The Reader (2008 film)

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, Michael has recovered from scarlet fever and at his mother's insistence, he 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 quits without explanation. Michael visits Hanna to apologize following an argument, but is utterly befuddled 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. Michael is horrified to learn 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 ten 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 the guards did not know about the fire until the following day. Hanna reveals the guards in fact kept the doors locked so that the prisoners could not escape. Hanna's co-defendants all state she was in command and wrote the report. Hanna 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 Hanna is deeply ashamed of being illiterate.

Michael informs his law professor, who states that Michael should inform the court. Deeply conflicted, Michael attempts to visit Hanna in prison, but changes his mind. Hanna receives a sentence of life imprisonment, while her co-defendants are sentenced to just over four years each.

Michael attempts to move on, though haunted by the memories of a relationship that he cannot put to rest. He marries and has a daughter, however, Michael cannot commit fully to the relationship and grows distant from his family, culminating in divorce and estrangement from his daughter, Julia.

Throughout the 1980s, Michael records himself on tape reading various books and regularly mails them to Hanna. Borrowing the same books from the prison library, Hanna slowly teaches herself to read and write. She starts writing to Michael, but he never replies. In 1988, a prison official requests Michael's help with Hanna's parole as he has been the only person outside prison to have had contact with her. Michael finally visits Hanna, revealing in the stilted reunion that he has secured her a residence and a job. When Michael arrives for Hanna's release, he is told she hanged herself in her cell and left a crude will asking Michael to give her money to Ilana Mather.

Michael finds Ilana in New York City, revealing his connection to Hanna and its long-lasting impact. He tells Ilana about Hanna's illiteracy, but she rebuffs this and refuses to forgive Hanna. Michael gives her Hanna's tea tin filled with cash, but Ilana refuses the money. He suggests it be donated to a Jewish literacy organization in Hanna's name and Ilana agrees. She keeps the tin, placing it next to a photograph of her deceased family.

The film ends in 1995 with Michael driving Julia to Hanna's grave, telling her their story.

In April 1998, Miramax Films acquired the rights to the novel The Reader.^[4] Principal photography began in September 2007 after Stephen Daldry was signed to direct the film adaptation written by David Hare with Ralph Fiennes cast in a lead role.^[5][6] Kate Winslet was originally cast as Hanna, but scheduling difficulties with Revolutionary Road led her to leave the film and Nicole Kidman was cast as her replacement.^[7][8] However in January 2008, Kidman left the project, citing her recent pregnancy as the primary reason.^[8] She had not then filmed any scenes so the studio was able to recast Winslet without affecting the production schedule.^[9]

Filming took place in Berlin, Görlitz and on the Kirnitzschtal tramway near Bad Schandau and finished in the MMC Studios Köln in Cologne on 14 July.^[10] Filmmakers received $718,752 from Germany's Federal Film Board.^[11] The studio received a total of $4.1 million from Germany's regional and federal subsidiaries.^[12][13]

Schlink insisted the film be shot in English rather than German, since it posed questions about living in a post-genocide society that went beyond mid-century Germany. Daldry and Hare toured locations from the novel with Schlink, viewed documentaries about that period in German history and read books and articles about women who had served as SS guards in the camps. Hare, who rejected using a voiceover narration to render the long internal monologues in the novel, also changed the ending so that Michael starts to tell the story of Hanna and him to his daughter. "It's about literature as a powerful means of communication, and at other times as a substitute for communication", he explained.^[7] The filming of sex scenes with Kross and Winslet was delayed until Kross was 18.^[14] A merkin was designed for her frontal nude scenes but she refused to wear it.^[15][16]

The primary cast, all of whom were German besides Fiennes, Olin and Winslet, decided to emulate Kross's accent since he had just learned English for the film.^[7] Chris Menges replaced Roger Deakins as cinematographer. One of the film's producers, Scott Rudin, left the production over a dispute about the rushed editing process to ensure a 2008 release date and had his name removed from the credit list. Rudin differed with Harvey Weinstein "because he didn't want to campaign for an Oscar along with Doubt and Revolutionary Road, which also stars Winslet."^[17] Winslet won the Academy Award for Best Actress for The Reader. Marc Caro wrote, "Because Winslet couldn't get Best Actress nominations for both movies, the Weinstein Co. shifted her to supporting actress for The Reader as a courtesy ..." but that it is "... up to [the voters] to place the name in the category that they think is appropriate to the performance", resulting in her receiving more Best Actress nomination votes for this film than the Best Actress submission of her Revolutionary Road performance.^[18] Winslet's head-to-head performances also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama for Revolutionary Road and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for The Reader.

Entertainment Weekly reported that to "age Hanna from cool seductress to imprisoned war criminal, Winslet endured seven and a half hours of makeup and prosthetic prep each day."^[19]

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly writes that "Ralph Fiennes has perhaps the toughest job, playing the morose adult Michael – a version, we can assume, of the author. Fiennes masters the default demeanor of someone perpetually pained."^[20]

On December 10, 2008 The Reader had a limited release at 8 theaters and grossed $168,051 at the domestic box office in its opening weekend. The film had its wide release on January 30, 2009, and grossed $2,380,376 at the domestic box office. The film's widest release was at 1,203 theaters on February 27, 2009, the weekend after the Oscar win for Kate Winslet.

In total, the film has grossed $34,194,407 at the domestic box office and $108,901,967 worldwide.^[3] The film was released on DVD in the U.S. on April 14, 2009, and April 28 on Blu-ray.^[21] Both versions were released in the UK on May 25, 2009.^[22] In Germany two DVD versions (single disc and 2-disc special edition) and Blu-ray were released on September 4, 2009.^[23]