Five years ago, then 94-year-old filmmaker Jerry Schatzberg told IndieWire that he still intended to make one more feature film. We’re still waiting for that new movie from the director of “The Panic in Needle Park,” “Scarecrow,” and “Street Smart,” but in the meantime, the next best thing is on the way: a North American theatrical release of Schatzberg’s previously almost impossible-to-see 1989 drama, “Reunion.”
Scripted by the legendary Harold Pinter (“The Servant,” “The French Lieutenant’s Woman,” “The Comfort of Strangers”), “Reunion” tells the story of a Jewish lawyer (Jason Robards) who returns to his hometown of Stuttgart after 55 years and flashes back on a youth spent during the Nazi party’s rise to power. Working with production designer Alexandre Trauner (“Children of Paradise,” “The Apartment”), Schatzberg vividly recreates 1930s Germany in a film that was extremely well received (Jonathan Rosenbaum called it “a story seldom told before with such feeling for detail and nuance”) but barely seen — at least in the United States.
“Reunion” was a hit in France after it premiered there at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, but when it limped into U.S. theaters two years later, it came and went with little fanfare, despite positive reviews. “It opened on Friday and closed on Monday,” Schatzberg said. The film then virtually disappeared for 35 years, with no release on any home video format or streaming platform and no television airings. Aside from occasional revival screenings like the one at last year’s Museum of Modern Art Schatzberg retrospective, “Reunion” has been unavailable.
On April 3, Rialto Pictures will give “Reunion” the theatrical release it has long deserved, opening the movie at New York’s Film Forum for a two-week run, followed by engagements at Laemmle’s Royal and Town Center in Los Angeles on April 17 and a subsequent national roll-out. Whether or not we’ll ever get that new Schatzberg film is anybody’s guess, but a new “old” Schatzberg is cause for celebration.
Watch the new trailer for the re-release, an IndieWire exclusive, below.
Rialto Pictures will release “Reunion” in theaters beginning April 3.
