clockworkdevotchka I am your average film lover who eagerly seeks out the most transgressive films, and devours the Criterion Collection. I must say though that I put off watching this for a long time because the subject matter and idea of a film that romanticizes Nazism just seemed one step too far, especially as a Jewish person. However, after seeing it come up again and again, I decided to bite the bullet and give it a go.Yes, this film is brutal and not for the faint at heart. I have a natural interest in transgressive sexuality and consider myself somewhere on that spectrum as well so maybe my opinion is biased, but this film was not at all what I expected. I do not see it to be a "Nazisploitation" film, as it has been labeled, it does not romanticize Nazism. It is a deep psychological profile on bdsm and the dynamics of an abusive D/s relationship.The crazy thing is the main characters really do come to love each other in their own way, albeit in a destructive, violent way not unlike Heathcliffe and Cathy from Wuthering Heights. It is doomed but boy, when they're together its like being caught in the middle of an erotic storm. Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde are maybe the best on screen couple I've seen in terms of sexual chemistry. The film really builds up the tension and puts you right in the face of their emotional turmoil. It is effective because outside of their affair, the rest of the world is tight laced, gloomy, and overall feeling the effects of post war depression. It was geniusly done how delicate the whole game between the two is, and the smallest sensory details add a layer of ingenuity and sexuality that is beyond belief. Dirk Bogarde's performance is brilliant, his anger and sensuality, and everything in between completely raw, like a wild animal that constantly has to play at being human. Charlotte Rampling also had this totally unhinged quality and the two really work off each other's energy to bring together something genuine and not often captured on film.The Night Porter rocked my world and deeply moved me. It was all at once beautiful, erotic, heartbreaking, romantic, disturbing, and terrible. It is a masterpiece.

Dalbert Pringle *WARNING!* - Don't let this DVD's tantalizingly provocative cover art of a young Charlotte Rampling in leatherette, Nazi gear fool you - 'Cause, believe me, when it comes to the likes of kink and depravity (with a bitter slice of S&M thrown in for good measure), The Night Porter plays it way too safe, and, unfortunately, doesn't deliver the wallop that it most certainly should have.Yes. This train wreck (of a Romeo & Juliet story) did contain some interesting and intriguing moments, but, overall, its unconventional storyline was set (throughout its entire 2-hour running time) at a very low simmer and never once did it reach the boiling point, as far as I'm concerned.Perhaps, now 40 years later, The Night Porter is about due for a remake.... And, in this mighty grim day and age (of insatiable tastes for unbridled violence and cruelty) that we now live in - I'm sure there's bound to be some "no-holds-barred" director out there who's capable of wetting the whistles of all those boys and girls across the nation, and beyond, who crave it dished up totally rough and raunchy, Nazi-style.

