The Reader (2008)

Kate Winslet: Hanna Schmitz

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Hanna Schmitz : It doesn't matter what I feel. It doesn't matter what I think. The dead are still dead.

• Michael : I didn't mean to upset you.

  Hanna Schmitz : You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me.

• Hanna Schmitz : What would you have done?

• Michael : I sat in the second carriage because I thought you might kiss me.

  Hanna Schmitz : Kid, you thought we could make love in a tram?

  Michael : Is it true what you said? That I don't matter to you?

  Hanna Schmitz : [shakes head] 

  Michael : Do you forgive me?

  Hanna Schmitz : [nods] 

  Michael : Do you love me?

  Hanna Schmitz : [nods] 

• Michael : [reading from "Lady Chatterley's Lover"]  "Lady Chatterley felt his naked flesh against her as he came into her. For a moment, he was still inside her..."

  Hanna Schmitz : This is disgusting. Where did you get this?

  Michael : I borrowed it from someone at school.

  Hanna Schmitz : Well, you should be ashamed.

  [pauses] 

  Hanna Schmitz : Go on.

• Michael : What's your name?

  Hanna Schmitz : What?

  Michael : Your name.

  Hanna Schmitz : Why do you want to know?

  Michael : I've been here three times. I want to know your name. What's wrong with that?

  Hanna Schmitz : Nothing, kid. There's nothing wrong with that. It's Hanna.

  Michael : You looked so suspicious.

  Hanna Schmitz : What's yours, kid?

  Michael : Michael.

  Hanna Schmitz : Michael. So I'm with a Michael.

• Michael : What are you doing? What is this? Why did you behave as if you didn't know me?

  Hanna Schmitz : You didn't want to know me! You could see I was in the first carriage. So why did you get on the second?

  Michael : What did you think I was doing? Why the hell did you think I was there?

  Hanna Schmitz : How should I know? I've been working. I need a bath, and I'd like to be by myself. Would you please leave?

  Michael : I didn't mean to upset you.

  Hanna Schmitz : You don't have the power to upset me. You don't matter enough to upset me.

• Hanna Schmitz : Do you have a book?

  Michael : Yes, I have. I took one with me this morning.

  Hanna Schmitz : What is it?

  Michael : The Odyssey by Homer. It's my homework.

  Hanna Schmitz : We're changing the order we do things. Read to me first, kid. Then we make love.

• Michael : What's wrong now?

  Hanna Schmitz : Nothing's wrong. Nothing.

  Michael : You know, you never ask. You never bother to ask how *I* am!

  Hanna Schmitz : You never say.

  Michael : It just happens to be my birthday. It's my birthday, that's all! In fact, you've never even asked when it is!

  Hanna Schmitz : You want a fight, kid!

  Michael : No, I don't want a fight! What's wrong with you?

  Hanna Schmitz : What business is it of yours?

  Michael : Always on your terms, everything. What you want, it's always what *you* want. My friends were giving me a party.

  Hanna Schmitz : Then why are you here then? Go back to your party. Is that what you want?

• Michael : I brought you these flowers. To say thank you.

  Hanna Schmitz : Put them over there in the sink.

  Michael : I would've come earlier but I've been in bed for three months.

  Hanna Schmitz : You are better now?

  Michael : Yes, thank you.

  Hanna Schmitz : Have you always been weak?

  Michael : Oh no, I've never been sick before. It's incredibly boring. There's nothing to do. I couldn't even be bothered to read.

• Michael : Here, let me show you where we're going.

  Hanna Schmitz : It's okay, kid. I don't want to know.

• Hanna Schmitz : You're good at it, aren't you?

  Michael : Good at what?

  Michael : Reading.

  Hanna Schmitz : What's funny?

  Michael : I didn't think I was good at anything.

• Michael : Like this?

  Hanna Schmitz : That's right. Mmm. Ah-ah. No, not so fast. Ah-Ah. Mmm. Mmm. Ah! It's all right. Do it again. Mmm. Oh! Oh!

• Hanna Schmitz : I'll get you a towel. So that's why you came back.

  Michael : You're so beautiful.

  Hanna Schmitz : What are you talking about?

  [kiss] 

  Hanna Schmitz : Look at me, kid. Mmm! Mmm! Slowly. Slowly...

• Michael : It's always me that has to apologize.

  Hanna Schmitz : You don't have to apologize. No one has to apologize. War and Peace, kid.

• Hanna Schmitz : We were guards. Our job was to guard the prisoners. We couldn't just let them escape.

  Judge : I see. And if they escaped, then you'd be blamed, you'd be charged.

  Hanna Schmitz : No.

  Judge : You might even be executed?

  Hanna Schmitz : No!

  Judge : Well, then?

  Hanna Schmitz : If we'd opened the doors, there would have been chaos. How could we have restored order? It happened so fast. It was snowing. The bombs. The flames. There were flames all over the village. Then the screaming began, and got worse and worse. And if they'd all come rushing out, we couldn't just let them escape. We couldn't. We were responsible for them!

• Judge : Did you not realize - that you were sending these women to their deaths?

  Hanna Schmitz : Yes, but they were new arrivals, new women were arriving all the time. So, the old ones had to make room for the new ones.

  Judge : I'm not sure you understand.

  Hanna Schmitz : We couldn't keep everyone. There wasn't room.

  Judge : No. But what I'm saying - let me rephrase: To make room, you were picking women out and saying, "You, you and you have to be sent back to be killed."

  Hanna Schmitz : Well, what would you have done?

  [long pause] 

  Hanna Schmitz : Should I never have signed up at Siemens?