The Night Porter (Criterion Collection Spine #59)
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Movie Reviews of The Night Porter (Criterion Collection Spine #59)
Movie Review: Brilliant, a work of dark genius. Forget the other reviews!
Summary: 5 Stars
Reading these other reviews only leads me to think that their viewing was only superficial. This is really a marvelous work of ART, folks -- dark art, and two brilliant, startling performances by Rampling and Bogard. And remember, it is indeed based on A TRUE STORY. But as stylization is not trendy these days thanks to wearisome reality type films from Hollywood, what you get here is a stylized, artful portrayal of an inner hell, obsession, and shackles of the past....Those of you who think this just doesn't ring true, only need look at many marriages of today and past, where the husband beats the crap out of the wife who continually comes back for more.....not an easy film to sit through, but afterwards you will be unable to return to Hollywood. Be warned. Not for everyone, but if you like dark art or music, you're gonna slap your head on this one....I LOVE THIS MOVIE. Cinematic film as art, and as a powerful moving drama that will leave you on the floor in front of your TV gasping for air. And the bottle of whiskey.Movie Review: take it easy film buffs!
Summary: 5 Stars
hmm. pouring over these reviews i must say, some very snippy hardcore film critics! i somtimes think a certain movie is totally mindblowing like joseph losey's "boom!", which many (including my gilrfriend!) consider campy and unwatchable. i loved that movie. i love the sensationalness of the "night porter." it is challenging, multi-layered and very entertaining. to get caught up in whether or not it is exploitation, or whether or not a thing like this could ever have really happened, is a big mistake.of course it could really happen. all of those nazis running camps were humans, with the full amount of complexities that humans can have. no person is 100% saint or sinner. i view the holocaust in this movie as a backdrop for a strange love story. let's not forget that love can be destructive and most dysfunctional! she abandons her nice hubby for a nazi who tortured her. you're crazy if you think that's not realistic. that little plot turn happens in real life everyday the world over.
i think that critics of this film don't enjoy a celebration of life which includes very sordid idealogies. this film is a cross between "secretary" (which i hated) and "the pianist" (which was ok.) "the night porter is completely more enjoyable than those films. what a unique idea visualized. what great atmoshere and a great performances.
exploitation? i don't know. who defines these words anyway?
just go see it if you haven't yet and see for yourself. you have to like a bit bit of craziness and audacity to get anything out of this. this movie, up there with bogarde's "the servant" leave me feeling dirty and the end, and i like it!
they don't make em like they used to. can you imagine someone pitching a story like this to a producer today? good heavens!
Movie Review: My first R-rated movie without Mom
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie was a really big deal for me because it ther first R-rated movie I was able to see without being accompained by a guardian. I proudly showed my ID to prove I was old enough to join the art house movie going crowd on a Saturday night and entered the theater all proud and mature. After watching the movie, I left the theater depressed because the movie was so dark and gloomy with an ugly message on the state of humanity; I was also excited because I could tell my friends all the nasty, shocking things I had seen. Dirk Bogarde plays the night porter in a high class hotel in Vienna. Charlotte Rampling shows up looking stunningly beautiful and elegant. They recognize each other; he was an official in the Nazi party and she was a teenager in his concentration camp. They begin a depraved S & M affair while in the camp. When they find each other in the hotel, their sick relationship is rekindled and the depravity continues. Seeing it again years later the whole thing seems silly, depraved, and pretenious but still alot of fun.Movie Review: Bogarde SS
Summary: 3 Stars
Decadent, vicious, seductive. More style than substance. Not for every taste.Movie Review: Ironic twist in The Night Porter
Summary: 4 Stars
Besides the comments made by other reviewers on the story's ironic and seductive twists, there is an important bit of ironic iconography. Max resides in a flat within the greatest monument of Rottes Wien-- Red Vienna--the complex known as "Karl-Marx-Hof". Designed by the architect Karl Ehn and built in 1927 by the municipality of Vienna as one of its "superblocks" of housing for the working classes, the "Karl-Marx-Hof" was subjected to artillery fire in 1934 during the short civil war when Vienna's left-of-center government was literally bombarded out of office by federal troops. This set the stage for the later "Anschluss" in 1938 when Austria was incorporated into Hitler's Third Reich.
So the irony is: an ex-nazi again seducing a Jewish former concentration camp victim inside a monument of Vienese socialism that was bombed by the Austria fascist forces prior to subjugating themselves to the nazis! Could any cinematic clash have more?