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{{Short description|1974 film by Liliana Cavani}}
{{For|the 1930 film|The Night Porter (1930 film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = The Night Porter
| image          = Thenightporter.jpg
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| native_name    = {{Infobox name module|it|Il portiere di notte}}
| director       = [[Liliana Cavani]]
| screenplay     = {{plainlist|
* Liliana Cavani
* [[Italo Moscati]]
* [[Barbara Alberti]]{{efn|name=collab|Collaboration}}
* Amedeo Pagani{{efn|name=collab}}
}}
| story          = {{plainlist|
* Liliana Cavani
* Barbara Alberti
* Amedeo Pagani
}}
| producer       = {{ubl|Robert Gordon Edwards|Esa De Simone}}
| starring       = {{plainlist|
* [[Dirk Bogarde]]
* [[Charlotte Rampling]]
* [[Philippe Leroy]]
* [[Gabriele Ferzetti]]
}}
| cinematography = [[Alfio Contini]]
| editing        = [[Franco Arcalli]]
| music          = Daniele Paris
| studio         = Lotar Film
| distributor    = Ital-Noleggio Cinematografico
| released       = {{Film date|df=yes|1974|4|3|France|1974|4|11|Italy}}
| runtime        = 118 minutes
| country        = Italy
| language       = {{Plainlist|
* English
* German
}}
| gross          = $1.3 million (West Germany)<ref name=ger/>
}}
'''''The Night Porter''''' ({{langx|it|Il portiere di notte}}) is a 1974 Italian [[erotic film|erotic]] [[Psychological drama|psychological]] [[War film|war]] [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] film<ref name=criterion>{{cite web |last=Insdorf |first=Annette |author-link=Annette Insdorf |url=https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/66-the-night-porter |title=The Night Porter |publisher=[[The Criterion Collection]] |date=10 January 2000}}</ref> co-written and directed by [[Liliana Cavani]]. It stars [[Dirk Bogarde]] and [[Charlotte Rampling]], with [[Philippe Leroy]], [[Gabriele Ferzetti]] and [[Isa Miranda]] in supporting roles. Set in [[Vienna]] in 1957, the film centers on the [[sadomasochistic]] relationship between a former [[concentration camp|Nazi concentration camp]] officer (Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Rampling).

The film's themes of sexual and sadomasochistic obsession, and its use of [[Holocaust]] imagery, have made the film controversial since its initial release, dividing critics over its artistic value.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Wolff |first=Zoë |url=https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/charlotte-rampling |title=Charlotte Rampling |magazine=[[Interview (magazine)|Interview]] |date=2 September 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/the-night-porter |title=The Night Porter |publisher=[[American Cinematheque]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220107233320/http://americancinemathequecalendar.com/content/the-night-porter |archive-date=7 January 2022}}</ref> In July 2018, it was selected to be screened in the Venice Classics section of the [[75th Venice International Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.labiennale.org/en/news/restored-films-venezia-classici |title=The restored films of Venezia Classici |publisher=[[Venice Biennale]] |date=1 September 2018 |orig-date=13 July 2018 |access-date=22 July 2018}}</ref>

==Plot==
During [[World War II]], Maximilian Theo Aldorfer, a [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[Schutzstaffel|SS]] officer who posed as a doctor to take sensational photographs in concentration camps, and Lucia, a teenage girl interned in one such camp due to her father's [[Socialism|socialist]] political ties, had an ambiguous [[sadomasochism|sadomasochistic]] relationship. Max tormented Lucia, but also acted as her protector.

In 1957, Lucia, now married to an American orchestra conductor, meets Max again by chance. He is now a night porter at a hotel in [[Vienna]], and a reluctant member of a group of former SS comrades who have been carefully covering up their pasts by destroying documents and eliminating witnesses to their wartime activities. Max has an upcoming [[mock trial]] at the hands of the group for his [[war crime]]s. The group's leader, Hans Vogler, accuses Max of wanting to live "hidden away like a church mouse." Max wishes to remain hidden, but voices support for the group's activities.

