by Anthony Minghella and Sidney Pollack.
I have not seen a film about Nazi atrocities told from this point of view, of the German citizens after the war, and the weight of the collective guilt felt by a nation hit me like a ton of bricks. The Reader is adapted from the book Der Vorleser written by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink.
During a war crimes tribunal, several women who were SS guards are on trial for the deaths of 300 Jewish women and children who were locked in a burning church and were the responsibility of the guards. Should a woman who was merely a small cog in a much larger wheel of a killing machine be held responsible - or is she a victim as well. Does a nation want to transfer their guilt onto someone to remove it, and can such atrocities ever be absolved. Bruno Ganz (interestingly, he also played Damiel, one of the angels who watches over Berlin, but powerless to change the events he observes below him) in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire) is Professor Rohl, presenting this moral dilemma to his students.
Hanna Schmitz (Winslet) is an older woman who works as a tram conductor in 1958 Berlin, and on her way home encounters a very sick young man of fifteen named Michael Berg (Kross) vomiting in the entrance to her apartment, and helps him. She fills a bucket with water and rinses washes away the traces of his being sick from the walkway, and Michael's shoes. Kate Winslet plays her as a woman who is very alone, detached, and holding something inside her so tightly. He is diagnosed with scarlet fever, and must recuperate at home. When he is well again, he wishes to thank the woman and visits her apartment with flowers. He catches her getting ready for work and washing her lingerie. Michael is intrigued by her as a young man discovering female sensuality - her bra, her stockings, her body - and his feelings send him running away in fear and confusion. But he soon returns to her old and beautiful apartment, and Hanna is lonely, her neediness clouds her judgement and she seduces him, and the two begin an illicit affair; while he may be physically able to enter into such a relationship, he may not be emotionally ready. But in life, choices are rarely simple. They barely know each others' names, Hanna refers to him only as "kid", but one day, in the youthful innocence of first love, Michael wishes to know her better, and asks her name. He comes to visit her after school where they immediately fall into bed, and Hanna inquires about his studies, specifically the books he is reading, and she encourages him to read to her. He opens an entirely new world to her with the different stories, whether Homer's The Odyssey, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, travel books, or Chekov's The Lady With The Little Dog, and she hangs on his every word. One day in the bath when he reads to her a passage from the explicit for its time Lady Chatterley's Lover, she informs him with shock "That's Disgusting! Go on." They often begin or end their time together bathing, with Hanna scrubbing away something from their skin. He suggests they get away for a two-day biking holiday, and when they stop for something to eat, she seems confused over the menu and defers to him. When they come upon a country church, and Michael finds Hanna sitting in a pew, listening to a children's choir, seemingly disturbed.
She seems to find temporary respite from what haunts her when she is with Michael, but there is a pervasive melancholy and her moods change abruptly too. She goes to work with her hair pulled back severely, shoes polished, uniform buttoned up. One day she is promoted from her job as conductor to working in the office, told what a good job she has done, and something about this fact makes her pack up her things and abruptly disappear. Michael is left distraught and even more confused. Most young men will move on to other relationships after their first time, but others are profoundly affected, and such is the case with Michael. It is years before he can even think of a woman in that way again, and even then, it's not the same, he never seems able to give himself as freely. The only passionate expression we see from him again is when he is transferring the books to audiotape for Hanna. He does not encounter her again until he observes the war crimes tribunal as a law student, where the other defendants, knowing her secret, allow her to take the fall for what all they all were complicit in.
I have not seen a film about Nazi atrocities told from this point of view, of the German citizens after the war, and the weight of the collective guilt felt by a nation hit me like a ton of bricks. The Reader is adapted from the book Der Vorleser written by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink.
