Rating: 
Summary: Camp love
Review: THE NIGHT PORTER wraps Nazism and sadomasochism in the shabby trappings of antique melodrama. You can enjoy it in a gloomy kind of way as long as you don't take it too seriously. Problem is, can any film be set in a Nazi concentration camp, mine it for all the horror it has to offer, garnish it with style and not be anything other than a reprehensible bit of exploitation? You can never escape that question while you're watching THE NIGHT PORTER, and your doubts aren't dispelled when it's over.Quite a bit of THE NIGHT PORTER is first rate. Both the design and the photography create a bleakly sensual vision of Vienna as a city that has seen better days, with an almost palpable sense of dank and decay. (Criterion's transfer admirably brings out the rich, deep hues in Alfio Contini's photography.) The central Hotel zur Oper set in particular is a labyrinthine marvel of glass, brass and mahogany, seedy and elegant all at once. Individual sequences in the film are often shot and cut with great élan. Editor Franco Arcalli adroitly balances scenes in the present with flashbacks to the camps, such as one character's ballet performance before SS guards, and an undeniably effective, though irresponsible, sequence that intercuts a performance of THE MAGIC FLUTE with flashbacks to Max and Lucia's love among the ruins. Charlotte Rampling's famous production number in SS drag (from which the poster image is taken) is a slithering bit of S&M chic marred only by our awareness of how impressed we're meant to be. Rampling looks superb as Lucia, the conductor's wife who reignites a sadomasochistic relationship with Max (Dirk Bogarde). Bogarde's performance as the guilt ridden Max is a tad familiar if you know his work from the films of Joseph Losey and Luchino Visconti, but he's certainly convincing as a bottom dweller who wants to stay there. In fact, nearly all of the actors are remarkably effective, given that they have virtually nothing to work with. For the biggest problem with THE NIGHT PORTER is the ludicrous situation. If the film concentrated on the relationship between Max and Lucia, it might be almost unwatchable, but it would make more sense. Cavani and company, however, feel compelled to deliver a "story" of sorts. They surround the couple with a Nazi encounter group, of all things, to which Max is supposed to confess his crimes. If you can accept the idea of a bunch of greying murderers sitting around a conference table talking about their guilt complexes, and their anger with Max for refusing to join in, you might be able to digest all the other ridiculous proceedings in the movie, each more unbelievable than its predecessor. As the plot thickens, Max and Lucia hide away in his apartment, while those nasty Nazis slink in and out of shadows to do scurrilous things. ("Gosh, those Nazis really are bad. Why, they're cutting the electricity without asking for goodness sake!") It is all done with a fair degree of style, but it's sheer contrivance. If Dudley Dooright broke down the door to declaim "I'll pay the rent!" it wouldn't be out of place. That this movie isn't quite the howler it deserves to be shows some kind of skill. If Cavani can make such a compelling film from a script this bad, she might do wonders with something more cohesive. Or maybe not. For THE NIGHT PORTER works best as a series of set pieces tied together by a mood. They are what you're likely to remember about the film, not its laughable "story." Unfortunately, the film's mood derives entirely from its pretense at having something to say about Nazism and sadomasochism. And so you're thrown back to that same question. Aren't the Holocaust and Nazism just a little too substantial as topics to be treated as décor for a quasi-pornographic love story?
Rating: 
Summary: Unforgettable - Life Changing
Review: This is amazing.
Dark, dangerous, and totally evocative.
Anyone who has had this sort of obsessive, intense and real love/hate relationship will understand and identify with this film. It makes 'real' love look lifeless and lacklustre - and lets face it - they say love is worth dying for - well this kind is.
The relationship between the Nazi Officer and his prisoner puts me in mind of the realationship between Amon Goeth and Helen Hirsh in Schindlers List - only The Night Porter sees it through to its logical conclusion - such intensity could only end in death.
If you think youve ever been in love - then you need to watch this - you may may find the cosy domesticity you mistake for love is preferable. There arent many people who will admit to real love - as it is so tied up with hate and it is - like this film - deep dark and disturbing and cannot be escaped from.
Watch this film. It will make you very uncomfortable.
I for one will need to watch it many many times.
Rating:
Summary: Needs to be viewed many times.....
Review: This is an Adult film in the true European sense of the word. It is a film which Hollywood could never have produced with such stark troubling undertones. It is a dark reflective movie with some extremely good acting, and the underlying sadomasochistic theme coupled with the way an abused prisoner returns in later life to figuratively imprison and finally destroy her captor is quite understated, leaving a lot to one's own imagination.
