Cult Films : The Night Porter (1974)

Thirteen years after World War II, concentration camp survivor Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) and her tormentor Max (Sir Dirk Bogarde), currently the night porter at a Vienna hotel, meet again and fall back into their sado-masochistic relationship.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071910/

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

Such a deliciously perverse and kinky film. Own the Criterion release for this one. It makes a great double feature with Salo.

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Yes, this is really me.

Dirk was a brilliant actor. I don't think he was ever disappointing in any of his films.

Sometimes the movies were not as great as he was!

Brave and beautiful film about forbidden love.

I love this scene in particular:

Whose head is in the box?

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

I forget. It's been a while since I've seen the film. I think it was someone the woman didn't like.

Oh, so she didn't like the beheaded person but she was only sad at the savagery.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

i had this on my watchlist but the sadistic description turned me off. also, bogarde never struck me as a leading man.

If sadism repulses you then never watch Salo.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

i saw that after someone on a different forum said mama roma was good and it was but I had to turn of salo like right away

I sat through Salo once and it was torture. I'm glad I watched it once but I'll never watch it again.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

i have a weak stomach

I had a weak stomach when I was a kid. I remember some cartoon with a bee biting some fool's ear even made me queasy. But I got over it. I still find gore to be disgusting though and would rather not see it.

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"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

I saw this in the early 90's at a suburban flea pit cinema after an almost 2 decade banning in Oz. The session was packed, due to all the hype of it.

I found it to be shocking in several parts, but also a pretentious bore too. I think Pasolini made it for his own amusement and sexual kicks. I have seen it a few times since, but the last viewing made me decide it is one of the sickest films I have ever seen and will never venture into it again. Man Behind The Sun - 88' is another one. Graphic scenes of cruel torture.

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Norman! What did you put in my tea?

Salo didn't bother me….I expected it to be worse than it was

I saw it as dark humor, mocking Fascism but I didn't care much for it.

It got Pasolini killed for making it.

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Are you okay?

Dude, I could not stand watching children be tortured. It creeped me out. I didn't see it as dark humor at all. It was a great film because it made a bold point against fascism.

The director's point was too make it hideous and dire. And he succeeded. Where did you see humor in it?

I know a lot of people make light of it now. But as you said, Pasolini was killed for it. It was that important.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

Pasolini's previous films had dark humor in them, such as The Decameron and Canterbury Tales

I don't mean torturing is humorous…he's poking fun at the elite and the ridiculousness of it all




The 1981 documentary on Pasolini, Whoever Says The Truth Shall Die is worth a view, if you haven't seen it.

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Are you okay?

Dude, the music theme makes light of the topic. I found that annoying.

I haven't seen the documentary.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

but why did you watch it? why put yourself through the torture and mental and emotional anguish of watching a movie like salo?

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lukejbarnett

Because I knew it was an important film and I would be left with an indelible experience. Not everything worthwhile is pleasant.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

I hated that movie. I like some PPP's stuff, including Canterbury Tales, but Salo was alternately dull and repulsive.

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"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

I found it repulsive. But it was too horrific to be dull. Lets just say I didn't walk out of the film with a feeling of ennui. I was shaken.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

The final carnage is hard to take.

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"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!"

wasn't the worst part of the film, the hardest part to take mentally and emotionally, not the mean things that were done to the children, but the callous, blase, inhumane way the torturers did the torturous things to the children?

like it was no big deal and them acting all inhumanly cruel and detached from what they did? like in the part when they read from a book right after doing a horrible thing to one of the kids?

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lukejbarnett

This quote from "Salo" from The Duke:

We Fascists are the only true anarchists

He's saying true freedom comes from throwing away all compassion and humanity. And perhaps he's right. So all the torture on innocent children was an exercise in philosophy. That's what makes me feel dead in the core of my soul. That's why I hate but love this film.

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Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy

Never seen this, but I recall seeing it advertised as a kid. It always looked fascinating.

I have seen Salon Kitty in the early 80's when it was unbanned when I was a teen. It was rated R20 then in NZ. How I got in I would never know.

It was pretentious and slow and the only thing that got me through it was my lust for Helmut Berger.

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Norman! What did you put in my tea?

👍

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"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy