Reunion. 1989. United Kingdom/France/West Germany. Directed by Jerry Schatzberg. Screenplay by Harold Pinter, from a novel by Fred Uhlman. With Jason Robards, Samuel West, Christien Anholt, Françoise Fabian. DCP. 110 min.
Schatzberg’s quietly powerful adaptation of Fred Uhlman’s novella arrived just as the Berlin Wall was falling, lending added resonance to its story of memory and reconciliation in postwar Germany. The film was the result of a remarkable collaboration between Schatzberg and Harold Pinter, who crafted six drafts of the screenplay, including two different endings—a creative tension that ultimately yielded one of the film’s most powerful sequences.
Jason Robards narrates the story as the elderly Jewish émigré Hans Strauss, returning to Stuttgart for a school reunion that stirs memories of 1932, when his teenage self (Christien Anholt) formed an intense friendship with aristocratic classmate Konradin von Lohenburg (Samuel West). Their bond, built on shared passions for art and philosophy, unfolds against the rising tide of National Socialism, as political forces slowly seep into their personal relationship.
Schatzberg, as always, chooses intimate observation over historical spectacle. Bruno De Keyzer’s cinematography moves delicately between timeframes, contrasting the warm tones of memory with the stark light of the present, while the production design by the great Alexander Trauner (Children of Paradise) creates elegant echoes between Stuttgart’s past and present.