File:Reader_ver2.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
OverviewAI-generated
*The Reader* is a 2008 drama and romance film directed by Stephen Daldry. The screenplay was written by David Hare, and the production was led by Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, and Redmond Morris, 4th Baron Killanin. The cast includes Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet, David Kross, and Alexandra Maria Lara. Produced by The Weinstein Company, Mirage Enterprises, and Studio Babelsberg, the film originates from Germany and the United States. It was filmed in Berlin and Cologne, with a runtime of 124 minutes.
The narrative addresses themes of World War II, The Holocaust, and illiteracy. The film received an Academy Award for Best Actress, among other accolades including the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. Critical reception included an IMDb rating of 7.6, a Metascore of 58, and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 63%. The film earned $108,902,486 in revenue against a budget of $32,000,000.
Synthesized by Vinony from 47 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.5The story of Michael Berg, a German lawyer who, as a teenager in the late 1950s, had an affair with an older woman, Hanna, who then disappeared only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a concentration camp guard late in the war. He alone realizes that Hanna is illiterate and may be concealing that fact at the expense of her freedom.
Cast
- Ralph Fiennes as Michael Berg
- Kate Winslet as Hanna Schmitz
- David Kross as Young Michael Berg
- Lena Olin as Rose Mather
- Bruno Ganz as Professor Rohl
- Jeanette Hain as Brigitte
Themes
- based on novel or book
- germany
- war crimes
- world war ii
- women's prison
- trial
- female prisoner
- reading aloud
- love affair
- cynical
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
7.6/10
271,485 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
63%
Metacritic
58/100
- Year
- 2008
- Runtime
- 124 min
- Genres
- Drama, Mystery, Romance
- Rated
- R
- Awards
- Won 1 Oscar. 26 wins & 48 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
~17 min read
Encyclopedic overview
The Reader is a 2008 romantic drama film directed by Stephen Daldry, scripted by David Hare, adapting the 1995 German novel Der Vorleser by Bernhard Schlink, and starring Kate Winslet, Ralph Fiennes, David Kross, Bruno Ganz, and Karoline Herfurth. The film tells the story of Michael Berg, a Berlin lawyer who, as a 15-year-old in 1958, has a brief summer love affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz. She abruptly leaves, only to resurface years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp. Michael realizes that Hanna is keeping a personal secret she believes is worse than her Nazi past — a secret which, if revealed, could help her at the trial.
The Reader was the last film for producers Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack, both of whom died prior to its release. Production began in September 2007, and the film opened in limited release on 10 December, 2008. It received average to favourable reviews from critics, with praise for Winslet and Kross's performances, but with some faults in its screenplay and direction. For her performance, Winslet won the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actress, as well as the Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “The Reader” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.