Climbing Mount Criterion XVI
Film:
The Night Porter (1974)
Director:
Liliana Cavani
"A sadist's wet dream," David Thomson writes of Charlotte Rampling's performance here, and it's hard to tell if he's making a statement or passing a judgment -- a tactic that's common in his Biographical Dictionary. Is he simply explaining that the plot revolves around the lust she creates in Dirk Bogarde, her former oppressor back when he was an SS brute? Or does he mean you have to be a sadist to enjoy the film? Considering how far this movie goes -- eroticized Nazi gear, cuts and blood as lust objects, humiliation as joy -- it's still hard for me to argue that the film goes too far. Cavani creates a mood of perversion without being perverse herself, and Rampling is beyond brave; she seems infinitely capable of presenting herself as wounded, self-aware, blinkered, broken, and strong, and she accesses these tools at just the right moments, in ways that throw any comfort you can get from the film completely off. Starving towards the end, she makes herself into a monster, a child, and a sex object. Cavani can be a very mannered director -- as in the sadly under-seen Ripley's Game -- so the most disturbing aspect of The Night Porter is the air of intention that surrounds the moral and sexual breakdowns she depicts -- she meant every frame.
The Night Porter (1974)
Director:
Liliana Cavani
"A sadist's wet dream," David Thomson writes of Charlotte Rampling's performance here, and it's hard to tell if he's making a statement or passing a judgment -- a tactic that's common in his Biographical Dictionary. Is he simply explaining that the plot revolves around the lust she creates in Dirk Bogarde, her former oppressor back when he was an SS brute? Or does he mean you have to be a sadist to enjoy the film? Considering how far this movie goes -- eroticized Nazi gear, cuts and blood as lust objects, humiliation as joy -- it's still hard for me to argue that the film goes too far. Cavani creates a mood of perversion without being perverse herself, and Rampling is beyond brave; she seems infinitely capable of presenting herself as wounded, self-aware, blinkered, broken, and strong, and she accesses these tools at just the right moments, in ways that throw any comfort you can get from the film completely off. Starving towards the end, she makes herself into a monster, a child, and a sex object. Cavani can be a very mannered director -- as in the sadly under-seen Ripley's Game -- so the most disturbing aspect of The Night Porter is the air of intention that surrounds the moral and sexual breakdowns she depicts -- she meant every frame.
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