The reader (daldry)
- 1. The Reader- (Daldry, 2008). Brett Egan Straight away from the beginning of the film, we are shown glimpses of Nazi swastikas through cut-a way’s and POV shots of Michael’s sticker book. This could evoke response from a large number of viewers, including ex-Nazi soldiers and Jewish survivors. The scene in which one of Michael’s classmates goes on a rant about the Nazi movement and in particular when he says- “If I had a gun I would shoot her” (talking about Hannah Schmitz) is significant as it shows an average German civilians perspective on the Nazi’s and portrays to the audience that the German population also struggled to come to terms with the horrific reality of what took place behind the lies of the Hitler reign, as well as the rest of the world coming to terms with it. By doing this, the director is drawing in the Western European audience (particularly Germany and Poland as they were the countries most heavily involved with the Nazi movement and many concentration camps were stationed in these countries), by voicing their perspective to the worldwide audience and suggesting that all the post-war discrimination towards Western Europeans was unjustified and wrong as they also felt horrified and disgusted that this happened too. The realistic nature of the narratives also hook the audience in as the relationship starts off as friendly between Hannah Schmitz and Michael Burg which then goes on to become a sexual affair. Their relationship may have been seen as scandalous for that time period; not only because of the significant age gap but also because it is glorifying sex before marriage; something which was frowned upon in the 1950’s (which is when the sexual relationship took place between Michael and Hannah). The beginning of the film shows Michael in a very plain house, making tea for a mysterious woman. The all-white furniture may be a connotation of his seemingly empty, cold emotions that seem to form a barrier between him and the woman- this bridges into the sequence where a younger Michael is on a tram and the weather is all stormy and he’s being sick. This represents the darker times to come for Michael and this sequence is a flashback in the narrative to show Michael’s story from the beginning; which is reflected by the pathetic fallacy of the mise en scene. When Hannah and Michael’s physical affair begins, I was personally shocked when they started to have sex, as the relationship started friendly with Hannah just merely being the good Samaritan to an ill stranger but the camera work was constructed very effectively around the key scene from where Michael is getting unchanged to Hannah getting him out of the bath. For example we have a voyeuristic shot from Hannah’s point of view as her eyes linger over his naked body from behind the shower curtain and we capture her seductive expressions through a mid- low shot which is effective as we are placed lower than her and she is given a lot of power; it’s ironic that the audience are aware Hannah has the power over Michael
- 2. because of her age and experience but we are unaware so far of her history of being an SS officer and the subtle subliminal flashes of the swastika symbols throughout the film leaves us all the clues. However, when their affair goes on for a while, I began to wonder where the complication in the narrative was going to come from. Although no apparent complication is brought up, we are aware there will be trouble first of all when Michael sees Hannah on the tram and she is frosty with him and then an argument erupts when he’s waiting at her flat. At times she’s also short-tempered and very controlling; something which we understand later on was just her Nazi alter-ego surfacing as she would have obviously been so used to being in power. I think the film isn’t about trying to make the audience understand or reason with Hannah’s actions; I think the film is about letting the audience see Michael’s long and complex journey of trying to understand and reason with Hannah’s actions. Obviously he was in love with her at the beginning of the film and he tries to defend her actions in front of his law class, to the fury of one of his classmates. The argument that erupts between Michael and his classmate over Hannah, I believe, is very much metaphorical of the feuding between people with different ideologies of the Nazi soldiers and the SS. For example some saw the actions of many Nazi’s as ‘involuntary’ and that they were just under orders, whereas many contrasted this point of view as they saw Nazi’s to be evil and that they chose to kill people rather than being under orders. We are positioned with Michael most of the time as we see his transformation into a man. We go through the cycle of emotions with him when Hannah mysteriously leaves all of a sudden, hence causing narrative shock as it’s so unexpected. We see him become quite reclusive as he sits by himself working whilst his friends are partying. This shows how Hannah has affected him and up until the point where he sees her in court, he’s merely just plodding through life without any major moments happening in his life. During the case there is lots of voyeuristic qualities as we are positioned from his perspective as he peers between people to get a look at Hannah. However as times, the director uniquely switches our position as an audience without us really realising. We are placed in Hannah’s perspective as she scans the panel of her former SS members and when they all blame her for the report, we see her look at the notepad and then at the judge. We also get her point of view when she looks up at a tearful Michael as she’s sentenced to life imprisonment. We are positioned with her as she attempts to defend her case by explaining it was the rules that she had to get rid of the elders as more and more Jews were brought to the camps every day and that there would have been no room for them all. This cause’s ideological shock to the audience as it seems rather insensitive when she says that but she seems oblivious as to why that’s so wrong. Personally, I felt like this confirms
- 3. just how much the Nazi’s could be brainwashed into thinking that killing is acceptable and almost led me to empathise with Hannah, which was enhanced even further as there is close-up’s to capture her emotion and trembling.