The Night Porter (Criterion Collection Spine #59) | 
 enlarge | Director: Liliana Cavani
Actors: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti, Giuseppe Addobbati
Studio: Criterion
Category: DVD
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $21.15
You Save: $8.80 (29%)
New (31) Used (13) Collectible (1) from $19.89
Rating:  53 reviews
Sales Rank: 12327
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: Italian (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 118
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 2
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 4.9 x 0.6
MPN: PMIDNIG090D
ISBN: 0780022823
UPC: 037429145227
EAN: 9780780022829
ASIN: 0780022823
Theatrical Release Date: October 1, 1974
Release Date: March 28, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: BRAND NEW AND FACTORY SEALED
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
For those who like their love stories dipped in decadence, Liliana Cavani's dark and disturbing 1974 drama--about a concentration camp survivor who fatefully comes face to face with her ex-Nazi captor and lover--has held up quite well over the years despite its sensationalistic tone. It helps that the mysterious, cobra-eyed Charlotte Rampling plays the survivor, Lucia, and that the unctuous and languid British actor, Dirk Bogarde, is former SS officer Max, a now-benign night porter at the Vienna hotel where the pair coincidentally collides. There is a haunted hollowness to these characters that resigns them to relive the sordid past that tragically binds them. Criterion's DVD offers the film in its best available condition, and the color has been restored to enhance its symbolic significance. The Night Porter uses landscape as character, and its desaturated tones evoke memory of the Holocaust and a shady 1950s Vienna plagued by post-World War II guilt. In fact, this is a film full of shadows and shame, and Max and Lucia are victims of this frightening world in which nothing can be trusted and around every corner lurk spies in their house of forbidden love. --Paula Nechak
Product Description
When a beautiful young woman checks in with her husband borgarde immediately recognizes her as one of his victims. Flashbacks of humiliation torture and rape reveal the horror of his abuse and yet she enthusiastically agrees to resume their sordid love affair. Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 01/11/2000 Starring: Dirk Bogarde Charlotte Rampling Run time: 118 minutes Rating: R Director: Liliana Cavani
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| Customer Reviews: Read 48 more reviews...
 A film that has aged well November 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
When I first saw this film years ago, it seemed to me to have a cheap and easy ending, and I thought the whole thing was designed more to titillate than aim for something deeper. Now I've watched it a few times over, and I think it is trying for something. Love elevates the animal into humanity. An old story, but it is hard to argue with this version. Love elevates us; it takes us out of the basest forms of existence. Evil in turn needs to annihilate. The section of the movie where the protagonists reenact the hunger of a concentration camp is perfect, now that I get it. So I take it all back. This is a great film, a perfect film, a good film to own and replay.
Examing evil, embracing cruelty June 17, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
Examining the very essence of evil, grappling with the demons attached to memory. The Night Porter is a sordid tale of a concentration camp survivor coming face to face with her devastating past--her ex-torturer/lover. The lurid, graphic images simmer and boil over in her mind, scalding the fragments of her sexual psyche.
This story locks you in, you become trapped and pressurized with such an overwhelming intensity. The couple soon recreate their sadomasochistic relationship as you witness the lingering, destructive nature of submission. This strange retrogression definitely brings startling questions--WHY?!??! Why plunge back into this world of hell? How does something so horrifying transform into something you crave, or even become dependent of? Few of us have ever experienced such an overwhelming atrocity, the effects of such a catastrophe are mind-boggling.
I know one thing--70's CINEMA RULES!!!! That was a decade when extremely disturbing topics were tackled. One warning though, this cover is misleading. This is not some sleazy sexploitation stunt, or even a naziploitation flick. It does have some extreme elements, but it's also very operatic and artistic. It's not crammed with sex and action, so some might get bored. I found it a startling character study, not to mention a cultural study as well.
Interesting and sad in a way... June 9, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
So "The Night Porter" is a film of psychology, violence, and past.