Memories of the past punctuate Max and Lucia's present with urgent frequency, suggesting that Lucia survived through her relationship with Max—in one such remembered scene, Lucia sings a [[Marlene Dietrich]] song, "Wenn ich mir was wünschen dürfte" ("If I Could Make a Wish"), to the camp guards while wearing pieces of an SS uniform, and Max "rewards" her with the severed head of a male inmate who had been bullying her, referencing [[Salome]].

Because she could testify against him, Lucia's existence is a threat to Max and his former comrades. He goes to see a former Nazi collaborator, Mario, who knows Lucia is still alive; Max murders him offscreen to protect his secret and Lucia. After Lucia's husband leaves town on business, Max and Lucia renew their past lovemaking in Max's apartment. Max confesses to Countess Stein, another guest at his hotel, that he has found his "little girl" again. The Countess tells him that he is insane; Max replies that they are both "in the same boat." Meanwhile, Vogler has Max spied on by Adolph, a youth who works at the hotel.

Max is interviewed by the police about Mario's murder. He spends days with Lucia in his apartment, chaining her to the wall so that "they can't take her away", and sleeps little. Vogler, who wants Lucia to testify against Max in the mock trial—though he harbors more ambiguous long-term intentions towards her—visits and informs her that Max is ill. He suggests that Lucia must also be ill to allow herself to be in this position, but she sends him away, claiming to be with Max of her own free will.

The former SS officers are infuriated at Max for hiding a key witness. Max refuses to proceed with the trial, calling it a "farce," and admits that he works as a night porter due to his sense of shame in daytime. He returns to Lucia, telling her that the police questioned him and others at the hotel about her disappearance, and that no suspicion fell on him. Eventually, Max quits his job, devoting all of his time to Lucia. The former SS officers cut off the couple's supply of food from a nearby grocery store. When Max briefly walks along an outdoor terrace, Vogler shoots and wounds him. Max barricades the door to the apartment, and he and Lucia begin rationing.

Max seeks help by phoning one of his old hotel friends, who refuses, and imploring his neighbour, who is unwilling to provide aid and harbouring Adolph in her apartment. Max retreats again to the apartment, where Lucia is almost unconscious from [[malnutrition]]. After one of the former SS officers cuts off the electricity to Max's apartment, Max and Lucia, respectively dressed in his Nazi uniform and a negligee resembling one he gave her in the concentration camp, leave the building and drive away, followed by a car driven by Max's former colleagues. Max parks on a bridge, and he and Lucia get out and walk along the bridge rail as dawn breaks. Two gunshots ring out, and the lovers fall dead.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Dirk Bogarde]] as Maximilian Theo Aldorfer
* [[Charlotte Rampling]] as Lucia
* [[Philippe Leroy]] as Klaus
* [[Gabriele Ferzetti]] as Hans Vogler
* [[Giuseppe Addobbati]] as Stumm
* [[Isa Miranda]] as Countess Stein
* Nino Bignamini as Adolph
* [[Marino Masè]] as Atherton
* [[Amedeo Amodio]] as Bert
* [[Piero Vida]] as day porter
* [[Geoffrey Copleston]] as Kurt
* {{ill|Manfred Freyberger|fr}} as Dobson
* {{ill|Ugo Cardea|it}} as Mario
* Hilda Gunther as Greta
* [[Nora Ricci]] as neighbour
* Piero Mazzinghi as concierge
* Kai S. Seefeld as Jacob
* {{ill|Luigi Antonio Guerra|it}} (uncredited)
}}

==Production==
===Development===
Director [[Liliana Cavani]] co-wrote the screenplay for ''The Night Porter'' with [[Italo Moscati]], [[Barbara Alberti]], Amedeo Pagani. Cavani developed the idea for the film while making a documentary for Italian television on [[Concentration camp|internment camp]]s.<ref name=Gallagher>{{cite web|url=https://dangerousminds.net/comments/the_strange_story_behind_dirk_bogardes_arthouse_nazisploitation_movie_the_n/|work=[[DangerousMinds.net]]|title=The strange story behind Dirk Bogarde’s arthouse ‘Nazisploitation’ movie ‘The Night Porter’|date=20 November 2017|url-status=live|last=Gallagher|first=Paul|archive-url=https://archive.ph/wip/Mf0wZ|archive-date=16 November 2025}}</ref> During a halt in the production due to weather conditions, Cavani observed a woman placing a sheaf of roses at the site of a former prisoner camp.<ref name=Gallagher/> Intrigued, Cavani approached the woman.<ref name=Gallagher/> 

