Capital Celluloid 2018 - Day 221: Sun Aug 19

Reunion (Schatzberg, 1989): BFI Southbank, NFT3, 8.10pm


This 35mm screening, which is part of the Pinter season (full details here), is also screened on August 31st (full details here).

Chicago Reader review:
Jerry Schatzberg 1989 picture, a French-English-West German production, is one of his very best, Adapted by Harold Pinter from a novel by Fred Uhlman, and shot in 'Scope by Bruno De Keyzer, it tells the story of a New York Jewish lawyer (Jason Robards) returning to Stuttgart, Germany, after a 55-year absence to discover what happened during the early 30s to his best friend (Samuel West)—an ambassador's son who didn't share the racism of his aristocratic family. What's impressive about the tale's unfolding (most of it told in flashback, with Christien Anholt as the hero as a youth) is the meticulous re-creation of Germany during the rise of Nazism (the superb production design is by the great Alexandre Trauner, who appears in a cameo in a warehouse office), as well as a sensitive (and perhaps timely) depiction of how the gradual changes in national thinking were reflected in everyday life. It's all been done before, but seldom with such feeling for detail and nuance; one has to adjust to the curious mix between English dialogue and street signs in German, but the performances—by Francoise Fabian, Maureen Kerwin, Barbara Jefford, and Bert Parnaby in addition to the leads—are impeccable.

Jonathan Rosenbaum


Here (and above) is the trailer.

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