Sunday, February 22, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Reader (2008)
The Reader (2008) is an adaptation of the book by the same name by Bernhard Schlink. Kate Winslet plays Hannah Schmitz, a former SS prison guard who is imprisoned 20 years later for her role in the mass murder of several women. In between those two events, she meets Michael Berg, a young student who happens to fall ill on her doorstep, and, through a series of events, the two begin an affair. Their love-making sessions are soon accompanied by Michael reading aloud. It becomes their foreplay, their afterglow, and it's clear that Hannah - who, in her day to day life is hardened, removed, practical - craves stories. There's a beautiful montage of the two of them lying together, reading, Hannah sobbing, swooning, yearning. It is the time she comes alive.
Stephen Daldry directed with Roger Deakins as DP. Deakins is amazing in my mind, and it's not surprising that the film is lovely visually. The true crux of the film, though, is Kate Winslet. She is really, really amazing. Such subtle lovely truthful gestures. She carries the film, and lifts it some place I'm not sure it would have gone otherwise. It's not as though we learn much new about the horrors of the holocaust. The drama is not there, nor does it really lie in the law seminar (which Michael happens to attend) watching and analysing, though I love that Bruno Ganz is the their professor.
The drama, the story, I think is really about stories. It's about the stories Hannah and Micheal read; the stories passed on children about their parents, about their legacy; the stories we tell culturally to make sense of horrific events. And it's about the yearning for stories, for the narrative or stream of consciousness that makes life feel meaningful, real, necessary. A sad and lovely film.
Stephen Daldry directed with Roger Deakins as DP. Deakins is amazing in my mind, and it's not surprising that the film is lovely visually. The true crux of the film, though, is Kate Winslet. She is really, really amazing. Such subtle lovely truthful gestures. She carries the film, and lifts it some place I'm not sure it would have gone otherwise. It's not as though we learn much new about the horrors of the holocaust. The drama is not there, nor does it really lie in the law seminar (which Michael happens to attend) watching and analysing, though I love that Bruno Ganz is the their professor.
The drama, the story, I think is really about stories. It's about the stories Hannah and Micheal read; the stories passed on children about their parents, about their legacy; the stories we tell culturally to make sense of horrific events. And it's about the yearning for stories, for the narrative or stream of consciousness that makes life feel meaningful, real, necessary. A sad and lovely film.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)