Love it or hate it's been released this July on DVD and Blu Ray in UK&;Ireland Liliana Cavani’s THE NIGHT PORTER(Il portiere di notte). One of the most shocking and controversial movies ever made, this scintillatingly sexy story of forbidden love and the aphrodisiacal effects of decadence and cruelty comes to Blu-ray for the first time in the UK. The film by many critics was slated eroticising Nazi iconography as well as been 'pro-fascist', it kick-started the 'Naziplotation' sub genre too which saw a barrage of similar nazi themed sex films too.
Vienna, 1957. Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi concentration camp officer, is now employed as a respectable night porter at one of the city's most luxurious hotels. Still anguished by the guilt of his actions during the war, he attempts to relieve his conscience by devoting himself to his work while awaiting the upcoming trial of himself and his fellow Nazi officers. But one fateful evening Max's disturbing past catches up with him in the form of the beautiful and alluring Lucia (Charlotte Rampling). Now the wife of a respected American classical composer, almost 15 years earlier Lucia was a teenage concentration camp inmate and Max's lover in an aberrant sado-masochistic relationship. Bound by their memories and uncontrollably drawn to each other, Max and Lucia rekindle their bizarre love affair. But their future together becomes threatened by other ghosts from the past…
Despite having long divided critical and public opinion due to its shocking subject matter and imagery (respected critic Roger Ebert famously described it as “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering. It is – I know how obscene this sounds – Nazi chic.”) The Night Porter is a courageous and uncompromising piece of filmmaking that has come to be regarded as a classic of European cinema. Comparable to Visconti’s “The Damned”, Bertolucci’s “The Conformist” and Tinto Brass’ “Salon Kitty”, this is a powerful cinematic experience that, once seen is impossible for forget.
The Night Porter will be released on DVD & Blu-ray on July 30th thanks to Anchor Bay Pre order your copy on DVD or Blu-ray
【TRAILER】The Night Porter Published via LongTail.tv