The Night Porter

R

Released Oct 1, 1974

1h 57m

Drama

List

67%

Tomatometer

33 Reviews

68%

Audience Score

5,000+ Ratings

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

Read More

Read Less

Prime Video

Max

Watch The Night Porter with a subscription on Max, rent on Prime Video, or buy on Prime Video.

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.

Read Critics Reviews

Pauline Kael

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

Full Review

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

Full Review

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

Full Review

Wayne Harada

Honolulu Advertiser

Disturbingly tedious and unfortunately pretentious.

Mar 17, 2023

Full Review

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

Full Review

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

Full Review

Read all reviews

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

Full Review

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

Full Review

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

Full Review

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

Georgan G

I found this tale of SM fascinating. It is never made clear, but I'm assuming that their interaction during WWII became consensual as the female began to enjoy it. Their meeting after the war is total eroticism. They choose death rather than going back to their old lives, which says a lot about their SM love.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/07/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Post a rating

Liliana Cavani

Director

Dirk Bogarde

Maximilian Theo Aldorfer

Charlotte Rampling

Lucia Atherton

Philippe Leroy-Beaulieu

Klaus

Gabriele Ferzetti

Hans

Giuseppe Addobbati

Stumm

Show Less Cast & Crew

Show More Cast & Crew

92%

90%

The Marriage of Maria Braun

9%

23%

Ash Wednesday

66%

74%

Zabriskie Point

86%

74%

Save the Tiger

88%

81%

Harry and Tonto

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

New on DVD & Blu-Ray: Guardians of the Galaxy, Dolphin Tale 2, and More

ThinkFilm Turns On "The TV Set"

View more photos

Synopsis

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

Director: Liliana Cavani
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

Most Popular at Home Now