This is a movie which, quite frankly, I did not understand on the first viewing. I have now watched my copy no less than eight times and the subtle content and quality of the acting improves with each viewing.
I doubt that this would interest younger persons, although students of human behaviour would find a lot to further their education and understanding of a certain section of society. For those who can recall the 1930's and 40's, it has a definite sort of somber fascination and it present an unusally different angle from which to view the holocaust, except the tables are finally turned in this story.
Rating:
Summary: Another kind of love
Review: This is an unforgettable film, one that will haunt any viewer for some time to come. Not nearly as explicit as some comments might lead one to believe, it nevertheless creates an atmosphere that is frighteningly real. Both main characters whose lives seem rather insignificant until their meeting, suddenly transform when they come together. If one forgets about their past, their affair would be envied. But knowing where they come from taints every detail of the present in haunting, dark shadows. Every scene is exquisitely polished, and the dialogue is perfect. The supporting characters are fascinating, and the story unfolds easily and unexorably towards the ending that though predictable, still fills the viewer with the proper sense of dread. Perhaps the only detail that jars unpleasantly is the music - sometimes its absence seems detrimental, sometimes its presence seems equally so. It lacks the essential gloominess and feeling of forecoming disaster. This isn't an easy movie to watch, but it is one that will never gather dust on your shelf of videos.
Rating: 
Summary: My first R-rated movie without Mom
Review: This movie was a really big deal for me because it ther first R-rated movie I was able to see without being accompained by a guardian. I proudly showed my ID to prove I was old enough to join the art house movie going crowd on a Saturday night and entered the theater all proud and mature. After watching the movie, I left the theater depressed because the movie was so dark and gloomy with an ugly message on the state of humanity; I was also excited because I could tell my friends all the nasty, shocking things I had seen. Dirk Bogarde plays the night porter in a high class hotel in Vienna. Charlotte Rampling shows up looking stunningly beautiful and elegant. They recognize each other; he was an official in the Nazi party and she was a teenager in his concentration camp. They begin a depraved S & M affair while in the camp. When they find each other in the hotel, their sick relationship is rekindled and the depravity continues. Seeing it again years later the whole thing seems silly, depraved, and pretenious but still alot of fun.
Rating: 
Summary: a distubing film
Review: This review is for the Criterion Collection DVD edition of the film. 13 years after the end or WWII, a concentration camp survivor, meets her former captor/lover working as a porter at a hotel in Vienna. They then resume their odd, sadomasochistic relationship. The film had much less [adult content] in it than I would expect from a film with relationships described that way. It also has several flashback scenes. The film still has nudity and [adult content] but less than many R rated films that are around today. There are several former SS officers living in Vienna who are hiding from the international community trying to jail them for their crimes. The DVD has no special features which is not common for Criterion Collection releases, but as always had the liner noted and the film is presented in it's original theactrical aspect ratio.
Rating:
Summary: Haunting
Review: This was one macabre movie, yet tragically real. It take a raw look at love from a twisted prespective, it can't by any means be summed up into sado-maschism, it is far much deeper. Not for the hoplessly romantic, or for those who are into hollywood, fake over night made movies. If you like forming your own opinion and not letting critics dictate to you what is good and what isn't. then this is the movie for you. :)
Rating:
Summary: the night porter
Review: When you watch "the night porter", you must be prepared to view it as fantasy and not reality. You must also bear in mind the wider issues that it brings forth. Namely its links with the fetish/sadomasochism scene. Many people harbour secret fantasies regarding ss uniforms and punishment administered by people wearing such attire. Bogarde is of course convincing as the guilt ridden Max and Rampling as the schoolgirl-ish character with her first crush. This film only becomes disturbing if you try and think of it as real and not the fantasy which it really is.
Rating:
Summary: Night Porter, The... (1974) d: Cavani, Lilianna
Review: Years after surviving sexual imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp, under a sadistic Nazi storm-trooper, a woman (played by Charlotte Rampling) inadvertently encounters her former torturer / lover (played by Dirk Bogarde) working as a night porter at a Viennese hotel. Despite their reverse position of power and roles, they ultimately reenact and re-kindle their sadomasochistic relationship only to have his former nazi comrades stalk them. Few films equal the unrelenting intensity of Liliana Cavani's disturbing drama. Although not a true exploitation film, the seriously artsy, and enjoyable Night Porter, is probably single handedly responsible for starting the whole 1970's SS phenomenon. The film has thankful been brought back to life on DVD by Criterion, a company that specializes in bringing classics, and contemporary films back to life. ...The Night Porter deftly examines the cruelty and decadence of Nazi culture.
| 
