Leofwine_draca
THE NIGHT PORTER is one of those Italian art-house movies that goes out of its way to shock and as such has gained some notoriety over the years. In essence, the film charts the torrid love affair between a Nazi who managed to escape from the clutches of the Allies and one of the victims he tortured in a concentration camp. Instead of hating him, his victim finds herself falling for him, and the two embark on a painful, sadomasochistic relationship years before FIFTY SHADES OF GREY made the whole thing popular.I admit this whole set-up isn't really my cup of tea and I prefer films where the Nazis are being shot at rather than presented as broken, sympathetic people. Still, THE NIGHT PORTER is undoubtedly a well-shot movie, and Dirk Bogarde (VICTIM) is always fine playing these dark characters with their hidden secrets. I was a little cold where Charlotte Rampling's concerned, but then I've never really warmed to the actress. The plot is slow moving in this film but it always holds your attention and I appreciated the bleak ending, but it's the sexually-charged midsection that left me rather bored.
gavin6942
After a chance meeting at a hotel in 1957, a Holocaust survivor (Charlotte Rampling) and the Nazi officer (Dick Bogarde) who tortured her resume their sadomasochistic relationship.This film deals with the psychological condition known as Stockholm Syndrome in the most extreme way possible. It also borders on the offensive. Some would say it crosses over into the offensive...For example, film critic Roger Ebert calls it "as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering." Ebert is flat wrong. He can take the moral high ground, but this is the same guy who wrote "Beyond Valley of the Dolls"...
zuhairvazir
A wayward exploitation of the cinematic 'Nazi Evil' cliché, which prevailed throughout the seventies horror cinema; from mad doctors/scientists to jail guards with a penchant for bondage and puerile victims willingly giving themselves to the morbid fantasies of the script writer.The nonsensical screenplay of 'The Night Porter' pays homage to the latter and also adds to the distress of anti-porn activists by throwing in an uncomfortable-to- watch set piece.A holocaust victim suffering from the Stockholm Syndrome finds herself helplessly drawn to the impeccable and aching charms of a former tormentor and SS officer who has given himself to the succulent comfort of a non-significant existence after having basked in the degenerating excesses, which apparently the SS life offered.In hiding, we are shown, he has become a night porter at a hotel in post-war Vienna and prefers to live like a 'church mouse'. After their chance meeting both are ostensibly pulled into a dangerous game of lurid passion. A passion which is explored with more seriousness and insight in Star 80 (83).While Star 80 shows us the lecherous, conflicted and tragic demise of the American dream and destiny, The Night Porter simply wants us to swallow whole the idea of misplaced feelings and deviant sexual overplay as if it were a bonafide means to post trauma catharsis. If it weren't for the fervor in Cavani's operatic exploration, Charloette Rampling's off the rack and risqué performance and Bogarde's sullen yet decisive night porter the film would have been forgotten.
jcnsoflorida
We Americans are, of course, famous for, among other things, our simplistic view of history. Most of us learned that Germany lost WWII, end of problem. I think The Night Porter is of value mainly because it points out, rather vividly, that Nazis did not disappear, they went into hiding. Not many other films seriously deal with that reality. So, yes, all the trappings of Nazism are indeed on display and that is understandably controversial. But if you look a little deeper you will see a more penetrating analysis of the problem of evil. The end of WWII was not end of story. The fact that this film dramatizes the continuation of Nazi ideology makes it, perhaps surprisingly, worthwhile.
AD
