The Night Porter

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The Night Porter

R

Released Oct 1, 1974

1h 57m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

67%

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33 Reviews

68%

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5,000+ Ratings

A Nazi death-camp sadomasochist (Dirk Bogarde) and a woman (Charlotte Rampling) he abused meet again in 1957 Vienna.

Critics Consensus

The Night Porter's salaciousness gives its exploration of historical trauma a bitter aftertaste, but audiences seeking provocation are unlikely to forget the sting of this erotic drama.

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Pauline Kael

The New Yorker

The Night Porter is a doomsday vision of sex. The picture says that human sexuality is loathsome and that every once in a while the beast makes itself heard; its central mechanism is to use war guilt to account for sex guilt.

Sep 26, 2023

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Perhaps there is something in its very crassness, horror and tastelessness that does at least jolt us towards an acknowledgment of pure evil.

Rated: 3/5

Nov 27, 2020

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Noel Murray

The Dissolve

At its best, the film layers Lucia's and Maximilian's flashbacks in such a way that that the lines between memory, fantasy, and nightmare get blurred.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 10, 2014

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Wayne Harada

Honolulu Advertiser

Disturbingly tedious and unfortunately pretentious.

Mar 17, 2023

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Noah Berlatsky

Splice Today

The positions of torturer and victim slip around and into each other, and this is presented as part of the violence itself—a violence that continues in the mind and heart long after it ceases physically.

Mar 9, 2023

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

Rampling, going deep into a performance of serene sexual self-annihilation, is more than enough reason to rent this.

Rated: B

Aug 30, 2022

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Lanfranco C

After so many years the idea is still good, but the develop is quite "dusty"

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

06/27/24

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Joan N

Fanastic! The kind of film that seeps into you, disturbing and enthralling in equal measure. Bogarde and Rampling make for one of cinema's great twisted pairs.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

04/29/24

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David F

An intriguing premise-a couple who had some kind of a relationship in a concentration camp meet up after the war and resume/replay their roles from wartime-is tantalizingly acted out in this intense, decadent, thoughtful film which deals with some staticky controversial ideas.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

04/23/24

Full Review

Dave S

To sum the plot up quickly, The Night Porter tells of the romance between a Nazi SS officer in a concentration camp and the young prisoner that he falls in love with. Set primarily in Vienna in 1957 where the two reunite and reignite their ugly passion, it also tells their story through flashbacks to their time in the camp. Despite strong performances from Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling in the lead roles and some sporadically creative direction from Liliano Cavani, it is extremely difficult to get past the nature of the bizarre and unsettling relationship. While there are probably (and hopefully) some complex themes being explored, they tend to get lost in the sheer sordidness of the nasty story, leaving the viewer wondering what exactly the point of the exercise was in the first place.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

10/14/23

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j f

I'd wager the farm that this was Max Mosley's favorite movie. It's good, but not good enough to overcome how d*cked up and unpleasant it is.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

12/21/23

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Anthony A

Why I liked it: it finally explained my ptsd Why I hate it: too close too home. The nazi stuff is just for the setting. It's not relevant to the message.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/15/23

Full Review

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Liliana Cavani

Director

Dirk Bogarde

Maximilian Theo Aldorfer

Charlotte Rampling

Lucia Atherton

Philippe Leroy-Beaulieu

Klaus

Gabriele Ferzetti

Hans

Giuseppe Addobbati

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Synopsis

A Nazi death-camp sadomasochist (Dirk Bogarde) and a woman (Charlotte Rampling) he abused meet again in 1957 Vienna.

Director: Liliana Cavani
Producer: Esa De Simone, Robert Gordon Edwards
Screenwriter: Liliana Cavani, Italo Moscati
Distributor: AVCO Embassy Pictures
Rating: R
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 1, 1974, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 25, 2017
Runtime: 1h 57m

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