| | Reader DVD (1 Customer Review)
| Category | Dramas DVDs, Action/Adventure Movies, Thriller Videos, Romance, War, Based On A Novel, World War II, Love Story, Period Piece, 1960s, Historical, Justice, 1950s, Germany, Law/Lawyers, 20th Century | | Starring | Ralph Fiennes, Kate Winslet, David Kross, Lena Olin, Bruno Ganz, Anthony Minghella, Matthias Habich, Jeanette Hain, Susanne Lothar | | Director | Stephen Daldry | | Co-Executive Producer | Jason Blum | | Composer | Nico Muhly | | Director of Photography | Roger Deakins, Chris Menges | | Editor | Claire Simpson | | Executive Producer | Harvey Weinstein, Bob Weinstein | | Producer | Sydney Pollack, Anthony Minghella, Redmond Morris, Donna Gigliotti | | Production Designer | Brigitte Broch | | Screenwriter | David Hare | | Source Writer | Bernhard Schlink |
The Reader, set in post-WWII Germany, follows teenager Michael Berg as he engages in a passionate but secretive affair with an older woman named Hanna. Eight years after Hanna's disappearance, Michael is stunned to discover her again as she stands on trial for Nazi war crimes. The Reader is a haunting story about truth and reconciliation and how one generation comes to terms with the crimes of another. Director: Stephen Daldry. Stars: Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. Though THE READER may boast the typical pedigree of a Holocaust film--acclaimed actors, a literary source, and an Oscar-baiting end-of-the-year release date--this drama has a significant difference: it focuses on a perpetrator, rather than the victims. Kate Winslet takes on the hefty supporting role of Hanna Schmitz, a woman who has an affair with Michael Berg (German actor David Kross), a 15-year-old boy in 1950s Germany. They spend their brief romance alternately making love and focusing on literature, with Michael reading everything from Chekov to Homer to his lover. Soon, Hanna abruptly disappears, and Michael returns to his normal life. Almost a decade later, Michael is studying law, when he sees Hanna again; she is on trial for her crimes as an S.S. guard during the war. Michael is torn between a desire for justice and his knowledge of a secret that may save Hanna.
THE READER makes full use of hindsight and historical perspective. Based on the bestselling novel by Bernhard Schlink, the story is framed by an older Michael (Ralph Fiennes) who deals with both his personal history and the collective past--and guilt--of the German people. This is a complex film that doesn't give the audience any easy answers; Hanna is undoubtedly guilty of horrific crimes, but she is a multilayered character who is always fascinating and always human, thanks to the terrific performance of Winslet, who plays Hanna over four decades. Director Stephen Daldry earned an Oscar nomination for his work on another literary adaptation, THE HOURS, and he deserves more praise for this polished film.
Reader Reviews: 3.5 stars out of 4 -- "Powerfully acted by Winslet and Kross, with Ralph Fiennes coldly enigmatic as the elder Michael."-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times "Young Kross impresses with his acting ability. He's able to register multiple emotions and thoughts -- some that are complicated, especially during the trial scenes in the film's middle stretch..."-- John P. McCarthy, Box Office 3 stars out of 5 -- "[T]he performances are outstanding and the subject matter demands respect....Winslet especially brings a great deal to a challenging role..."-- Kim Newman, Empire "Bernhard Schlink's highly regarded novel THE READER receives a graceful, absorbing screen adaptation by director Stephen Daldry, who conveys a technically and morally complicated story with consummate skill and smoothness."Washington Post 3 stars out of 4 -- "[Winslet's] fierce, unerring portrayal goes beyond acting, becoming a provocation that will keep you up nights."-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone "The film is notable for its nice performances, its handsome photography, and its very active music." -- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly 4 stars out of 5 -- "[C]onsidered, articulate, intelligent....Winslet's precise performance is matched every way by Kross, an 18-year-old German actor who manages to convey love, lust and torment with barely a twitch of his fresh, open face."-- Jane Crowther, Total Film
This is the only David Kross video. Reader | List Price | $19.95 (You save $4.96) | | Studio | Genius Productions | | Orig Year | 2008 | | All Time Sales Rank |  13351  | | CD Universe Part number | 7871673 | | Catalog number | 1000397 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Apr 14, 2009 | | Rating | R (MPAA) | | Rating Reason | Rated R for some scenes of sexuality and nudity. | | Running Time | 124 Minutes | | Additional Info | Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled | | Movie Details | Color; Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled |
Reader Movie Review Average Rating: (5 out of 5 stars)  Worth seeing
Great film
Fantastic actors
Submitted by fannygosselin (Mons,Belgium) 
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No incredible,haunting film
The Reader is one of my favorite films of 2008. It is about a young boy named Michael Berg (played by David Kross as a young man and by Ralph Fiennes as an adult) who has an affair with an older woman named Hanna Schmitz (Kate Winslet,in an extradinary performance). Hanna has Michael read to her and then they make love. This carries on for a while,but one day Hanna dissappears. Eight years later, Michael is in law school and while attending a trial,finds out that Hanna is a former nazi guard,who is on trial for war crimes with several other defendants. The movie becomes a spellbinding study of guilt and love,never veering towards melodramatic or dull. Extremely well directed by Stephen Daldry and beautifully adapted by David hare,but the film belongs to Winslet,whose superb,emotionally riveting performance deserves every award she can get. Highly reccomended.
Submitted by joe (manhattan,ny,usa)
Was This Review Helpful? Yes No 1 of 1 found this helpful.
