The Reader? It's goodish. And Kate Winslet is, as ever, brilliant. And it has Nazis, which elevates it on the Oscar nom scale. But I'm not critiquing it here. I'm addressing its portrayal of child abuse - an adult having sex with a minor. I'm curious about the pass the disturbingly intimate relationship between a mature woman and an adolescent boy seems to be getting in David Hare's adaptation of Bernard Schlink's novel, as directed by Stephen Daldry. Pivotal to the romantic tragedy is the passionate post-war affair between a 36.year-old female German tram conductor Hanna (Winslet) and a dewy 15-year-old virgin Michael (David Kross). During their multiple, wonderfully lit, detailed erotic scenes, we see plenty of bare gorgeous Winslet indoctrinating the equally nude boy into the ways of slow sex that please a woman, and leave a man satisfied as well. Trust me: they both look very yummy - or judge for your self. View the trailer: http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2319450137/
But, reverse the genders and consider a parallel, made up example. Imagine an intellectual period drama (perhaps they quote Chekhov and Homer, too) in which Hugh Jackman, 39, and Miley Cyrus, 16, play characters that have explicit sex. OK, so maybe there's an underlying awful secret -- he participated in aboriginal genocide, or ratted out Reds in Hollywood, or upheld apartheid in South Africa but... while the camera rolls, the focus of the scenes is the sex and intimacy that occurs in bed and bathtub, between two beautiful bodies, one experienced and dominant, the other ripely pubescent. Reverse the genders - older man deflowers underage girl - and there would be a public outcry. Look no further than Miley's scandalous Vanity Fair/Annie Liebowitz bare back photo and multiply it times ten. Is there any doubt that, even if the younger partner "consents," this is statutory rape because she's a minor and, by definition, under the age of consent?
What's interesting is the blatant double-standard in Western cultures when it comes to the relations between an adult and a minor - when the pair happens to be an older woman, younger male. When I wrote about the treatment of women teachers hitting on their pubescent male students - aka Clearasil Cougars - like Mary Kay Letourneau in the November issue of Marie Claire http://www.marieclaire.com/world/news/teachers-sex-with-students-rape, I wondered whether these hook-ups are any different from male teachers molesting female students? What I discovered is that our society often treats the victims as lucky boys being eased through a tricky rite of passage. It's the Mrs. Robinson, Summer of 42 syndrome. Fifty years ago, small-town grandpas took their pimply grandsons to a local prostitute to lose their virginity. And, in The Reader, mother-aged Hanna saves Michael from the unbearable awkwardness of unhooking some same-age Gretel's bra. Our society actually, leniently views "consensual" sex between older women and teenage boys, like marijuana smoking or underage drinking. Male judges -and Hollywood execs -- give it a wink and a pass (right on, junior!).
Ultimately what's curiously disturbing about The Reader has little to do with Nazis. As Michael grows up and Ralph Fiennes replaces David Kross in the role, the adult suffers from the kind of failure at mature sexual and intimate relationships - with his wife, daughter, and mother - that often typifies abuse victims. He's distant and at least his daughter believes the culpability is hers; he doesn't love her because of who she is, not his adolescent secret. When we first see the adult Michael, he's having an affair of the bed - but clearly not of the heart - with a gorgeous woman nearly young enough to be his daughter. And, as the mistress complains that Michael won't let her in to his life, he clearly can't wait until she leaves his apartment so that he can be alone with himself and his memories. It's textbook abused behavior - and all the movie's ambiguities about Nazis, hidden secrets, and admitting culpability don't fully address the fact that Michael is both the victim of abuse, and lost in his continued love for his abuser, because nothing since has come close to that intensity. Emotionally, he stopped growing at 15.
Michael is a victim of abuse, and his abuser just happened to have been a luscious retired Auschwitz guard. You can call their tryst and its consequences a metaphor of two generations of Germans passing guilt from one to the next, but that doesn't explain why filmmakers Daldry and Hare luxuriated in the sex scenes -- and why it's so tastefully done audiences won't see it for the child pornography it is.
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He had his 18th birthday DURING the filming - not sure wether the nude scene were done before or after (or if it matters in Germany where it was filmed. I do know the director talked about it with and had the consent of his parents... his mother was pleased he wasn't getting beat up as in his previous film and his dad said "way to go"!
The age of consent in most of the world (and even some of the USA) is 16 (see http://www
I found it most interestin
Screenwrit
Sounds like a perfect brooding role for Ralph.
If it were less subtle with the effects of the dominant relationsh
As to the Miley Cirus comparsion - Miley is currently 16. David Kross is currently 18 playing a role as a 15 year old. It is not child pornograph
Miley is an american female being marketed to 12 year olds that was taking pictures, not a working actor in Europe in an Oscar weight movie. She would be being exploited and underage. David Cross is neither.
There are better arguments to hang "abuse" on then a film where it seems that "damaged and corrupt while still beautiful" is the theme, according to this article's read of the movie.
David Cross is not a child, this movie does not seem to be treating the relationsh
Also, you're definition of adult may be different from mine and the law's. Fifteen and sixteen are minors, and therefore under the age of consent, and incapable of a consensual relationsh
I am open to different interpreta
I was responding to was the conflation of eroticizin
The choice to eroticize the inappropri
If the male lead playing the 15 year old was 16, it would be exploitive
.
I'll reserve further judgement until I see it myself - but you saw it and reported that the character was damaged by the relationsh
Maybe I'm missing the point you're making because I haven't seen the film. if you're uncomforta
(sorry cut off the the tag end of the last post)
This isn't about the actual age of the actors. It's the fact that the characters themselves had an abundance of gratuitous
And LeTourneau was and is seen as a predator. The reason the Tampa teacher got off so easily is that she's a swimsuit model and the decision makers were male. Ugly, fat women get arrested for this all the time, and they definitely don't get off with a slap on the wrist. They're also not publicized because there's nothing titillatin
It is 100% right on.
Male victims of such abuse by women are ignored or dismissed if they complain, and the horrible, sexist, anti-male double standard exists. Another film addressing this as an OK rite of passage is "Murmur of the Heart," in which the pedophile is also the boy's mother. Nicole Kidman also had a sex scene in a bathtub with a young boy in "Birth." When a woman character does it, it's "art."
The damage done by these characters is as horrible as if the genders were reversed, but we don't want to see women as predators, a la Letourneau
I know a good number of men who have been victimized by these monsters, and all have been badly damaged by it. Those who think it's OK, or that it's not the same as if the genders were reversed, simply don't know what they're talking about. Or they have an agenda to dismiss this horror.
Rape is rape. Molestatio
I agree completely that there is a disgusting double standard. I was never physically assaulted as a child, but I knew someone in my early years at college who was obsessive and worked in the cafeteria. I didn't know much of anyone so he would always talk to me. It seemed innocuous and I admit I'm very introverte
I don't feel comfortabl
It's sickening.
Sex is more risky for women than for men. And due to the ways we are wired, men are physically stronger and tend to be more sexually aggressive - which makes it is more likely that the adult male is coercing and actually intimidati
And for these reasons, adult males having sex with female minors is much more objectiona
Who's more likely to subtly work you into a position where you HAVE to do what he/she wants? More often than not, a woman. :P