Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.5

The Night Porter Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov November 18, 2014

Liliana Cavani's "Il portiere di notte" a.k.a. "The Night Porter" (1974) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The supplemental features on the disc include an archival documentary film and exclusive new video ineterview with the Italian director. The release also arrives with an illustrated leaflet featuring an essay by scholar Gaetana Marrone, author of The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani, and an excerpt from a 1975 interview with Cavani. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

"It can end for you at once... if you go to the police."

Vienna, 1957. Max (Dirk Bogarde, The Damned, Death in Venice) is the night porter in one of the city's most luxurious hotels. He is a former Nazi officer who works hard and tries not to think about the past. He is in his early 40s and living alone.

One day, an elegant young woman (Charlotte Rampling, Flesh of the Orchid, Under the Sand) enters the hotel. She immediately recognizes Max. A series of flashbacks then reveal that years ago she was one of his inmates in a camp where the Nazis did various experiments, and that they had a relationship.

Lucia is now the wife of a respected American conductor with a busy schedule. While her husband works with the local symphony orchestra, she decides to approach Max. The two meet in the hotel and have one of the most unusual romantic reunions ever filmed.

Meanwhile, a group of elderly Nazis who specialize in removing knowledgeable Holocaust survivors that could jeopardize their safety begin investigating Max. They suspect that he might have ignored the group's rule to report anyone capable of exposing their true identities. The leader of the group mentions a young and beautiful American woman who has recently arrived in the city together with her well known husband. Soon after, a killer is dispatched to remove the woman.

Max and Lucia continue to meet. When they make love, they often hurt each other. They aren't sadomasochists, but pain is something they have both come to expect from each other. Various flashbacks reveal why.

Eventually, the group's killer moves in a room right across from the one where Max and Lucia have been spending most of their time. In a desperate attempt to keep his lover alive, Max barricades himself and Lucia inside the room. They continue to make love - until they run out of food.

To say that Italian director Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter is a dangerous film would be a major understatement. There are two reasons why: First, it explores the darkest corners of the human soul with such authority that it is absolutely impossible to dismiss it as an exploitation film. Exploitation films cannot be dangerous because they aren't believable. This film definitely is. Second, The Night Porter boldly challenges serious taboos which throughout the years only a few respectable films have had the courage to address in a familiar fashion.

Given the nature of the project, the cast is absolutely phenomenal. There are some truly unforgettable sequences with Rampling, who essentially plays two entirely different characters. The one sequence where she is seen entertaining the Nazi officers is particularly disturbing because it does not look kitschy at all. Bogarde is also terrific as the guilty man whose obsessions are slowly destroying him.

The film was lensed by the great cinematographer Alfio Contini, who during the '60s and '70s worked with some of Italy's greatest directors, including Michelangelo Antonioni (Zabriskie Point), Franco Rossi (A Rose for Everyone), and Mario Monicelli (Lady Liberty). The film's color scheme is particularly striking. It favors mostly very cold greens, blues, and grays, which further enhance the already remarkably tense atmosphere.

The outstanding set decors and production designs were created by Oscar winner Osvaldo Desideri (Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom, The Last Emperor, Once Upon a Time in America).

The Night Porter Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter arrives on Blu-ray courtesy Criterion.

The following text appears inside the leaflet provided with this Blu-ray release:

"Supervised by director Liliana Cavani, this new digital transfer was created in 2K resolution on an ARRISCAN film scanner from the 35mm original camera negative and a 35mm interpositive. Thousnads of instances of dirt, debris, scratches, splices, warps, jitter, and flicker were manually removed using MTI's DRS and Pixel Farm's PFClean, while Digital Vision's Phoenix was used for small dirt and jitter. The monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from a 35mm magnetic track. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube's integrated workstation, and iZotope RX3.

Transfer supervisors: Liliana Cavani, Lee Kline.
Colorist: Massimo Gubinelli/Technicolor, Rome.
Additional scanning: L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna."

I was very pleased with the Region-B release of The Night Porter, which used a restoration of the film that first appeared through Wild Side Video in France. Criterion's presentation is fairly similar. The improvements in detail and clarity are just as impressive, with the darker footage in particular looking very strong (this is the area with the most dramatic improvements, though it has to be said that the old R1 DVD release of The Night Porter is so problematic that there are massive improvements in terms of clarity and depth throughout the entire film). The prominent greens, blues, and grays are retained, but on this release there is a wider range of reds and browns (you can see the difference if you compare screencapture #9 with screencapture #8 from our review of the Anchor Bay release). During the flashbacks, the heavy greenish tint is also retained (see screencapture #17). Brightness levels are slightly elevated here, or on the Anchor Bay release they are slightly toned down (compare screencapture #2 with screencapture #15 from our review of the Anchor Bay release). As far as I am concerned, the obvious discrepancies are noticeable during the darker footage -- the encoding is better and on the Criterion release grain is certainly better resolved. During well-lit close-ups the difference is also easy to see, especially if one views the film on a large screen (see screencapture #3). There are no traces of compromising sharpening adjustments. Large debris, cuts, damage marks, stains, and scratches have been carefully removed. There are no stability issues. All in all, while similar to Anchor Bay's presentation, Criterion's presentation of The Night Porter is the one I prefer. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

The Night Porter Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.

Depth and clarity are excellent. The moody oboe and violin solos also sound wonderful (there are no distortions or balance issues). The dialog is crisp, stable, and very easy to follow. There are no pops, cracks, audio dropouts, or distortions. Unlike the Anchor Bay release, this release comes with optional English SDH subtitles, which some viewers may find helpful.

The Night Porter Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Women of the Resistance - presented here is an archival documentary which Liliana Cavani made for RAI Television in 1965. In a series of interviews, women who participated in the Italian resistance discuss their activities and explain how the war changed them. Included with the documentary is a brand new interview with the Italian director recorded exclusively for Criterion by Antonio Monda in Rome in 2014. In Italian, with optional English subtitles.
  
  1. Introduction (5 min, 1080p).
  2. Documentary (50 min, 1080p).
  
  

• Liliana Cavani - in this brand new interview, Liliana Cavani recalls what inspired her to film The Night Porter and how she approached Charlotte Rampling and offered her the role of Lucia, and discusses some of the film's unique characteristics (for example, director Cavani did not want to highlight the Jewish issue), the nature of the relationship between Lucia and Max, Alfio Contini's lensing and the film's cold color scheme (according to director Cavani, Contini was far better than Vittorio Storaro), etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for Criterion in Rome in 2014. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (9 min, 1080p).

• Leaflet - featuring an essay by scholar Gaetana Marrone, author of The Gaze and the Labyrinth: The Cinema of Liliana Cavani, and an excerpt from a 1975 interview with Cavani

The Night Porter Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter is a fascinating and exceptionally bold film reminiscent of Luchino Visconti's legendary The Damned and Bernardo Bertolucci's The Conformist. It is the type of film that can no longer be made. Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release is a fantastic upgrade of the very problematic R1 DVD release. I am convinced that viewers will be thrilled with the technical presentation. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.