The Night Porter is a doomsday vision of sex. The picture says that human sexuality is loathsome and that every once in a while the beast makes itself heard; its central mechanism is to use war guilt to account for sex guilt.

Full Review | Sep 26, 2023

Disturbingly tedious and unfortunately pretentious.

Full Review | Mar 17, 2023

The positions of torturer and victim slip around and into each other, and this is presented as part of the violence itself—a violence that continues in the mind and heart long after it ceases physically.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2023

Rampling, going deep into a performance of serene sexual self-annihilation, is more than enough reason to rent this.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Aug 30, 2022

One merit of The Night Porter is that it doesn’t paint the SS as a bunch of fun-loving, goose-stepping morons; instead it pictures sadism in full expression.

Full Review | Aug 26, 2022

A beautiful, horrible film about sophisticated, messed-up people. Daringly made in 1973 and now lovingly restored for home release.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 18, 2021

There are certainly elements that will stay with the viewer long after watching, however The Night Porter isn't quite as seductive or shocking as the exploitation film it wants to be.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 23, 2020

Whatever works on screen is because of the dedication the leads show towards the characters and themselves.

Full Review | Nov 29, 2020

Perhaps there is something in its very crassness, horror and tastelessness that does at least jolt us towards an acknowledgment of pure evil.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 27, 2020

Here's the thing: pretty much every attempt to explain their dynamics with the full power and force of the situation fails.

Full Review | Jun 30, 2020

If you go expecting a Rorschach test for your own responses, the experience will be well worth your time.

Full Review | Dec 11, 2019

The Night Porter is unsatisfactory and remarkably uneven. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 22, 2019

At its best, the film layers Lucia's and Maximilian's flashbacks in such a way that that the lines between memory, fantasy, and nightmare get blurred.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 10, 2014

Morbidly fascinating work, choreographed from within a vacuum devoid of feeling and retribution, and spearheaded by a director who must find some sadistic pleasure in being such an exacting provocateur.

Full Review | Aug 1, 2013

Not rich in plausability of plot or character development, but tonally interesting in places.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 16, 2008

A strange and unforgettable picture that questions deeply the psyches of torturers and the tortured.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jul 16, 2008

A strange, brooding tale.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2008

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.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2008

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.

Full Review | Jan 26, 2006

Director/co-writer Liliana Cavani's mind-bending reflection on the Nazi era is a pure filmic transmogrification of power, war, sex, personal identity, and soul-searching.

Full Review | Original Score: FIVE STARS | Oct 10, 2005