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The Night Porter (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]
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Additional Blu-ray options | Edition | Discs | Price | New from | Used from |
Blu-ray
November 30, 2020 "Please retry" | Director's Cut | 1 |
—
| $25.96 | $28.67 |
Watch Instantly with | Rent | Buy |
The Night Porter | — | — |
Purchase options and add-ons
Genre | Drama |
Format | Blu-ray |
Contributor | Charlotte Rampling, Liliana Cavani, Dirk Bogarde |
Language | English |
Runtime | 1 hour and 58 minutes |
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Product Description
In this unsettling drama from Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani (RIPLEY'S GAME), a concentration camp survivor (SWIMMING POOL's Charlotte Rampling) discovers her former torturer and lover (DEATH IN VENICE's Dirk Bogarde) working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them. Operatic and disturbing, THE NIGHT PORTER deftly examines the lasting social and psychological effects of the Nazi regime.
Product details
- Aspect Ratio : 1.85:1
- Is Discontinued By Manufacturer : No
- MPAA rating : Unrated (Not Rated)
- Product Dimensions : 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 0.01 ounces
- Item model number : 2421
- Director : Liliana Cavani
- Media Format : Blu-ray
- Run time : 1 hour and 58 minutes
- Release date : December 9, 2014
- Actors : Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling
- Subtitles: : English
- Studio : Criterion Collection
- ASIN : B00NMUCIA0
- Country of Origin : USA
- Number of discs : 1
- Best Sellers Rank: #10,579 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #1,186 in Drama Blu-ray Discs
- Customer Reviews:
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Bogarde plays the night porter at a prestigious Hotel in Vienna. He is surprised one night when a famous conductor appears to lead the Vienna orchestra with his wife, played by Rampling. This woman is none other than his "little girl", the young woman he saved the life of while producing photographic records for the Nazi's during his duties in the camp. What else he did to & with her is the disturbing part of the show. Just as in La Caduta Degli Dei (The Damned) it is shown in detail with nudity & aberrant behavior being on screen many times. If this kind of show offends you then avoid it at all costs.
The relationship between these two is renewed by this chance encounter & so many questions as to why someone would submit to this thing that is between them are displayed in action during the film but left for the viewer to determine motivations themselves. An interesting study of aberrant human behavior that doesn't even stray into fantasy really, though many might find that difficult to believe.
I myself wonder what this woman's life would have been as an adult if there had been no camp experience for her. It's certain that her camp experiences molded some of her choices & yet would any of her choices been the same despite it? Would she have been a submissive whether she had been sent to the camp or not? It's certain she would not have had a relationship with the night porter had she not gone to the camp. Just like most of us, they respond to being in a life they aren't happy with by going in another direction, in this case they go backwards.
This is a movie about people under extreme stress & clear motive isn't always obtainable for the viewer. There are the camp photographer's choices to consider too. Why would this chance sighting change him from a man in hiding to what he becomes afterwards? The group of ex-Nazis is well constructed as are the obvious collaborators. Little is shown of normal society & I feel that was a good choice here. There is plenty to consider about the motivations of the people we do meet, not to mention the continuing fear of what was & for some still is the Nazi machine.
I doubt this was an easy movie to act in for anyone & the obvious driving force of the Nazi experience is present throughout. People that believe that Marlene Dietrich was a good sensual dancer may change their mind after seeing the dance scene in this one. It is certainly less restrained being, as it is, set in a concentration camp. I always see this one together with La Caduta Degli Dei (The Damned) which is a good view into the world of Nazi Germany just prior to the war, while The Night Porter is a glimpse into the possible aberrations after the war.
For those who find the film to be exploitive or perverse (in an unrealistic way), please remember that we now know, as a result of so much information gathered regarding the sexuality of children who were abused during their formative years, that if a girl, young and inexperienced as Rampling's Lucia was when she was in the concentration camp, finds the right combination of emotional tenderness (as in Max's kissing of her wounded arm) and sexual stimulation/initiation, these experiences become so deeply imprinted as to be easily re-awakened in adulthood. After the intensity of such experiences, "normal" sexuality can seem dead and flat, not at all a match for the earlier times of dis-inhibtion. While this may be difficult and even offensive for those who have no similar touchstone of experience, psychologically it is accurate--frighteningly so--and "The Night Porter" shows us just how far it can go. When Lucia puts on the little girl's dress she's purchased, the image is jarring but sums up the truth of her stunted psychological and sexual development. We end up wondering whether she ever had a passionate moment with her oh-so-normal husband. With the experiences of the camp having been the most intense and indelible of her life, how could she not seek to re-create them? And how could Max, who despite his sadistic acts seems to have genuinely fallen in love with "his little girl," not fall backwards himself into the time when they were locked together in the deepest relationship of all--two people may never be closer than victim and torturer, completely dependent upon one another for the only human contact either has. Hence we see the Stockholm Syndrome constantly repeated, abused girls become abused women, etc. As Lucia says to a former Nazi doctor who comes to Max's apt. to check on the situation, "There is no cure." Whether one agrees or not, whether it is true for everyone or not, it is accepted as true by these two, and all their actions spring from this perception.
