THE NIGHT PORTER — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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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.

REPO MAN — SHOCKTOBER!

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Alex Cox caught lightening in a bottle in 1984 with a snarly little L.A.-set independent movie that became a cult classic thanks to the success of its soundtrack (featuring Iggy Pop).

This kooky time-capsule political satire uses LA's hardcore punk scene for its churning dystopic social milieu that our 18-year-old Otto (Emilio Estevez) traverses while getting sucked into becoming a repo man. 

Reaganomics hangs in the smoggy air like a bad fart.

Harry Dean Stanton plays Bud, Otto's father-figure who schools Otto in the code of the repo man as they scout repos in the less glamorous neighborhoods of LA.

"A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations."
"Repo man is always intense."

Such dialogue seems written in stone, especially when the film's theme-carrier, Miller (Tracey Walter) busts out with philosophical gems like, "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."

 What did he just say?

Now you've got me thinking.

Otto eats generic food at his parents house. His tweet tweet arf arf folks have given their life savings away to a televangelist. So much for college.

Otto's future looks bleak unless he can repo a certain 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu with a $20,000 reward, and a Neutron bomb-related MacGuffin in the trunk, a nice hat-tip to the plot-driver in the 1955 Cold War thriller "Kiss Me Deadly."

Endlessly watchable, "Repo Man" stands up as an inspired artistic expression amid dark social and political repression.

Here's a great excuse to kick it.

Rated R. 92 mins.

THE MAGICIAN — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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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.