The Reader - My 1,000th Old Blog Revisited

The Horror of Nazi had left deep wounds difficult to forget. Especially in Germany. Some are evident, like those sequels of the war and the memories of the concentration camps. Others are more diffuse, secretive and difficult to comprehend. Stephen Daldry's 'The Reader' displays his ability to bring them to light and he did it with great aplomb.

One leaves the cinema touched, moved, with mixed emotions and with the strange sensation that you understand - a little, at least - the intimate drama of Germany, divided between the sense of guilt and the necessity of redemption. The film is based on 'The Reader' of Bernhard Schlink, set off in the mid 50's in Berlin. At first glance, the film is about a 15 year old boy (David Kross) who was living his first love with a mature woman (Kate Winslet). The woman disappeared and didn't reappear till nearly 10 years later as one of the accused for Nazi war crimes.

All that was remembered by the boy, now an adult, in the 90's. (effectively played by Ralph Fiennes). With all these elements, between historical and personal, Daldry maps out and paints an emotional picture of 3 generations of Germans marked by Nazism and personal memories. It is a palpable portrait of complexity he doesn't try to justify nor accuse. Just to put forth the happenings and the consequences resulting in a society profoundly traumatized. It's also a love story between a young man and a emotionally wounded woman.

'The Reader' is a collection of portraits of people under trying circumstance and conflicts. Brilliantly adapted by the dramatist David Hare, a theatre man who had worked with Daldry before in 'The Hours'. A film of complex psychology, humanity and disturbing history, with one of the climax in the character played by Kate Winslet, candidate for an Oscar for this film. Interesting to see her transformed to become 40 years older. A woman with a Nazi past imputed to the completion of duty and a sad present, marked in turn by that terrible past.

Its about to comprehend, to pardon, to assume and perhaps to not repeat. Also about judgement, punishment, and intention to forget. The election is not easy; at times seems not possible. It's historical memory of a nation put on pillory. The allegory of the tragedy of all Germany.

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