The Night Porter
Director: Liliana Cavani
Year Released: 1974
Rating: 3.5
Charlotte Rampling encounters the Nazi (Dirk Bogarde) who tormented (and took care of) her while she was in a concentration camp years after World War II in a hotel - you expect her to try to get even, or avoid him, but as it turns out, she's still desperately 'in love' with him (Stockholm Syndrome, perhaps?). For the notoriety and critical trashing ('for students of the sleazy'?), it's not nearly as hard to believe - or watch - as most will have you believe: it's basically an art-film about (skewed) romance with a heavy slant on abnormal psychology (not graphic torture) and unashamed of its intent to provoke. The ending's a letdown, and would have been better had it stopped before the first-person-perspective 'the-audience-becomes-the-executioner' film school copout.
