The Night Porter
| The Night Porter | |
|---|---|
 Italian promotional poster | |
| Directed by | Liliana Cavani |
| Written by | Liliana Cavani |
| Produced by | Robert Gordon Edwards Esa De Simone |
| Starring | Dirk Bogarde Charlotte Rampling Philippe Leroy Gabriele Ferzetti Isa Miranda |
| Cinematography | Alfio Contini |
| Music by | Daniele Paris |
| Distributed by | The Criterion Collection |
Release dates | France: 3 April 1974 United States: 1 October 1974 |
Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | English |
The Night Porter (Template:Lang-it) is a controversial 1974 art film by Italian director Liliana Cavani, starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.
Synopsis
Dirk Bogarde plays Maximilian Theo Aldorfer, a former Nazi SS officer, and Charlotte Rampling plays Lucia Atherton, a concentration camp survivor who had an ambiguous relationship with Aldorfer. Flashbacks show Max tormenting Lucia, but also acting as her protector. In an iconic scene, Lucia sings a Marlene Dietrich song "Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte" to the concentration camp guards while wearing pieces of an SS uniform, and Max "rewards" her with the severed head of a male inmate who had been bullying the other inmates, a reference to Salome.
Thirteen years after World War II, Lucia meets Aldorfer again; he is now the night porter at a Vienna hotel. There, they fall back into their sadomasochistic relationship.
Themes
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2012) |
The film depicts the political continuity between wartime Nazism and post-war Europe and the psychological continuity of characters locked into compulsive repetition of the past. On another level it deals with the psychological condition known as Stockholm Syndrome. The movie also raises the issue of sleeper Nazi cells and their control, and possibly hints at what could have spurred the 1960s reaction to the Red Army Faction (aka Baader-Meinhof).
More basically, it explores two people in an uneasy yet inextricably bound relationship within the context of a greater political malaise during and after World War II. Lucia (Rampling) is not specifically identified as Jewish, possibly to depict the plight of all women. Her name may be a pun of "light" and St. Lucia, the patron saint of the blind. Max seems to have a guilt complex, given he's afraid of the light, and lives a modest lifestyle after the war. Allusions to sexual ambivalence can be seen in his relationship with the nearly naked male ballet dancer.[citation needed]
Criticism
In responses to The Night Porter, Cavani was both celebrated for her courage in dealing with the theme of sexual transgression and, simultaneously, castigated for the controversial manner in which she presented that transgression: within the context of a Nazi Holocaust narrative. The film has been accused of mere sensationalism: 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."[1] Given the film's dark and disturbing themes and a somewhat ambiguous moral clarification at the end, The Night Porter has tended to divide audiences. It is, however, the film for which Cavani is best known.
See also
Footnotes
- ^ Ebert, Roger (February 10, 1975). "The Night Porter". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2008-12-23.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
External links
- Portiere di notte, Il at IMDb
- ‹The template AllMovie title is being considered for deletion.› The Night Porter at AllMovie
- "Synopsis". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2008-12-23.
- Insdorf, Annette (Jan 11, 2000). "Criterion Collection essay". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2008-12-23.
- Scherr, Rebecca (February 2000). "The Uses of Memory and the Abuses of Fiction: Sexuality in Holocaust Fiction and Memoir". Other Voices, vol. 2.1. Retrieved 2008-12-23.