{{quote|There had been no family. She was not Jewish. She came back, she said, every year on the anniversary of her lover’s death. He was a member of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]], she was a girl who had been imprisoned for holding Socialist beliefs, and having a well-known Socialist father. The hut foundations, where she placed her roses, were the site of the one in which she had been imprisoned; the day was the anniversary of the day on which her lover had been executed by the liberating Americans. She lived now in America but came back every year on that day. It was perfectly simply told, and unemotional. She left in the rain leaving Cavani with a story which haunted her for months.<ref name=Gallagher/>}}

Cavani also developed the story after interviewing two female Italian partisans who had survived Nazi internment camps: one, who spent three years in [[Dachau]], told Cavani that she returned to the camp every year during the holidays " for reasons she would not—perhaps could not–explain"; and another who, after being freed from [[Auschwitz]], found herself unable to return to her husband and children "because she was treated like a wretch, and made to feel she was an embarrassment, a reminder of something too disturbing. She had experienced cruelty, horror, ordeals—but what she could not forgive was being made by the Nazis to perceive the depths of human nature."<ref name=Gallagher/> 

===Filming===
{{Improve sources|section|date=January 2025}}
Filming took place in Vienna{{sfn|Conley|2016|p=417}} and at [[Cinecittà|Cinecittà Studios]] in [[Rome]]. Locations included the [[Vienna Volksoper]], the [[Linke Wienzeile Buildings]], the [[Mozarthaus Vienna|Mozarthaus]], the [[Vienna Central Cemetery]], [[Karl-Marx-Hof]], and [[Schönbrunn Palace]]. The concentration camp scenes were shot in the [[Tuscolano]] district of Rome. The film's costumes were designed by five-time [[Academy Award for Best Costume Design|Oscar]]-nominee [[Piero Tosi]].

The budget, which had been paid for by the Italian distributor, ran out near the end of the shooting of the film's interiors at Cinecittà. To ensure the film's completion, producer Robert Gordon Edwards instructed editor [[Franco Arcalli]] to create a rough cut of the best scenes that had been shot, which he presented to an American colleague who worked at Les Artistes Associés (the French arm of [[United Artists]]). On the basis of the rough cut, the company agreed to pay for the filming of the exterior scenes in Vienna in exchange for French distribution rights.

[[Romy Schneider]] turned down the role of Lucia. [[Mia Farrow]] was considered, as well as [[Dominique Sanda]], before Charlotte Rampling was cast. Rampling shot the film only four months after giving birth to her son Barnaby. She and Dirk Bogarde re-wrote and ad-libbed much of their dialogue. Bogarde also enlisted [[Anthony Forwood]] to help rewrite the script, uncredited. Bogarde seriously considered retiring from acting after the end of principal photography, which he considered a very draining experience.

===Post-production===
Several of the actors' voices were [[Dubbing (filmmaking)|dubbed]] in post-production, including Philippe Leroy (by [[Edmund Purdom]]), Gabriele Ferzetti (by [[David de Keyser]]) and [[Geoffrey Copleston]] (by [[Charles Howerton]]).

==Reception==
===Critical response===
On [[Rotten Tomatoes]], the film holds an approval rating of 67% based on 33 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''The Night Porter''{{'s}} salaciousness gives its exploration of historical trauma a bitter aftertaste, but audiences seeking provocation are unlikely to forget the sting of this erotic drama."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/night_porter|title=The Night Porter|website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]]|access-date=20 May 2024}}</ref> In response to ''The Night Porter'', Cavani was both celebrated for her courage in dealing with the theme of sexual transgression and, simultaneously, castigated for the controversial manner in which she presented that transgression within the context of a Nazi Holocaust narrative.{{sfn|Magilow|Silverman|2015|pages=84–89}} The film was particularly met with criticism in the United States, with several high-profile American film critics finding the subject matter obscene.{{sfn|Magilow|Silverman|2015|pages=85–86}}

[[Roger Ebert]] of the ''[[Chicago Sun-Times]]'' thought the main roles were well-performed, but nonetheless gave the film one star out of four, and called ''The Night Porter'' "as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering", while adding that he did not "object per se to the movie's subject matter."<ref name=ebert>{{cite news|url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19750210/REVIEWS/502100301/1023|title=The Night Porter|last=Ebert|first=Roger|author-link=Roger Ebert|date=February 10, 1975|newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]]|access-date=2008-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120928084352/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F19750210%2FREVIEWS%2F502100301%2F1023|archive-date=28 September 2012}}</ref> In ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Nora Sayre]] praised the performances of Bogarde and Rampling, and the "dark, rich tones" of the cinematography, but began her review by writing, "If you don't love pain, you won't find ''The Night Porter'' erotic—and by now, even painbuffs may be satiated with Nazi decadence."<ref>{{cite news |last=Sayre |first=Nora |author-link=Nora Sayre |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/02/archives/the-night-porter-portrait-of-abuse-stars-bogarde.html |title=' The Night Porter,' Portrait of Abuse, Stars Bogarde |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=October 2, 1974 |access-date=20 May 2024}}</ref> [[Vincent Canby]], also writing for ''The New York Times'', called it "romantic [[pornography]]" and "a piece of junk".<ref>{{cite news |last=Canby |first=Vincent |author-link=Vincent Canby |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/10/13/archives/the-night-porter-is-romantic-pornography-porter-is-romantic.html |title=The Night Porter' Is Romantic Pornography |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |date=13 October 1974 |access-date=20 May 2024}}</ref> [[Leonard Maltin]]'s 2015 ''[[Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide|Movie Guide]]'' called it a "[s]leazy, bizarre drama", awarding it two out of four stars.{{sfn|Maltin|2014|p=1008}}

In Europe, the film was met with opposition as well. German magazine ''[[Filmdienst]]'' categorised the film as "political pornography".<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.filmdienst.de/film/details/32742/der-nachtportier |title=Der Nachtportier| magazine=[[Filmdienst]] |access-date=15 January 2024 |language=de}}</ref> Despite the poor German critical response, it grossed over $1.3 million.<ref name=ger>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|url=https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1975-05-07_278_13/page/274/mode/2up?view=theater|page=275|title=In Germany Big Pics Do Biz|last=Kocian|first=Billy|date=7 May 1975|via=[[Internet Archive]]|url-access=registration}}</ref> In the French ''[[Cahiers du Cinéma]]'', [[Michel Foucault]] criticised what he saw as a sexualised vision of Nazism.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Foucault |first=Michel |author-link=Michel Foucault |title=" Anti-Rétro ", entretiens avec P. Bonitzer et S. Toubiana |magazine=[[Cahiers du Cinéma]] |language=fr |issue=251–252 |date=July–August 1974}} Reprinted in {{cite book |last=Foucault |first=Michel |title=Dits et écrits I: 1954–1975 |title-link=Dits et Écrits |series=Quarto |language=fr |volume=1 |location=Paris |publisher=[[Éditions Gallimard|Gallimard]] |year=2001 |pages=1520–1521}}</ref>

In her 2000 essay for the [[The Criterion Collection|Criterion Collection]] release, [[Annette Insdorf]] called ''The Night Porter'' "a provocative and problematic film. ... [I]t 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 of this English-language psychological thriller suggests a dark vision of compelling characters doomed by their World War II past."<ref name=criterion /> In his 2020 review for ''[[The Guardian]]'', [[Peter Bradshaw]] described the film as a "dated" but "intriguing period piece", adding, "Perhaps there is something in its very crassness, horror and tastelessness that does at least jolt us towards an acknowledgment of pure evil."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/nov/27/the-night-porter-review-dirk-bogarde-charlotte-rampling-liliana-cavani |title=The Night Porter review – descent into sex and Nazism still chills |last=Bradshaw |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Bradshaw |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |date=27 November 2020 |access-date=4 March 2024}}</ref>

