THE NIGHT PORTER — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

Punk heart still beating.

This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Cheers!

 

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.

Cavani reduces her complex wartime narrative to a dead-end reunion between Max (Dirk Bogard), an ex-SS officer and Nazi warder to his former prisoner Lucia (Charlotte Rampling), the imprisoned non-Jewish daughter to a Leftist activist at a Nazi concentration camp.

A chance encounter at the Vienna hotel where Max is employed as a bellman, derails Lucia's post-war life as the concentration camp-survivor wife to a successful American symphony conductor busy on tour in Vienna.

In Cinema, Vienna is the place where people go to die.

Max and Lucia pick up their leftover BDSM desires from the days of their concentration camp experiences together when he was master to her prisoner/slave.

It is significant to realize that Liliana Cavani launched her filmmaking career with two historical documentaries ("The History of the Third Reich (1962) and "Women of the Resistance" (1965), for Radiotelevisione Italiana.

Clearly, Cavani's deep insights into the mindsets of the Nazi's prisoners, as well as that of their tormentor goons, adds significant anecdotal historic depth to "The Night Porter."

The devil is in the details. Even wallpaper sends a message.

To compare "The Night Porter" to any other World War II film would be folly. Not even Bertolucci's "The Conformist" can compare.

The necessary mental, physical, and emotional escape hatch that Max and Lucia employ serves as a temporary life raft from the anger, repression, and violence that rages around them, and deeply inside their tortured souls.

Fearless performances from Dirk Bogard and Charlotte Rampling give "The Night Porter" its humanity. For a film about the lasting effects of genocide, "The Night Porter" gives essential meaning to the madness with a delicate touch of palpable understanding.

Remembering the very thing that most people want to forget is a promise to oneself and a curse.

We are all damned by history, and all that history leaves out.

Rated R. 118 mins.

THE MAGICIAN — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Ingmar Bergman's 1958 masterpiece finds Max von Sydow inhabiting Bergman's alter ego as Dr. Vogler, a nineteenth century traveling magician.

Dr. Vogler's gypsy troupe consists of his wife Manda (Ingrid Thulin) disguised as a young man, Granny Vogler, a ninety-something witch, Tubal (Åke Fridell), an exuberant master of ceremonies, and Simon (Lars Ekborg), a young stage coach driver.

Bergman's social satire catches fire when the mute Dr. Vogler and his team are challenged in Stockholm by Dr. Vergérus (Gunnar Björnstrand), the royal medical adviser, who wants to be truly mesmerized, if not terrified, by the magician's performance.

Ingmar Bergman gradually peels back layers of social hierarchy to expose core truths regarding the myriad ways in which artists are abused and exploited.

More of a timeless parable than scathing attack against those of his own country who vilified Ingmar Bergman out of disrespect and jealousy, "The Magician" nevertheless takes sharp aim at authority figures as a whole.

Bergman tosses out sparks of laugh-inducing barbs of social humor while also turning the drama ice-water cold, as when Dr. Vergérus attempts to steal Dr. Vogler's wife from under his nose while the husband watches, standing by in the shadows.

Brilliant.

Max von Sydow puts Laurence Olivier to shame. Dr. Vogler's transformation of character provides the audience with rare entertainment experience.

This lush film is a stone-cold classic by any measure.

"The Magician" is a really fun movie to return to time and time again. There's just so much cinematic magic to savor.

Not Rated. 101 mins.

I MARRIED A WITCH — SHOCKTOBER!

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

Get cool rewards when you click on the button to pledge your support through Patreon.

Thanks a lot acorns!

Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

While this classic screwball comedy's obvious influence on inspiring "Bewitched," that great '60s/'70s television show, it's Veronica Lake who casts the longest shadow.

Talk about iconic.

Veronica Lake's undeniable sensuality is a marvel to behold. What man could ever hope to resist this feminine creature of dynamic poise and lithe beauty?

Veronica Lake is at her most seductive as Jennifer, a witch being chaperoned by her alcoholic witch dad (Cecil Kellaway). Daughter and dad travel by broom while resting as smoke plumes.

Jennifer is a fire starter in every sense of the phrase.

Ted Tetzlaff's black-and-white cinematography is so lush it could bring a tear to your eye.

Prolific French director René Clair sets a racy tone for the comedy to spike with sexy innuendo.

Jennifer is a shameless homewrecker to Fredrick March's upper class Jonathan Woodley, a small town politician on the verge of marrying local socialite Estelle (Susan Hayward).

René Clair allows his energetic actors to snap their dialogue into a modern rhythm that is contagious. We get swept up in the screwball promise of unreasonable romance and all of the destruction that it brings.

"I Married A Witch" is a high concept movie, especially for 1942. The comic absurdity carries a Frenchness in its lighthearted attitudes regarding relations between men and the women who enchant them.

Very witchy indeed.

Not Rated. 77 mins.