MOVIE REVIEW : Subtlety, Suspense Mark ‘Reunion’ for Robards

“Reunion” (at the Fine Arts and Town & Country), a compelling film of remarkable subtlety and insight, withholds its full meaning until its conclusion. Yet from the start we are caught up in the destiny of its hero, a rich, older Manhattan businessman (Jason Robards) whom we meet relaxing in Central Park while a child, presumably his granddaughter, plays nearby.

Sitting in the sun, he is washed over by memories. We assume he has experienced them--or tried to suppress them--countless times before. But on this day, for reasons he perhaps cannot fully know, he decides to act.

The film’s director, Jerry Schatzberg, has said of Robards: “I like his anonymity as an actor.” This quality is perfect for his playing of Henry Strauss, who decides at last to return to his birthplace, Stuttgart, Germany. Strauss does not fit the Nazi stereotype of what a Jew looks like, nor did he as a high school student at the time Hitler came to power. Otherwise, Henry, then known as Hans (Christien Anholt), would never have struck up a friendship with his aristocratic classmate Konradin Von Lohenburg (Samuel West), scion of one of Germany’s most ancient and aristocratic families.

“Reunion” is a beautiful elegy to friendship in all its complexities and seeming contradictions and its astonishing emotional capacity to endure.

That Hans and Konradin, who knows that Hans is Jewish, should become friends, despite time and place, is understandable. Hans is bright and personable, the intellectual son of a prominent physician, whereas Konradin, although also of high intelligence, is lonely and isolated. In time Konradin, who has traveled the world with his diplomat father, admits that he has never before had a friend. It is Hans, he says, who teaches him to think.

Adapted by Harold Pinter from Fred Uhlman’s slender novel, “Reunion” is as inspired in its structure as it is in Pinter’s characteristically spare dialogue. For the present-tense scenes, cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer uses natural color; for Henry’s memory sequences, he uses grainy black-and-white that’s a good match for the film’s newsreel montages; and for the past, a desaturated color that is almost a sepia, much like early color photos.

In its effectively low-key way, “Reunion” generates considerable suspense. We do not know how Hans survived World War II to become Henry, and we do not know what happened to Konradin. We know no more than Henry himself does as to what he’s going to find in Stuttgart. We do know, of course, that in one way or another, Hans and Konradin reckoned with the Third Reich.

As a Holocaust film, “Reunion” is all the more effective because it’s about friendship first--about how we cannot always know the full measure of effect we have on the lives of others. On the other hand, this otherwise deliberately indirect film pulls no punches in its exposure of anti-Semitism as a pervasive, persistent evil.

Schatzberg has made of his fine and diverse cast a seamless ensemble. However, special mention must be made of Bert Parnaby as Hans’ father, a proud man who insists that Hitler is but a “temporary illness” for his beloved Germany. Pinter never gives anything away, but by the end of “Reunion,” we understand everyone.

In every way, “Reunion” (rated PG-13 for adult themes) is a collaborative effort of exceptional distinction, complemented as it is by a discreet score by Philippe Sarde and equally understated production design by the great veteran Alexandre Trauner, who at 84 steps in front of the camera for the first time (as a warehouseman) in what is his 100th film.

‘Reunion’

Jason Robards: Henry Strauss

Christien Anholt: Hans Strauss

Samuel West: Konradin Von Lohenburg

Bert Parnaby: Herr Strauss

A Castle Hill Productions release of a Les Films Ariane/Tac Ltd. production. Director Jerry Schatzberg. Producer Anne Francois. Executive producer Vincent Malle. Screenplay by Harold Pinter; based on the novel by Fred Uhlman. Cinematographer Bruno de Keyzer. Editor Martine Barraque. Costumes David Perry. Music Philippe Sarde. Production designer Alexandre Trauner. Art director Didier Naert. Set decorator Thomas Schappert. Sound Laurent Quaglio. Running time: 1 hour,50 minutes.

MPAA-rated PG-13 (for adult themes).