Mikel J. Koven characterised ''The Night Porter'' as a "[[Nazi exploitation|Nazi]] [[Sexploitation film|sexploitation]]" film.{{sfn|Koven|2004|p=20}}

===Accolades===
The film was nominated in two categories at the 1975 [[Nastro d'Argento]] Awards, for Best Director (Liliana Cavani) and for Best Screenplay (Cavani and [[Italo Moscati]]), but did not win in either category.

==See also==
* [[List of cult films]]
* [[Sadism and masochism in fiction]]

==Notes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
*{{cite book |last=Conley |first=Timothy K.|year=2016|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VEBzCwAAQBAJ&dq=Night+porter+filming+vienna&pg=PT417 |title=Screening Vienna: The City of Dreams in English-Language Cinema and Television |publisher=[[Cambria Press]]|location=Amherst, New York |isbn=978-1-62196-716-3 |language=en}}
*{{cite book |last=Koven |first=Mikel J. |chapter='The Film You Are About to See Is Based on Documented Fact': Italian Nazi Sexploitation Cinema |editor-last1=Mathijs |editor-first1=Ernest |editor-last2=Mendik |editor-first2=Xavier |title=Alternative Europe: Eurotrash and Exploitation Cinema Since 1945 |location=London, England |publisher=[[Wallflower Press]] |year=2004|isbn=978-1-903364-93-2}}
*{{cite book|last1=Magilow|first1=Daniel H.|last2=Silverman|first2=Lisa|year=2015|title=Holocaust Representations in History: An Introduction|publisher=Bloomsbury|location=New York City, New York|isbn=978-1-472-51300-7}}
*{{cite book |editor-last=Maltin |editor-first=Leonard |editor-link=Leonard Maltin |title=Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide: The Modern Era |title-link=Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide |location=New York City, New York |publisher=[[Signet Books|Signet]] |year=2014}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title}}
* {{Rotten Tomatoes}}
* {{TCMDb title}}
* [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3393-the-night-porter-power-spectacle-and-desire "The Night Porter: Power, Spectacle, and Desire"] – an essay by Gaetana Marrone at [[The Criterion Collection]]
* {{Cite journal |last=Scherr |first=Rebecca |date=February 2000 |title=The Uses of Memory and the Abuses of Fiction: Sexuality in Holocaust Fiction and Memoir |url=https://www.othervoices.org/2.1/scherr/sexuality.php |journal=[[Other Voices (journal)|Other Voices]] |volume=2 |issue=1 |access-date=20 May 2024}}

{{Liliana Cavani}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Night Porter, The}}
[[Category:1974 films]]
[[Category:1974 drama films]]
[[Category:1974 LGBTQ-related films]]
[[Category:1974 independent films]]
[[Category:1974 war films]]
[[Category:1970s English-language films]]
[[Category:1970s erotic drama films]]
[[Category:1970s Italian films]]
[[Category:1970s psychological drama films]]
[[Category:1970s war drama films]]
[[Category:BDSM in films]]
[[Category:English-language Italian films]]
[[Category:English-language erotic drama films]]
[[Category:English-language war drama films]]
[[Category:Films about composers]]
[[Category:Films about Nazi fugitives]]
[[Category:Films about sexual repression]]
[[Category:Films directed by Liliana Cavani]]
[[Category:Films set in 1957]]
[[Category:Films set in hotels]]
[[Category:Films set in Vienna]]
[[Category:Films shot at Cinecittà Studios]]
[[Category:Films shot in Vienna]]
[[Category:Italian erotic drama films]]
[[Category:Italian LGBTQ-related films]]
[[Category:Italian nonlinear narrative films]]
[[Category:Italian psychological drama films]]
[[Category:Italian independent films]]
[[Category:Italian war drama films]]
[[Category:Obscenity controversies in film]]
[[Category:1970s LGBTQ-related drama films]]