Main Cast: Jason Robards, Jr., Christien Anholt, Samuel West, Françoise Fabian, Maureen Kerwin
Release Year: 1989
Country: UK/FR/WG
Run Time: 120 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Jason Robards plays an older Jewish man who returns to Stuttgart, Germany which he left in 1933 during the onslaught of the Third Reich. He reunites with a German man who, as a boy, was his childhood friend. ~ All Movie Guide
Barbara Jefford - Mrs. Strauss; Bert Parnaby - Dr. Jakob Strauss--Hans's Father; Shebah Ronay - Young Grafin Gertrud; Dorothea Alexander - Old Grafin; Tim Barker - Herr Zimmerman-Teacher in 1932; Struan Rodger - Pompetski - Teacher 1932; Roland Schaefer - Judge Freisler; Frederick Warder - Muscle Max-Gym Instructor; Alexandre Trauner - Man at Warehouse Office; Gerhard Fries - Brossner-School Headmaster Stuttgart Today; Imke Barnstedt - Girl in Tax Building; Gideon Boulting - Prince Hubertus; Alan Bowyer - Bollacher; Jacques Brunet - Herr Von Lohenburg-Konradin's Father; Rupert Degas - Muller; Robert Dietl - Gardener at Old Grafin's; Luc-Antoine Diquero - Young Lover; Jorg Doring - Bartender; Gerd Duwner - Man at Cemetery; Henning Gissel - Man in Warehouse Office; James Ind - Erhard; Yang Kyu Kim - Japanese Businessman; Helmut Krauss - TV Presenter; Lee Lyford - Von Hankhofen; Orchester der Staatsoper Stuttgart - Orchestra at Opera; Nicholas Pandolfi - Reutter; Amelie Pick - Young lover; Steven Poynter - Frank; Alf Reigel - Taxi Driver; Peter Schiff - Elderly Man; Roger Wisniewski - Nazi at Strauss Home; Paula Herold; Debbie McWilliams; Frank Baker - The Zionist
Credit
Didier Naert - Art Director, Henry J. Bamberger - Associate Producer, Dave Perry - Costume Designer, Jerry Schatzberg - Director, Martine Barraqué-Curie - Editor, Philippe Sarde - Composer (Music Score), Monty Diamond - Production Designer, Alexandre Trauner - Production Designer, Juergen Kussatz - Production Designer, Bruno de Keyzer - Cinematographer, Anne Francois - Producer, Vincent Malle - Producer, Harold Pinter - Screenwriter, Fred Uhlman - Book Author
Reunion is a 1989 dramatic film based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Fred Uhlman, directed by Jerry Schatzberg from a screenplay by Harold Pinter. It was released in France under the title L' Ami Retrouvé and in Germany as Der Wiedergefundene Freund.[1] The story is centred on the "enchanted friendship" of two teenagers in 1933 Germany. Hans Strauss (Christien Anholt) is the son of a Jewish doctor and Konradin Von Lohenburg (Samuel West) is from an aristocratic family. The background is the rise of Nazism. Jason Robards plays the older Hans in 1977 as he prepares to travel to Germany for the first time since the 1930s.[2] The film was shot on location in Berlin, New York and Stuttgart.[3]Reunion was nominated for a Golden Palm at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.[4]
American lawyer Henry Strauss (Robards) is preparing to return to Germany for the first time since he left in 1933 following Adolf Hitler's rise to power. He is seeking to renew an "enchanting friendship" of his youth with aristocrat Konradin Von Lohenburg (West).
Strauss was the son of a Jewish doctor and the friends did not see that around them the rise of Nazism would lead to their separation. Their travels together and philosophical discussions against the elegant background of 1930s Stuttgart form the main part of the film, told in flashback.
The older Henry's search for his childhood friend leads to a startling revelation as he discovers what became of Konradin after Hitler took power.
Time Out said of the film - "This moving rendition of Fred Uhlman's novel, about boyhood friendship betrayed under the destructive momentum of Nazism, shows Schatzberg at his (albeit limited) best." " Harold Pinter's tight and unobtrusive script, Trauner's fine production design and Philippe Sarde's muted but expressive score ensure a feeling of all-round professionalism."[5]
The New York Times said "'Reunion' is gratifying in the small ways most familiar from public-television's depictions of English upper-class behavior. The offhanded elegance of its settings, and the attractive crispness of its schoolboy manners ("Oh, he just rants and raves, doesn't he?" one of the film's cavalier young characters says about Hitler) are a major part of its gently decorative appeal."[2]
Channel 4 said "Nothing in Schatzberg's filmography makes the heart leap, but this film - adapted by Pinter from an autobiographical novel by Ulman - stands out above the rest. It's a quietly decent film that takes place primarily (via a flashback) in the early 1930s."[6]
Apart From That ·Applicant ·The Black and White ·Dialogue for Three · "God's District" ·Interview ·Last to Go ·The New World Order ·Night ·Precisely ·Press Conference ·Request Stop, Special Offer ·That's All ·That's Your Trouble ·Trouble in the Works
