The Night Porter

Liliana Cavani's daring 1974 drama about a former concentration camp officer who meets one of his victims—a woman he tormented and seduced during her imprisonment—was notorious in its day for its suggestion of sexual depravity and emotional bondage, as well as explicit nudity and hints of sadism. Dirk Bogarde plays Max, a one-time SS official guilty of heinous war crimes, a past that he has managed to keep hidden while he works as the night porter at a hotel in Vienna, circa 1957. Charlotte Rampling costars as Lucia, once his prisoner and teenage plaything during the war, who willingly resumes their sadomasochistic relationship. While it might sound like a Nazi exploitation film, Cavani uses the provocative story to explore the legacy of fascism, along with issues of power, abuse, guilt, and the emotional and mental damage borne by survivors of the Holocaust. A challenge for audiences of the time (some critics called it pornographic), The Night Porter remains controversial, but also features compelling and complicated performances from Bogarde and Rampling in an ominous portrait of war-related criminality that remains relevant today. Remastered in HD for DVD and its Blu-ray debut, extras include a new interview with Cavani, plus her 1965 documentary Women of the Resistance, which centers on female partisans who survived the German invasion of Italy. Recommended. (S. Axmaker)