Kate plays Hannah Shmitz, a German woman who works on what I assume is the city bus - one day she meets a young boy named Michael, who was sick with scarlet fever and had throwin up outside of her apartment. She helps him home, and months later after recovering, he goes back to thank her. Thus begins their love affair - although she was much older than he was, he fell in love with her, at one point telling her he couldn't possibly live without her. Hannah asks him to read to her, and this becomes a major component of their relationship. She seems really secretive, and I couldn't quite figure out what her story was - she was a rather unpleasant and unlikable character, which surprised me. After arriving late a couple of nights in a row, Hannah and Michael get in a fight and she leaves town, not telling him goodbye or leaving him with any information. My thought was that she felt that he was too young for her and that for him to be happy she needed to be out of his life.
Michael continued through law school and about 10 years later he, along with a few fellow students and his professor, went to view a trial that was taking place in Berlin. There he found Hannah Shmitz - after all those years, he found her on trial along with 5 other women. As it turns out, Hannah was an SS officer, allegedly responsible for the lives of hundreds of women at Nazi camps during WWII. Michael was devastated. What I found really interesting about Hannah was that she never apologized for anything she did. She openly admitted her involvement in the selection of women to be killed at Auschwitz, but not once did she ever say she felt remorse. On the contrary, she seemed to still feel like she did her job and that was that. She was a guard. End of story. So that, coupled with her treatment of Michael years earlier, really left the audience with little pity for her.
I don't want to say anything more as I have already said too much for those of you who haven't seen the movie - but I really did enjoy it. I was impressed with David Kross who played the young Michael. To play such graphic love scenes would be hard enough but with Kate Winslet? It must have been very intimidating. Ralph Fiennes played the older Michael and I must say, he has got a stare to pierce your soul. If I ever saw him in real life I would be scared to death of him!!
At the Oscars this past year, Kate Winslet won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar for this movie and it was nominated for 4 others. I really like the first picture above because at this point, I realized that I had never seen Kate like this before - hardened, mean. She's so talented.
Very interesting. I hadn't know what this movie was about at all. I would be impressed also by Kate Winslet playing a character of this personality. The other roles she has played have not been quite so dramatic (from what I am understanding from your blog.) That would certainly make her Oscar worthy.
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