Night Porter (1973)

Editor's Note Liliana Cavani's controversial film featured a breakout performance by the|American actress Charlotte Rampling in this Italian tour de force. Thirteen years after World War II, while working as a night porter in a Vienna hotel occupied by ex-Nazis, a former SS concentration camp officer, played by Dirk Bogarde, is astonished when a past victim-lover (Rampling), checks into the hotel with her husband. Despite the horrific nature of their former "relationship"--glimpsed in flashbacks of rape, torture and humiliation--their sadomasochistic sexual bond is soon rekindled. Eventually, the SS wants to eliminate the woman, as she is a witness to war crimes. THE NIGHT PORTER is not only an operatic and disturbing cult film that deftly examines the cruelty and decadence of Nazi culture, but an unconventional love story. Based on writer-director Liliana Cavani's interviews with an actual concentration camp survivor, THE NIGHT PORTER is one of the more controversial films of the 1970s, examining aspects of human interaction few works dare to touch.

	Philippe Leroy
	Dirk Bogarde
	Charlotte Rampling
	Isa Miranda
	Esa De Simone - Producer
	Daniele Paris - Composer
	Alfio Contini - Director of Photography
	Franco Arcalli - Editor
	Liliana Cavani - Screenwriter
	Robert Gordon Edwards - Producer
	Liliana Cavani - Director

From director Liliana Cavani, the scintillating story of the abusive, sexually-charged relationship, rekindled unexpectedly thirteen years after World War II, between an ex-Nazi officer (Bogarde) who served in a concentration camp, and one of the women prisoners (Rampling) he controlled. Sight and Sound
"A young Charlotte Rampling brings intelligence and sensitivity to her role..." 12/01/2006 p.89