Il portiere di notte (1974)

Director:

Liliana Cavani

Writers:

Barbara Alberti (story)
Liliana Cavani (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 October 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

The Most Controversial Picture of Our Time!

Plot:

Thirteen years after WWII a concentration camp survivor (Rampling) and her tormentor, currently the night porter at a Vienna hotel...

Plot Keywords:

Night Porter | Hotel | SS | Porter | Nazi

Cast

Dirk Bogarde	...	Maximilian Theo Aldorfer
Charlotte Rampling	...	Lucia Atherton
Philippe Leroy	...	Klaus
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Hans
Giuseppe Addobbati	...	Stumm
Isa Miranda	...	Countess Stein
Nino Bignamini	...	Adolph
Marino Masé	...	Atherton
Amedeo Amodio	...	Bert
Piero Vida	...	Day Porter
Geoffrey Copleston	...	Kurt
Manfred Freyberger	...	Dobson (as Manfred Freiberger)
Ugo Cardea	...	Mario
Hilda Gunther	...	Greta
Nora Ricci	...	The Neighbor

Also Known As:

Nightporter (Australia) (video box title)
The Night Porter (USA)

Runtime:

118 min | Argentina:116 min | Italy:115 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Colour:

Colour (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Germany:16 (re-rating) (2006) | West Germany:18 (original rating) | Japan:R-18 | South Korea:18 | Argentina:18 | Australia:R | Finland:K-18 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 (1975) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | UK:X (original rating)

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Ital-Noleggio Cinematografico

Trivia:

According to an interview given by Charlotte Rampling on the National Public Radio program "Fresh Air", the scene where she dances and sings topless in a Nazi outfit was the first scene filmed.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Bellissimo: Immagini del cinema italiano (1985)

Soundtrack:

The Magic Flute

An unsettling trip into decadence, eroticism, and bondage…

The film is excellently photographed and edited… There is much artistry in the acting, especially by Dirk Bogarde, who is able to genuinely convey strong mixed emotions…

An ex-Nazi scientist hides out as a porter in a German hotel after the War... One day a very rich woman enters the place, a woman he recognizes as one of his concentration-camp sex-experiment subjects... She recognizes him too, but instead of turning him over to the authorities, she strikes up a dead and perverse relationship with him and slips back into her role as a sex slave…

The movie carefully moves from a slightly romantic byplay to a sexually perverse relationship between the two people, ending in a controversial scene where the woman is chained inside an apartment and repeatedly raped… Most disturbing is the film's accuracy, despite its rather unorthodox development...

The motion picture is not necessarily stimulating, but seriously portrays the damage that can be done by sexual abuse…