Liliana Cavani's precise and compassionate direction gives her characters the safety they needed (Rampling is astoundingly courageous in her no-holds-barred performance--most actresses would have run screaming from this role), and Bogarde is memorable as this strange combination of father/lover. Together the three create this dark and disturbing but deeply human story of damaged people who somehow find a way to live fully for a brief time before their end.
One last note: I agree with Mr. Leach that Criterion can be too expensive, but at least they give us what no one else will touch.
Top reviews from other countries
Dieser Film ist auf mehreren Ebenen tiefgründig und wohl durchdacht.
Vielleicht sollte dem Zuschauer auch vorher eine Geschichte aus dem "Neuen Testament" der Christlichen Bibel kennen, dass der Salome die den Kopf des Johannes fordert. Ich vermute, ohne diese Geschichte, dieses biblische Zitat, könnten dem Zuschauer die Beweggründe der beiden Protagonisten verborgen bleiben.
Das Ende der Geschichte fand ich weniger gelungen, aber verzeihlich.
Die schauspielerische Leistung ist auch nach heutigem Maßstab noch sehr gut, beide finde ich grandios und wer danach das Interview mit der Regisseurin ansieht bekommt noch mal ein Aha Erlebnis.
Ich hatte von dem Film weniger erwartet und war positiv Überrascht.
An ending I won't reveal to not ruin spectators' surprises.
A movie that still leaves an impression in your mind as the story ends.
Now of course lots of discussion were made on the movie's thematic being a horrible time period in history, about its appropriateness or not. But to me, I felt the story was a great way to study how the past still haunted War prisoners and about the guilt complexes of former War criminals and how if some of them are ready to deal with their past, others are just incapable to do so, at the point of becoming violent with anything that would endanger them. Not only that, it was a chance for us to have at least some empathy for a man, his demons and for his lover whose passion becomes dangerous, and to see another variation of a love story. The reality of a love developing between an assaillant and its victim, through games where they tease each other as the outside world soon starts attacking them. Not a classical romance, but an attempt to show something else, though not utopifying it like how Stephenie Meyer did with Twilight. Instead Cavani's story is realistic and more plausible to its denouement.
As an artist, Cavani's strengths are not in her acting directions as the actors' performances are sometimes irregular between each other (ex: the Bellboy with whom the countess Stein has an affair overacts in his few scenes and his dubbed voice is terrible). Instead her qualities occur through the tensions and moods she films, her german expresionism visuals, her camera skills, and her story. And with Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling, her work gains lots of point through their acting abilities. Indeed, they add human strengths where other actors who could be uncomfortable with the film's topic would have hurt the final product if they had played in Bogarde and Rampling's roles. In conclusion, Bogarde and Rampling leave to us the proof that they are both courageous and talented. In particular in a powerful scene where Lucia sings "Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte" in a Nazi outfit and bewitches other Nazi soldiers who listen to her. A scene that shocked many viewers and stands out as one of the most memorable moment in the movie, along with Max and Lucia's confrontation in the hotel room.
Of the film's 2K transfer, the end result is pretty good, although at the funeral of a main character, the image is blurry (film stock the film's transferers had at the time?) and there are still those very annoying dirts and hairs in certain scenes (ex: again that confrontation in the hotel room), which I wish the film's editors could have corrected. Nevertheless, the film is a pleasure to look again in HD, and the monaural sound is all right. As for the special features, Cavani's interview is really good to listen as she deals with her detractors with efficient arguments and so is her documentary on War Prisoners that helped her helm this film. But I wish we could have had a dialogue with Charlotte Rampling on the Night Porter as she's quite a fascinating and intelligent woman with relevant statements about her work, never saying cutsy-ditsy-poshy-Hollywood-game statements like how too many actresses and actors pull their interviews. Even better, it would have been nice to have the documentary called "the Private Bogarde". It's a great documentary that dives into the life and persona of a man who left quite a mark on filmmaking.
In the end, that movie is an impressionable piece of italian cinema, but also a nice film to watch if you are a fan of Lars von Trier and want to know about this movie that has had a major impact on his work.
The quality of the DVD transfer could be a little clearer in some scenes, but it's worth buying as it is generally sound.