This is a complex movie, and I didn't like it the first time I saw it; I thought it invited us to take pleasure in the degradation of the character Lucia. Later viewings led me to see that this is a sympathetic study of a woman damaged by her youthful experiences.
The story is simple enough: an opera-conductor's work takes him to Vienna, where he and his wife Lucia stay in an elegant but somehow decadent hotel. Here she recognizes the night porter as the concentration camp guard who had abused her when she was a teen-age inmate. The expectation is that she'll call the cops, but no: she abandons her husband, he quits his job, and the two throw themselves into a doomed and passionate amour-fou.
I'll probably be pelted with bricks for suggesting that this is a chick flick, but I notice that female reviewers treat it much more respectfully, and give it a higher rating. Tracy Hodson has written an excellent appraisal at amazon.com which goes into much more detail than I ever could. Anyhow, novelist Barbara Alberti and director Lilliana Cavani put a lot of effort into it, and deserve serious attention.
The film achieved instant notoriety when it came out, but anyone looking for cheap thrills is going to be bored silly. The Nazi background is not essential to the story, it simply sets the scene for an abusive relationship in a way that viewers of 1974 could understand. Lucia does the unthinkable because her soul has been warped by her experiences - alas, this sort of thing is more commonplace than we care to admit, other viewers have had something to say about this.
Charlotte Rampling gives an excellent performance, once you know what she's trying to achieve - you'll notice that she's actually the one who calls the shots in the relationship, contrary to surface appearances. Dirk Bogarde is good at playing the sort of elegantly sinister character that was his specialty. The imagery and pacing owe a lot to Visconti films like The Damned. The pace was actually too slow for my liking - I missed the concentrated fury of Repulsion - but it at least contributed to the atmosphere of elegance combined with decay. I recommend this to people who enjoy intense character studies, but not to those looking for excitement.
The story is simple enough: an opera-conductor's work takes him to Vienna, where he and his wife Lucia stay in an elegant but somehow decadent hotel. Here she recognizes the night porter as the concentration camp guard who had abused her when she was a teen-age inmate. The expectation is that she'll call the cops, but no: she abandons her husband, he quits his job, and the two throw themselves into a doomed and passionate amour-fou.
I'll probably be pelted with bricks for suggesting that this is a chick flick, but I notice that female reviewers treat it much more respectfully, and give it a higher rating. Tracy Hodson has written an excellent appraisal at amazon.com which goes into much more detail than I ever could. Anyhow, novelist Barbara Alberti and director Lilliana Cavani put a lot of effort into it, and deserve serious attention.
The film achieved instant notoriety when it came out, but anyone looking for cheap thrills is going to be bored silly. The Nazi background is not essential to the story, it simply sets the scene for an abusive relationship in a way that viewers of 1974 could understand. Lucia does the unthinkable because her soul has been warped by her experiences - alas, this sort of thing is more commonplace than we care to admit, other viewers have had something to say about this.
Charlotte Rampling gives an excellent performance, once you know what she's trying to achieve - you'll notice that she's actually the one who calls the shots in the relationship, contrary to surface appearances. Dirk Bogarde is good at playing the sort of elegantly sinister character that was his specialty. The imagery and pacing owe a lot to Visconti films like The Damned. The pace was actually too slow for my liking - I missed the concentrated fury of Repulsion - but it at least contributed to the atmosphere of elegance combined with decay. I recommend this to people who enjoy intense character studies, but not to those looking for excitement.