The Night Porter (1974) Synopsis

1957. Max works as a night porter at the Hotel zur Oper in Vienna. During the war, he was an SS officer based in a concentration camp, where to his captors he posed as a doctor conducting research allowing him even more intrusive access. He has maintained connections with some of his Nazi colleagues, who have gone through the process of conducting mock trials one by one to expose weaknesses in their defense and when evidence, especially documents, which may incriminate them should and will be destroyed. Max's trial is the next one to be conducted. Upon simultaneously seeing each other, Max and a hotel guest, Lucia Atherton, the wife of an orchestra conductor for an opera company she who is following her husband on an opera tour, instantly recognize each other from the war years, when she was a prisoner at the same concentration camp. Although they try to avoid each other at all cost, they eventually do purposefully meet in their emotional need taking over, that need being their form of love for each other as they were in a sadomasochistic relationship at the time. The problem for them becomes Max's colleagues who would see Lucia as one of those threats to expose their past, such a threat which would need to be eliminated.—Huggo

1957. Max works as a night porter at the Hotel zur Oper in Vienna. During the war, he was an SS officer based in a concentration camp, where to his captors he posed as a doctor conducting research allowing him even more intrusive access. He has maintained connections with some of his Nazi colleagues, who have gone through the process of conducting mock trials one by one to expose weaknesses in their defense and when evidence, especially documents, which may incriminate them should and will be destroyed. Max's trial is the next one to be conducted. Upon simultaneously seeing each other, Max and a hotel guest, Lucia Atherton, the wife of an orchestra conductor for an opera company she who is following her husband on an opera tour, instantly recognize each other from the war years, when she was a prisoner at the same concentration camp. Although they try to avoid each other at all cost, they eventually do purposefully meet in their emotional need taking over, that need being their form of love for each other as they were in a sadomasochistic relationship at the time. The problem for them becomes Max's colleagues who would see Lucia as one of those threats to expose their past, such a threat which would need to be eliminated.—Huggo

Published Time: 2019-04-11 13:28:55