The Reader · written by David Hare · 2008

Michael proposes a cycling trip; Hanna remarks that he likes planning, throws the guidebook aside, and they begin making love.

Scene 52 of 196 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Act oneAct two

Begins 21 min into a 1:21 film

The story so farBefore scene 52

As a law student, Michael sees Hanna, his former lover, on trial for war crimes and must face the secret that shaped their teenage relationship.

Scenes 1–6
In 1995, Michael prepares breakfast for Brigitte, then is alone in his apartment and looks out the window.
Scenes 7–24
The sick schoolboy Michael accepts Hanna’s help and returns to her.
Scenes 25–35
Michael enters an intimate relationship with Hanna, organized around his reading to her.
Just before
Scene 49
Michael reads a Shakespeare sonnet to Hanna in the bath; she pulls him in with her.
Scene 50
Michael acts out Huckleberry Finn while Hanna sews; they laugh together.
Scene 51
Hanna condemns the sexual passage Michael reads from Lady Chatterley’s Lover, then tells him to continue.
Scene 52
This scene

52INT. HANNA’S APARTMENT. EVE

MICHAEL reads Tin-Tin to HANNA, who is lying on the bed. They are both looking at the pictures.

MICHAEL

‘Blistering Barnacles and a

thundering typhoon. It is water.’

‘But what on earth did you expect

it to be?’

HANNA

Whisky.

MICHAEL

Whisky! By thunder, whisky.

‘Whisky? Come now captain, you

can’t be serious.’

HANNA

All right, kid, that’s enough for

today.

They fall back onto the bed.

MICHAEL

I was wondering, do you think you

could get some time off? Maybe we

could go for a trip.

HANNA

What sort of trip?

MICHAEL

I’d love to go bicycling. Just for

two days.

MICHAEL reaches for a book.

MICHAEL

I’ve got a guide-book. I’ve worked

out the route. Look, what do you

think?

HANNA’S look is so far-away she doesn’t seem to hear the question. Silence. Then :

HANNA

I think you like planning, don’t

you?

She throws the book away and they begin to make love.