MovieChat Forums > Il portiere di notte (1974) Discussion > I find it amazing that Dirk liberated Be...

I find it amazing that Dirk liberated Bergen-Belsen

posted 18 years ago by Layla2006
8 replies | jump to latest

...and he was left with such an antipathy towards the Germans, even going as far as saying in his autobiography that he wouldn't 'take an elevator' with one.

Also, I'm 23 and the movies I grew up with were glittery, hollow and wrapped up in a nice neat package.

This movie just blew me away for dealing with issues that you could never get away with today.

It's really opened my mind to cinema from before my time.

Do you know how warped a mind gets from just watching 80's and 90's movies????

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] wmarkley 17 years ago

Benji-The Dog, you expressed it beautifully! It makes me laugh how these days lots of Hollywood people compliment themselves and their pals as being so "Brave," and think they deserve compliments for being "Transgressive," but all they're doing is making very politically-correct statements which have already been made seemingly ad infinitum in their own safe little cocoon of a world. They remind me of the high schoolers, undergrads and grad students who want us to think they're individualists because they embrace some body-piercing technique or other PC fad, when actually they're conformists to a major degree.

Many in the general public are smarter than today's Hollywood intelligentsia think, and there's a real hunger out there among many people for intelligent, thoughtful, high-quality movie-making.

[–] sc_taylor 16 years ago

Well said Wmarkley! Never a truer word was spoken!

Just a pity that they re-dubbed the dialogue which gives the movie a very artifical feel. God knows why they did this, since the scenes were clearly shot in English. So why not just leave the dialogue?

[–] wmarkley 16 years ago

Thanks sc_taylor. And I agree with you about the dubbing. Its very jarring at times.

[–] chrismartonuk-1 12 years ago

Dirk's wartime exploits are open to conjecture. OOne or two critics have speculated that he might have made things up and his war years might have been humdrum and admin-based.

[–] thegreatgazoo-1 11 years ago

Don't care if Dirk hated Germans,or his service was admin type stuff.

But, holy *bleep*, Charlotte Rampling is so desirable in this movie.

So, Layla2006 is now 29 and hasn't posted for 4 years. I hope girl, you're enjoying good cinema.

[–] markanthonymifsud-573-518944 11 years ago

As I've noted in other posts, Italian films of the period were invariably dubbed "post production", which was probably quite convenient if you were dealing with an international cast. It is quite likely that Rampling and Bogarde would have spoken in their native language during filming, but if you follow the lip movements of some of the other actors, it seems that that even Philippe Leroy is speaking in English, despite being French.

I've watched The Night Porter in English and in Italian, which I speak quite fluently, and I can say that the dialogue sounds much better and more naturalistic in Italian. Maybe it is simply that Italian is naturally suited to the more histrionic scenes! I suspect that the original script would have been in Italian and was rather clumsily translated into English for the benefit of the English actors, and of course, for the English language dub.

Still, I cannot fault the leading actor and actress, who turn in excellent and nuanced performances.

[–] oknar1977 9 years ago

i think you oversimplify

there are deep and disturbing flicks in 80s and 90s, they're just not exponated.