The Night Porter (1973)
(Il portiere di notte)
Country: IT
Technical: col 118m
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti
Synopsis:
The former sex slave of an SS officer now hiding out in a Viennese hotel recognises him and, after the initial shock, they resume their sado-masochistic relationship - much to the concern of other surviving Nazis whose self-appointed task it is to liquidate witnesses.
Review:
Following Visconti's The Damned, and Bertolucci's The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris, this seemed at the time to be upping the ante simply in terms of shock tactics. In retrospect it shocks less, whether visually or in conceptual terms (though the strawberry jam scene certainly competes with Last Tango on a certain level), and it is clearly an attempt to deal both with the guilt or lack of it of the tormentors and the collusion of the victim. It was this last which so outraged people at the time and the stars go some way towards convincing us their characters are 'in love', but a tinge of absurdity remains.
(Il portiere di notte)
Country: IT
Technical: col 118m
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti
Synopsis:
The former sex slave of an SS officer now hiding out in a Viennese hotel recognises him and, after the initial shock, they resume their sado-masochistic relationship - much to the concern of other surviving Nazis whose self-appointed task it is to liquidate witnesses.
Review:
Following Visconti's The Damned, and Bertolucci's The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris, this seemed at the time to be upping the ante simply in terms of shock tactics. In retrospect it shocks less, whether visually or in conceptual terms (though the strawberry jam scene certainly competes with Last Tango on a certain level), and it is clearly an attempt to deal both with the guilt or lack of it of the tormentors and the collusion of the victim. It was this last which so outraged people at the time and the stars go some way towards convincing us their characters are 'in love', but a tinge of absurdity remains.
(Il portiere di notte)
Country: IT
Technical: col 118m
Director: Liliana Cavani
Cast: Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy, Gabriele Ferzetti
Synopsis:
The former sex slave of an SS officer now hiding out in a Viennese hotel recognises him and, after the initial shock, they resume their sado-masochistic relationship - much to the concern of other surviving Nazis whose self-appointed task it is to liquidate witnesses.
Review:
Following Visconti's The Damned, and Bertolucci's The Conformist and Last Tango in Paris, this seemed at the time to be upping the ante simply in terms of shock tactics. In retrospect it shocks less, whether visually or in conceptual terms (though the strawberry jam scene certainly competes with Last Tango on a certain level), and it is clearly an attempt to deal both with the guilt or lack of it of the tormentors and the collusion of the victim. It was this last which so outraged people at the time and the stars go some way towards convincing us their characters are 'in love', but a tinge of absurdity remains.