From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. Last fall, actor-director, Rob Reiner joined me to discuss the release of a sequel

over 40 years in the making. Spinal Tap 2. The end continues. We touched on a number of things,

but the conversation kept taking us back to the factor that started with Spinal Tap and was a part

of all of the late

director's films. Music.

So many of your movies are about people, it's about what it takes to stay together.

Right.

And I wonder where that comes from for you, because thematically, it's so much of what you've done

as if it's a narrative that's drawn you back over and over again.

Yeah, well, it's interesting you say that because my parents, before they both passed away,

my mother passed away first, they were married for 65 years.

And they went through stuff, you know.

There was, you know, like every marriage, you know, you go through things.

They went through things, but they stayed married for 65 years. And I remember they were celebrating their 60th anniversary. And somebody asked my mother,

said, what is the secret? What do you, what keeps you together? And she said, you have to find

someone who can stand you. Not somebody that you can put up with, but somebody who can stand you.

And basically what it is, you find people that you, no matter what they do, you still

like to hang out with them.

That's funny you say that because so many of these films that you've made about testing

these relationships, to me even goes back to the sure thing.

I mean, so about these relationships being tested by, at these stress points. Yes. It's gone with like the second act break. I mean, it goes, I think about the American president. For me, that relationship is as much about Martin Sheen and Michael Douglas as it is about Michael Douglas and Annette Benning. Right. And these sort of stress points. And at some point, somebody has to tell somebody the truth. Yes. And how you come back from that. Yes, and how you come back. I made a film called The Story of Us. It's that great version of classical gas, a stripped-down version of that. That's right. It's interesting that you mentioned that. And I'll tell you a little story about classical guests. But that was a story about two people who had been married for 15 years. And people had always asked me, why did you do a sequel to when Harry Met Sally? I said, no, no, I've done that. This was a look at a marriage after 15 years. And the tagline was, can a marriage of 15 years survive? And so we looked at

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