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.

APARTMENT 7A — SHOCKTOBER!

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Co-writer/director Natalie Erika James ("Relic") delivers a fierce pro-abortion horror prequel to "Rosemary's Baby" that twists a cinematic knife into the MAGA conspirators that overturned Roe v. Wade.

Julia Garner is exquisite as Terry Gionoffrio, a Broadway dancer whose career is put on a long hold after an accident while performing.

An offer to live in the Gothic Bramford building (actually the Dakota), promises a new lease on life for Terry if a date with the Devil doesn't derail everything.

Digs at the patriarchal practices of cruel Broadway directors who take advantage of their position to demean and humiliate auditioning actors, provides a potent rebuke.

Beautiful set and costume designs add texture to "Apartment 7A" as a sharp horror movie that will have you squirming in your seat.

Here is a great excuse to go back and watch Polanski's original film, after seeing "Apartment 7A."

Nightmares may follow. Abortion isn't the worst thing in the world.

Rated R. 104 mins.

FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS

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Truman Capote gets a proper roasting in this television series adaptation of Laurence Leamer's book "Capote's Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era."

Mired in the cruelty of its real-life characters, the series starts off bumpy. If you can make it past the first three episodes, you'll likely make it to the end, but it won't be a pleasant experience.

Nonetheless, Tom Hollander gives a tour de force portrayal of Truman Capote, whose once vaunted reputation the author dismantled with a vengeance as a result of his alcoholism, drug use, and insatiable narcissism. 

Ever the social butterfly/interloper, Truman Capote famously boxed outside of his weight class when he bit the hands that fed him by publishing an excerpt from his unfinished novel, "Answered Prayers" in Esquire Magazine.

The chapter, entitled "La Côte Basque, 1965," included rumors and lies about the society women whose trust Capote had forced upon them, if not earned. Love is a cold glass of water in these Carnegie Hill social circles.

Naomi Watts give a reliably solid performance as Babe Paley, Capote's favorite "swan."

"Feud: Capote vs. The Swans" shares a simile with the recent Bratpack movie "Brats," inasmuch as the Swans' reaction to a nasty take-down magazine article only exacerbated their problems.

The story reflects epochal social changes that hang the inflexible out to dry. Knowing the rules of the game will only get you so far, regardless of your social standing.

Truman Capote was in inveterate back-stabber, with the audacity to return to the scene of his crime. Needless to say, it didn't prove to be a sustainable practice. Truman Capote died at the age of 59.

Footnote: the filmmakers' decision to not include Capote's pet cats as an integral part of his domestic life, does a disservice to Capote and to the audience

Not Rated. Eight Episodes.