The Reader · written by David Hare · 2008

Michael sells his pyramid stamp for cash and runs into the street exhilarated as his reading continues.

Scene 54 of 196 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Michael’S Voice

Act oneAct two

Begins 22 min into a 1:21 film

The story so farBefore scene 54

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 51
Hanna condemns the sexual passage Michael reads from Lady Chatterley’s Lover, then tells him to continue.
Scene 52
Michael proposes a cycling trip; Hanna remarks that he likes planning, throws the guidebook aside, and they begin making love.
Scene 53
At dawn, Michael sorts his stamps while his voice reads Schiller’s declaration of fearless love.
Scene 54
This scene

54INT & EXT. SHOP. DAY

Seen from outside, a shop full of stamps. MICHAEL and a STAMP DEALER with white hair and a moustache. MICHAEL is offering his pyramid stamp, his gestures becoming desperate as the STAMP DEALER shakes his head, clearly not giving him as much as he hopes.

Then MICHAEL concedes, the DEALER concedes, and a bunch of notes are handed across. MICHAEL runs exhilarated out into the street.

MICHAEL’S VOICE

“Danger will only increase my love,

it will sharpen it, it will give it

spice. I’ll be the only angel you

need. On this arm, Luise, you will

go dancing through life. You will

leave life even more beautiful than

you entered it. Heaven will take

you back and look at you and say

‘Only one thing can make a soul

complete, and that thing is love.’