During a war crimes tribunal, several women who were SS guards are on trial for the deaths of 300 Jewish women and children who were locked in a burning church and were the responsibility of the guards. Should a woman who was merely a small cog in a much larger wheel of a killing machine be held responsible - or is she a victim as well. Does a nation want to transfer their guilt onto someone to remove it, and can such atrocities ever be absolved. Bruno Ganz (interestingly, he also played Damiel, one of the angels who watches over Berlin, but powerless to change the events he observes below him) in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin or Wings of Desire) is Professor Rohl, presenting this moral dilemma to his students.
Hanna Schmitz (Winslet) is an older woman who works as a tram conductor in 1958 Berlin, and on her way home encounters a very sick young man of fifteen named Michael Berg (Kross) vomiting in the entrance to her apartment, and helps him. She fills a bucket with water and rinses washes away the traces of his being sick from the walkway, and Michael's shoes. Kate Winslet plays her as a woman who is very alone, detached, and holding something inside her so tightly. He is diagnosed with scarlet fever, and must recuperate at home. When he is well again, he wishes to thank the woman and visits her apartment with flowers. He catches her getting ready for work and washing her lingerie. Michael is intrigued by her as a young man discovering female sensuality - her bra, her stockings, her body - and his feelings send him running away in fear and confusion. But he soon returns to her old and beautiful apartment, and Hanna is lonely, her neediness clouds her judgement and she seduces him, and the two begin an illicit affair; while he may be physically able to enter into such a relationship, he may not be emotionally ready. But in life, choices are rarely simple. They barely know each others' names, Hanna refers to him only as "kid", but one day, in the youthful innocence of first love, Michael wishes to know her better, and asks her name. He comes to visit her after school where they immediately fall into bed, and Hanna inquires about his studies, specifically the books he is reading, and she encourages him to read to her. He opens an entirely new world to her with the different stories, whether Homer's The Odyssey, Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, travel books, or Chekov's The Lady With The Little Dog, and she hangs on his every word. One day in the bath when he reads to her a passage from the explicit for its time Lady Chatterley's Lover, she informs him with shock "That's Disgusting! Go on." They often begin or end their time together bathing, with Hanna scrubbing away something from their skin. He suggests they get away for a two-day biking holiday, and when they stop for something to eat, she seems confused over the menu and defers to him. When they come upon a country church, and Michael finds Hanna sitting in a pew, listening to a children's choir, seemingly disturbed.
She seems to find temporary respite from what haunts her when she is with Michael, but there is a pervasive melancholy and her moods change abruptly too. She goes to work with her hair pulled back severely, shoes polished, uniform buttoned up. One day she is promoted from her job as conductor to working in the office, told what a good job she has done, and something about this fact makes her pack up her things and abruptly disappear. Michael is left distraught and even more confused. Most young men will move on to other relationships after their first time, but others are profoundly affected, and such is the case with Michael. It is years before he can even think of a woman in that way again, and even then, it's not the same, he never seems able to give himself as freely. The only passionate expression we see from him again is when he is transferring the books to audiotape for Hanna. He does not encounter her again until he observes the war crimes tribunal as a law student, where the other defendants, knowing her secret, allow her to take the fall for what all they all were complicit in.
Michael visits one of the death camps, sees the mountains of shoes that belonged to those killed there. He is shocked that someone who meant so much to him could have been involved in such horror. He knows the secret that could affect the outcome trial and save her, but keeps silent, as someone needs to be held accountable for the crimes, or to keep her secret, but nothing could be as bad as the punishment Hanna inflicts on herself due to her shame. Michael goes on with his life; becomes a lawyer, marries and has a child, divorces; but he never forgets their relationship. Ralph Fiennes as the adult Michael conveys all the pain, revulsion, and the love and concern he still feels for Hanna in every expression. As the film starts, a passing tram reminds him of himself many years before, when he first met her. So pervasive is this general malaise of collective guilt that even Hanna's case worker, while talking on the phone to Michael, idly doodles on a notepad symbols reminiscent of the Nazi SS lighting bolts insignia.
It has an Anthony Minghella feel to it. A thought-provoking and very moving film.
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