This review is for a different format. | Have you seen this movie? |  |
Reader DVD O-Sleeve
Widescreen
Audio:
Dolby Digital - English
Subtitles - Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Deleted Scenes
Trailers
Making Of: A Masterpiece: The Making of THE READER
Featurette:
1. A Conversation with David Kross & Stephen Daldry, Kate Winslet on the Art of Aging Hanna Schmitz
2. A New Voice: A Look at Composer Nico Muhly
3. Coming to Grips with the Past: Production Design Brigitte Broch
Purchase Reader Movie To buy, Click on price to add to cart | No Country For Old Men DVD (2007) Widescreen
Reader film
 $14.99  
With NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, the Coen Brothers have found a perfect match in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Cormac McCarthy. Their adaptation of McCarthy's praised novel is a staggering masterpiece. In this almost impossibly faithful adaptation, the film takes place in a small Texas border town in 1980. Sheriff Bell (a never-been-better Tommy Lee Jones) has ruled the land for years without the use of a gun, but a new brand of reckless lawlessness has taken over his town. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is an innocent Everyman with a devoted wife, Carla Jean (Kelly Macdonald), but when he stumbles across a drug deal gone deadly and finds two million dollars, he's determined to keep it for himself. There's only one problem. He's being pursued by one of the most amoral, evil psychopaths that the big screen has ever seen. Wearing an absurd haircut and brandishing a pressurized weapon that's used to murder cattle, Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) creeps forward on his mission to track Moss down and return the money to its rightful ...
| | Vicky Cristina Barcelona DVD (2008) Widescreen
Reader review
$14.99 
From watching the trailer for VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA, one might never have guessed that it was actually an offering from prolific auteur Woody Allen. There's no New York, no sight of Allen, and his trademark wit was nowhere to be seen. But this film--with its talented cast, sharp dialogue, and excellent use of gorgeous locations--marks Allen's best comic work since 1994's BULLETS OVER BROADWAY. Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) are American best friends who have the luck of spending several summer months in the Spanish city of the title. Though the pair is inseparable, they clash over love: Vicky is engaged to the trustworthy Doug (Chris Messina), while Cristina is forever in search of new experiences and passions. When a fiery Spanish painter named Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) proposes that the three fly off to Oviedo for the weekend with the goal of making love, the women are divided, but they both eventually agree to the trip. After unexpected events in Oviedo, they return to Barcelona ...
| | Milk DVD (2008) Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled
Reader DVD
$13.59 
MILK is director Gus Van Sant's riveting biopic about slain gay rights activist and San Francisco city supervisor Harvey Milk. Based on the politically resonant and thoroughly timely screenplay of documentarian Dustin Lance Black, Van Sant follows the arc of Milk's political awakening, from closeted Brooklyn insurance executive to doyen of San Francisco's Castro district's burgeoning gay mecca in the 1970s. Sean Penn portrays the ...
| | Doubt DVD (2008) Widescreen
Reader movie DVD
$23.39
A tough-as-nails Catholic school principal, Sister Aloysius (Meryl Streep) tries to trick a confession out of a progressive priest (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) whom she suspects of being a pedophile in this terse drama, directed by John Patrick Shanley, based on his hit stage play, set in the mid 1960s in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. There's a feeling of dread and claustrophobia in the parochial school air: the kids can't sit still and they quake in terror of being called downstairs to face Sister Aloysius's wrath. Amy Adams is the sweet-natured sister in charge of eighth grade, who first suspects Father Flynn (Hoffman) may have seduced a withdrawn African-American boy in her class. Sister Aloysius becomes convinced of the priest's guilt, but it's hard to be ...
| | Wrestler DVD (2008) Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled
Reader video
$23.39 
At first glance, Darren Aronofsky's THE WRESTLER may seem like a departure for the oftentimes frenetic filmmaker, and in some ways it is. When this story of a past-his-prime performer is compared to PI, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, and THE FOUNTAIN, there is relatively little trace of psychoscientific addiction imagery, hip-hop editing, or grimly elegant peeks into dreams, nightmares, and otherworlds. Comic moments are plentiful. Aronofsky's signature close-ups of faces have been replaced with ones that force themselves into wounds inflicted for visceral spectacle. Much of the time the camera floats and bobs with an observant, almost documentary-like quietness, ethereally following the wrestler as if it were his past, and the viewer may perceive vague connections to a later, lonelier, less legitimate Rocky Balboa.
But Mickey Rourke isn't the Italian Stallion--he's Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a man who has spent decades slicing himself open in choreographed fights while adoring crowds roar. Pro wrestling isn't ...
| | Slumdog Millionaire DVD (2008) Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled
Reader film
$23.35
British director Danny Boyle takes another intriguing career turn with this heartfelt underdog tale. Jamal Malik (Dev Patel) is a street kid (or "slumdog") who has landed an appearance on India's version of the hit TV game show WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? Jamal exceeds expectations on the show, and the producers alert the police after they become suspicious of his methods. The young contestant is subsequently arrested and is interrogated at the hands of a nameless police inspector (played by Bollywood star Irfan Khan). As the interrogation proceeds, Boyle tells Jamal's story through harrowing flashbacks that both show the terrible poverty of Mumbai and help explain how he knew the answers to the MILLIONAIRE questions.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is a tightly woven story that has been expertly edited into shape. The ...
| | Play Music Together DVD (2006)
Reader review
$13.59
| | Live At The Chapel DVD (2007) Rounder Europe
Reader DVD
$14.59
| | American Slapstick Vol. 2 DVDs (1915) Full Frame; Black & White
Reader movie DVD
$25.05
| | $5 a Day DVD (2009) Widescreen
Reader video
For Sale Pre-Order Now! Available: Tuesday, January 26, 2010
$20.71 
| | Grace DVD (2009)
Reader film
$19.35
| | Grenadier: The Beautiful Warrior - Premium Collection DVDs (2005) Limited Edition; Dubbed; Figurine
Reader review
$19.99
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Email a Friend
