Rent The Night Porter (1974)
3.1 of 5 from 129 ratings
1h 53min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
Max (Dirk Bogarde) is a night porter in a Vienna hotel in the 1950's. When beautiful Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) checks in, they recognise each other from a terrible past; Max was an SS officer in a concentration camp who had abused and tortured her, then a teenage prisoner. Lucia is travelling with her orchestra conductor husband, but when he leaves to continue his tour, Lucia stays behind as she and Max find themselves compelled to renew their former, intense, sadomasochistic relationship. Max is a reluctant member of a group of former SS who are ruthlessly covering up their pasts. They soon consider Lucia a threat and urge Max to hand her over. He refuses and hides out with Lucia, while his former comrades exert their threats. This is the story of an obsessive passion which compels two lovers to be together despite their lucid awareness of contravening all - even their own - morality, and the certainty of their tragic destiny. Liliana Cavani's tale of passion beyond all morality or societal construct provokes overwhelming and wildly conflicting emotions. - Actors:
- Dirk Bogarde, Charlotte Rampling, Philippe Leroy-Beaulieu, Gabriele Ferzetti, Giuseppe Addobbati, Isa Miranda, Giovanni Bignamini, Marino Masé, Amedeo Amodio, Piero Vida, Geoffrey Copleston, Manfred Freyberger, Ugo Cardea, Hilda Gunther, Nora Ricci, Piero Mazzinghi, Kai-Siegfried Seefeld, Luigi Antonio Guerra, Carlo Mangano
- Directors:
- Liliana Cavani
- Producers:
- Paola Tallarigo
- Writers:
- Liliana Cavani, Italo Moscati, Barbara Alberti
- Aka:
- Il portiere di notte
- Studio:
- Anchor Bay
- Genres:
- Classics, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- Cinema Paradiso's 2025 Centenary Club: January - March, A Brief History of Film..., The Last Laugh: The Film That Changed Cinema, The Third Man At 75, Top 10 Guest Houses On Film, Top Films
- Countries:
- Italy
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 30/11/2020
- Run Time:
- 119 minutes
- Languages:
- English LPCM Mono
- Subtitles:
- None
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 1.85:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Interview with Charlotte Rampling
- Interview with Liliana Cavani
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Reviews (3) of The Night Porter
Not a typical film about the Holocaust... - The Night Porter review by CP Customer
I thought this was a great film - controversial and shocking but well-acted and I was engrossed till the end. The director, Liliana Cavani, had interviewed for a TV programme two women who survived the Dachau concentration camp. This inspired her to make The Night Porter - and the film explores the enduring psychological damage of Nazism even after the end of the war.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Desire is a Death Camp - The Night Porter review by griggs
The Night Porter is a deliberately provocative and deeply discomforting watch. Charlotte Rampling and Dirk Bogarde deliver fearless, unnerving performances as a former concentration camp inmate and her captor, now locked in a disturbing cycle of sadomasochistic obsession. Their chemistry is electric but warped, blurring the lines between power, trauma, and survival.
The film leans into the fetishisation of fascism: uniforms, rituals, and control become sources of perverse allure, raising uncomfortable questions about how atrocity can be aestheticised or eroticised. It’s an allegory for post-war Europe’s moral amnesia, where former Nazis live quietly among us and the past is not so much buried as replayed. The film’s kink elements aren’t objectionable because they involve kink—but because they conflate it with abuse, domination, and historical trauma in ways that are designed to make the viewer squirm.
Cavani offers no easy answers, and that’s both the film’s strength and its discomfort. You won’t enjoy it in any conventional sense, but it stays with you—queasy, challenging, and impossible to dismiss.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Dark Obsession - The Night Porter review by MW
This is a dark exploration of two twisted minds brutalised by war. Charlotte Rampling, with her hooded eyes and ice-calm presence, is the beautiful victim who after the war turns the tables on her Nazi torturer in a strange act of sadomasochistic revenge. Dirk Bogarde, as in several of his films, is perfect at mixing quiet menace with sexual vulnerability. It's a perplexing story of loathing and desire but eminently watchable.
0 out of 0 members found this review helpful.