The story is about a man working in a hotel as a night porter in 1957. He is working with some men from WWII about trying to clear his past as an SS doctor working on horrible acts during the war, so that he can move on with his life.
While he is at work one night, a woman comes into the hotel that he recognizes as one of his internment camp victims that he created a sadomasochistic love affair with. She is torn on what she wants to do when she sees him, but eventually leaves her husband and moves in with the porter only to reignite their love affair.
This is a movie of some subtlety and a little slow-going. Overall, I enjoyed the film and the aspects of ones past and mentalities.
This is not a film for everyone, I think a lot of people would find it boring, but I enjoyed it overall. It is not as sexy as it may sound or look by the cover, but still a decent flick.
Plus, if you want to own this movie, Criterion is the only way to go. The only issue is that thhe disc did not have anything in the way of special features. I was a little disappointed about that.
 Disappointing July 28, 2007
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
I had pretty high expectations for The Night Porter. The reviews are good and the premise seemed interesting. I often enjoy daring and provocative films, so I gave it a shot. Once it started, I kept waiting for it to develop and it never did. I kept saying to myself, `Finally, now we're getting somewhere...oh wait, never mind.' It just dragged on with little or no purpose. And I felt like it was edited by an 8th grade audio-visual club. The dubbing was bad, the writing/acting was labored and the direction was uninspired. What few points the film does score are earned by its relatively creative and esoteric premise. And since there weren't any other entrants in the 1974 `Post-War Era Sadomasochistic Nazi Film Festival', The Night Porter won first prize. But I think the main reason that this film has its cult status, or any following whatsoever, is good advertising. The DVD cover is intriguing, and honestly the cover is better than the film itself. Save yourself the time and money and rent it, or try another film. Schindler's List has some similar themes, mainly with Ralph Fiennes' character, although it is a far superior film of a different overall genre. As a last resort, I guess you could watch Triumph of the Will while sitting on a tack and achieve a comparable level of sadomasochistic Nazism. To each his own.
Like no other film I've seen July 28, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Being 21-years-old at the time of this review, I had never seen many of the decadent films to come out of Europe during the 1970s, let alone any that dealt with the Nazi Party or The Holocaust. After a good deal of reading online, I ordered "The Night Porter" from Amazon, and decided to give it a try.
Needless to say, I've been haunted for days.
Lucia (Charlotte Rampling in an outstanding performance) arrives in 1957 Vienna, along with her composer husband. A Holocaust survivor who has gone on to live quite a comfortable life, her picture-perfect existence is shattered when she encounters Max (Dirk Bogarde), her ex-Nazi captor, tormentor and lover, whom she had an affair with for many years.
Max is hiding out in Vienna, working as a night porter in the hotel and hoping to avoid standing trial for his crimes. A member of a kind of support group for fellow nazis, he and his comrades seekt to eliminate any witnesses who could send them to prison -- or even death. Agonized over his love for Lucia and the loyalty to his friends, Max decides to go into hiding, where the sadistic/masochistic nature of his past affair begins to resurface.
Never before had I seen a film quite so dark, so decadent, so psychologically penetrating. Rampling in particular is as beautiful as she is heartbreaking; for only someone who was truly mentally ill would continue a relationship as violent as the one she shared. Bogarde fairs equally as well, portraying Max's feelings of anger and love with an eerie authenticity.
The most disturbing part of the movie is that we the audience *know* there cannot be a happy ending; that disaster looms at any moment and that these two people have been traumatized (perhaps beyond repair) by the events of WWII. In my opinion, this is what made "The Night Porter" so realistic -- by showing that the after effects of the Holocaust can and will be felt for decades after the war ended. Perhaps even today.
In sum, if you are in the mood to watch a film that portrays violence and sex as one of the same, withouth the requisite happy ending, than "The Night Porter" may very well be for you. While the film doesn't go into much detail about the Nazi party speciifically, it builds such an aura of tension and doom that it doesn't even matter. This may not be the happiest film to ever be made, but it remains among the most memorable.
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