A concentration camp survivor discovers her former torturer and lover working as a porter at a hotel in postwar Vienna. When the couple attempt to re-create their sadomasochistic relationship, his former SS comrades begin to stalk them.
Somewhere along the way, the film's handling of serious themes, and its attempts to examine the Nazi legacy in terms of repression and guilt, both sexual and political, get lost amid all the self-conscious decadence.
– ,
Time Out,
26 Jan 2006
rotten:
The Night Porter is as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering.
– Roger Ebert,
Chicago Sun-Times,
23 Oct 2004
rotten:
The movie's visual virtues are negated by infinite absurdities -- particularly by the sentimentality with which the director views this luckless couple.
– Nora Sayre,
New York Times,
9 May 2005
rotten:
With a little application and imagination I suppose one might read themes of political and philosophical import into this work, but Cavani's style remains stupidly literal and gaga.