Liliana Cavani

The Night Porter

The Night Porter

In this unsettling drama from Italian filmmaker Liliana Cavani, a concentration camp survivor (Charlotte Rampling) discovers her former torturer and lover (Dirk Bogarde) working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them. Operatic and disturbing, The Night Porter deftly examines the lasting social and psychological effects of the Nazi regime.

Film Info

  • Italy
  • 1974
  • 118 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.85:1
  • English
  • Spine #59

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New interview with director Liliana Cavani
  • Women of the Resistance, a fifty-minute 1965 documentary by Cavani composed of interviews with female partisans who survived the German invasion of Italy, with an introduction by the filmmaker
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by scholar Gaetana Marrone, author of The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani, and an excerpt from a 1975 interview with Cavani

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New interview with director Liliana Cavani
  • Women of the Resistance, a fifty-minute 1965 documentary by Cavani composed of interviews with female partisans who survived the German invasion of Italy, with an introduction by the filmmaker
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: An essay by scholar Gaetana Marrone, author of The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani, and an excerpt from a 1975 interview with Cavani
The Night Porter
Cast
Dirk Bogarde
Max
Charlotte Rampling
Lucia
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 Frieberger
Dobson
Nora Ricci
The neighbor
Piero Mazzinghi
Concierge
Hilda Gunther
Greta
Kai S. Seefeld
Jacob
Ugo Cardea
Mario
Credits
Director
Liliana Cavani
Produced by
Robert Gordon Edwards
Produced by
Esa De Simone
Screenplay
Liliana Cavani
Screenplay
Italo Moscati
Director of photography
Alfio Contini
Music
Daniele Paris
Film editing
Franco Arcalli
Art directors
Jean-Marie Simon
Art directors
Nedo Azzini
Costumes
Piero Tosi

Current

Liliana Cavani on The Night Porter
Liliana Cavani on The Night Porter
Italian director Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter, about the sadomasochistic bond reignited after World War II between a former Nazi commandant (Dirk Bogarde) and a concentration camp prisoner (Charlotte Rampling)—shocked audiences on its releas…
The Night Porter: Power, Spectacle, and Desire
The Night Porter: Power, Spectacle, and Desire

Liliana Cavani’s tale of the sadomasochistic bond between an ex-SS officer and a former concentration camp prisoner is a transgressive take on history and fascism.

By Gaetana Marrone

The Night Porter
The Night Porter
The Night Porter is a provocative and problematic film. Made in 1974 by Italian director Liliana Cavani, it can be seen as an exercise in perversion and exploitation of the Holocaust for the sake of sensationalism. On the other hand, a closer reading…

By Annette Insdorf

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