The Night Porter

They saved Hitler's smutty brain. The jockstrap ballet scene is the absolute worst thing to be walked in on watching.

Eerily beautiful, oddly romantic. It takes many unexpected turns and overall had the type of character arch I enjoy most. Highly recommended.

It isn't even the borderline-fetishistic softcore porn that makes this so outrageous. A romance film where one of his surviving victims falls madly in lust and love with a bona fide, top-tier Nazi war criminal, is surely exploitation cinema material -- in any case it has no right to be as good a movie as The Night Porter. Now I'm no snowflake but as a Jew I do feel something is horribly wrong with this movie. Yet, at the same time, it is excellent. What can I say?

If they had substituted Rampling for someone more appropriate like....I dunno....Karl Malden? then I woulda given this a much, much higher rating.

Clearly nowhere near as controversial now as it was when it was released, simply given to fact so much time has passed since the end of WWII. There is a sense of sensationlism, & trivialization of Nazi atrocities in this movie, & this is echoed in the relationship between the two leads which seems unrealistic & faintly ridiculous. That said, it's unusual, peculiar, sometimes artistically impressive, and the two leads are good; even if the screenplay is dire & the voice dubbing is terrible.

Real good, oddly charming. Sexy.

(...) Ein hässlicher, da schmieriger Versuch, uns Leid und Verfolgung als Exploitation unterzujubeln. Nazi Chic. Es gibt eine ganze Reihe von Kunden, die die DVD stolz leihen, um zu beweisen, dass sie hier keinen Müll in den Händen halten, sondern etwas "Bedeutungsschwangeres". In einigen Kreisen gilt das als "kulturell offen"(...)

Strange.

Over-stylish trash that makes Europeans look like Fascist fetishists. Charlotte Rampling's real easy on the eyes, though.

Pretty drab affair, dispite all the alleged controversy. Bogarde and Rampling are good, but sadly the material isn't.

Tries to throw away the nazisploitation cake and feed it to us too. Bogarde and Rampling are both very good, but in the end there's not enough character motivation in the script to counterbalance the ugly sensationalist side of it. A movie I could admire, but never like.

only because it shows a very strange kind of love relationship.

Well acted, but extremely unpleasant and discomforting film builds a considerable amount of tension and suspense in the first half, largely thanks to simmering performances from Bogarde and Rampling, but can't resist a slide into sordid exploitation (and unintentional? silliness) in its second half, as the perverse relationship is rather superficially examined. Beautiful cinematography is an asset, and the utter strangeness of the subject matter does at least maintain interest.

# 992

The first half was very interesting but the second half was a slog to get through.

I had no idea Stockholm Syndrome and sadomasochism could be so utterly uninspiring and trite. Its thematic overtones of historical-personal trauma and sexual repression are examined about as deeply as the width of my pinky nail, instead turning what is, in conceit, deliciously sensationalistic European arthouse into something entirely dull, entirely insipid, entirely unmemorable.

Way too bizarre and unpresented

805

That's it I'm kink shaming

Oddly compelling, showing a monster and his victim ending up bound together by the past that haunts each of them in different ways.

An interesting premise, Bogarde and Rampling both act well, and with nice location shooting in an overcast Vienna that fits the story well. However, the movie eventually becomes remarkably stupid in its attempt to act as a metaphor for the Nazi concentration camps, and falls apart in the second half.

The Night Porter is no more about kinkiness than Lolita is about paedophilia. Like Lolita, it is about a love so powerful that the lovers cannot repress their perversion. Their love is so pure and honest that perversion and sinfulness disappear and their love becomes innocent, almost childlike. Cinema-wise, The Night Porter has a feel that you don't see much today, dreamlike and Kafkaesque in its storytelling and Roeg-like in its cinematography and editing. Not a gem but a pleasant watch.

had the promise to be full blown carnivalesque exploitation film but instead of amping it up there comes this bore of a hostage kinda situation at the end

Trashy attempt to get a rise out of people.

Rampling and Bogarde is on fire in this, especially Rampling. But something feels off. I don't know maybe the storyline is too unbelievable or the style is too polished. Worth a watch if you are interested in this type of troubled shit, but don't expect much from the story.

thought it was pretty good until about halfway through when it just got silly

23 Mart 2015 & Fikir olarak ilginc, icerik olarak yetersiz, tempo olarak hantal bir film. Beklentimin cok altinda.

Impressive for making such a subversive idea into something so dreadfully boring.

Maybe I just don't know enough about S&M culture, but even if I did I feel like I'd still hate this movie. This was not a worthwhile experience.

877

Would rather starve than be treated as a human being. Some kinds of love can do this to you, you know

7+

The film feels very shallow and empty, sheer provocation without much substance. I never really felt or cared for any of the characters at all, and I don't get the aesthetic appeal, either.

#905

What the hell does von Trier see in this garbage?