DVD News
Kate Winslet’s Oscar winning performance in The Reader comes to DVD and Blu-ray
By Patrick Luce Mar 31, 2009, 13:19 GMT

Hannah (Winslet) has a passionate summer affair with a young neighbor named Michael (Fiennes and Kross), but then disappears. She resurfaces years later as one of the defendants in a war crimes trial stemming from her actions as a World War II concentration camp guard. Michael alone realizes that he has information that can set her free, and must decide whether or not to save her.
Kate Winslet’s award-winning performance in The Reader comes to DVD and Blu-ray in April from Genius Products and The Weinstein Company. The film is scheduled to debut on DVD on April 14th and make its Blu-ray debut on April 28th.
With five previous Oscar nominations, Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road, Little Children) takes home her long-awaited first statuette for this “fierce, unerring portrayal” (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone) of the woman who falls for a teenager, leading a trio of powerful and “impeccable performances” (Jeffrey Lyons, NBC Reel Talk) that also includes two-time Oscar nominee Ralph Fiennes (Schindler’s List, The English Patient) and standout German newcomer David Kross.
A young Michael (Kross) is heartbroken when Hanna inexplicably disappears after their passionate summer together, only to have her re-enter his life eight years later when he is a law student and she is on trial for Nazi war crimes committed long before they met. Michael must then decide whether to use a secret that only he knows in order to save his onetime love from a life in prison.
Helmed by three-time Oscar nominated director Stephen Daldry (The Hours, Billy Elliot), The Reader also received Oscar nods for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Cinematography.
Special Features on the DVD and Blu-ray include:
12 Deleted Scenes
Adapting A Timeless Masterpiece: Making The Reader
A Conversation with David Kross & Stephen Daldry
Kate Winslet On The Art Of Aging Hanna Schmitz
A New Voice: A Look At Composer Nico Muhly
Coming To Grips With The Past: Production Designer Brigitte Broch
Theatrical Trailer


