Leon the tourguide

Leon the tourguide
Leon the Tour Guide

Saturday, January 16, 2016

The Night Porter - An Interpretation

Dir:  Liliana Cavani 1974 Seen at the Jerusalem Cinemateque. Tue 12th Jan 2016

This movie shows us that once a Nazi always a Nazi, but Nazis, like all humans make certain concessions to their lust for pleasure, especially the pleasure to be had from a woman, especially when she is at their mercy.

From the woman’s point of view her gratitude for the mercy the Nazi has shown her, knows no bounds and she is ready to place herself, once again, but this time voluntarily at his mercy, when she meets him after the war and she suffers the consequences.


These actually could have been good, that is she could have ended up having a happy marriage with the Nazi who had rescued her. 

But loyal Nazis still thrived even after the war and a pure blood German living with a Jewess was intolerable in their scheme of things. 

Their pursuit of the couple creates the tension that makes this movie an excellent thriller. 

This added to raising the question of how we are to relate to Nazis who had mercy on their subjects, makes this movie great.

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