lasttimeisaw THE NIGHT PORTER, is a doomed love story in its kernel while being notorious for its sadomasochistic exploitation between not any random two, but Max (Bogarde), a former Nazi SS officer and Lucia (Rampling), his prisoner in the concentration camp. It is such a campy plot design, blatantly excites for controversy. Directed by the Italian art-house cult- director Liliana Cavani, my very first foray into her filmography, what sticks in my mind after watching is not the sensational perverseness of the sex act, but a tenacious nihilism animated by those two equally impenetrable characters, with the most passive and futile resistance, it is a fearless scenario of two against the whole world, nothing else matters, as long as they can march toward their grim fate together, no compromise or whatsoever, which is intensely heart-rending. Vienna 1957, 13 years after WWII, Max now is a hotel's night porter, and by a mere chance, Lucia and her husband, an orchestra conductor come to perform in the city and stay in the same hotel. This unexpected encounter stirs memory flashbacks in both and instigated by Mozart's MAGIC FLUTE, which is conducted by Lucia's husband, their mutual longing reaches the boiling point, the sadomasochistic torment (more spiritually than physically) which generates the irresistible pleasure, reunites them, Lucia leaves her husband and moves into Max's cramped apartment, even voluntarily being chained inside, if that's so, as long as everything is consensual, they might be the happiest couple in the world. However, Max is an ex-Bazi officer, and is currently involved with a coterie of former SS comrades, lead by Hans (Ferzetti), they are intent on destroying any documents and dispatching all the possible surviving witnesses in order to clear their names so that they can live in peace. So, when they find out Lucia's presence, both her and Max's lives are at critical stake. Well, one major drawback in the plot is the elliptical motivations of the coterie, on the surface, they arrange a certain trial of its members individually, yet, an ultimate purpose is to eliminate all the evidences associated in the war crime (as Max mercilessly murdered one of his witness, we can only hear the voice-overs playing while on screen it is Max in his apartment, disconcerted), so why on earth they need such a trial? Some kind of remedial therapy? Moreover, in the scenes where Hans faces Lucia alone in the apartment, obviously, it is much easier to whisk her away or simply finish her off, so she will no longer be a threat, but instead, Hans painstakingly wheedles her to be the witness in the so-called trial against Max, which is rather perplexing.From then on, the narrative steers towards the hungry strike in a claustrophobic status, aimlessly hemmed in the apartment, Max and Lucia indulge in their memories, haunted by their memories and can only get excited through their memories, complete devoid of any political agenda, it is a battle between human's primal sex impulse and basic desire to survive. Ms. Rampling is renown for taking unorthodox projects and braving challenging roles, here, apart from her strikingly alluring solo-dancing scenes among Nazi officers, which doesn't connect the story necessarily, instead impairing her vulnerable status as a powerless victim, indeed is a hyped gambit to be shamelessly titillating and contentious. She compellingly conveys Lucia's abstruse psyche through her expressive facial expressions and body languages; Bogarde, symmetrically excellent in veiling Max's complex lust with a chilling sophistication, both can be gauged as the top-picks of their eclectic careers. Shot in lurid Technicolor in 35mm, THE NIGHT PORTER is unequivocally Cavani's most popular work and fairly speaking, it is a singular curio might find audience among those who are not feeble-minded and vacant from all the political innuendos, also one has to accept that it doesn't conform to the formula where in the upshot, those loathsome wrongdoers never get their comeuppance.

currierej This movies has been reviewed in depth (reading them inspired me to write this), I just wanted to add a small comment.When most people talk about the convoluted and twisted relationship of the main characters they seem to miss one point, their current positions.Max has gone from a man of great power, life and death by the wave of his hand, illustrated by his present to her at the dance. And she was a "dead" person, sent to a camp to die, kept alive by his simplest wish, the slightest misstep and she is dead.Now, years later he is a basic servant, reduced to hiding by night and waiting on other people. She has become rich and powerful, people wait on her.Other people mentioned the guilt felt by Holocaust survivors, and here she is knowing that not only did she survive, but she survived by not only collaborating with the enemy, but (possibly) enjoying herself while doing it. Imagine the guilt in that situation. Her return to his control is less of a S/M response and more of a guilt reflex, she cheated death in the arms of the enemy and guilt drives her back to suffer for her sins. He has a chance to return to his former glory, he regains control over her and by opposing his fellow Nazi's, he once again has control over not only her life, but his own.They return to their former roles out of guilt, the love and the sex are by-products, a way of reinforcing the return to their former roles.The Stockholm syndrome might have influenced her actions at the camp and therefore would have added to her guilt, but I think her reaction to meeting him again is driven more by the guilt of her past than a desire to relive it.They are driven by the guilt of their past actions, he deserved to die for what he did, she did not deserve to live while so many others died.By the way...I'm probably totally wrong in my assessment.Also by the way, I'm not a person obsessed by guilt, I just feel in reference to this movie it is an important addition to the plot.All that said, I liked the movie, I found it engrossing and was drawn into the story, others have mentioned how great the cinematography was, but I found that I was too interested in the story to notice (a sign of great cinematography).A movie that to really appreciate you must look past the story and into the dark soul of life.