'The most controversial movie ever made': Inside The Night Porter

Fifty years on from its release, The Night Porter remains as controversial and shocking as it has ever been.

The story of an SS officer who groomed, raped and ultimately protected a teenage concentration camp inmate from execution before striking up a sadomasochistic relationship with her when they bump into each other years later - it is not a film for the faint-hearted.

Doomed lovers Maximilian Theo Aldorfer, played by Dirk Bogarde, and Lucia Atherton, portrayed by Charlotte Rampling, embark on a twisted love affair which sees them abuse each other, starve themselves, and finally offer themselves up for execution.

The film continuously snaps back in time to reveal the dark secrets of their shared past - showing the skin-crawling torture Max subjected a young Lucia to while she was interned in the camp.

In one scene, Max gleefully shoots a pistol at a naked Lucia in a kind of mock execution, while another flashback shows him presenting her with the severed head of one of her fellow inmates after she performs a sexual favour for him.

The most famous scene, which above all prompted accusations that the film was nothing more than 'Nazi porn', sees Lucia performing cabaret topless - partially dressed in Nazi uniform - for the pleasure of the SS officers.

The Night Porter understandably sparked widespread scandal when it debuted in 1974, and was panned by US critics who variously labelled the dark and twisted romance 'offensive', 'a piece of junk' and 'Nazi Sexploitation'.

Many have described it as being the first film of the 'Nazisploitation' genre - lurid films which combine the dark themes of sexual exploitation, erotica and Nazism, and which many argue to be barbaric and devoid of artistic merit due to their themes.




The most famous scene sees Lucia performing cabaret topless - partially dressed in Nazi uniform - for the pleasure of the SS officers





The film depicts a love affair between SS officer-turned-concierge Maximilian Theo Aldorfer, played by Dirk Bogarde (right), and former concentration camp prisoner Lucia Atherton, portrayed by Charlotte Rampling (left)





The 'marmalade scene': A shocking sequence in the film shows a starving Lucia eating from a shattered jam jar





Harrowing scenes invoking the darkest images of the Holocaust show Lucia in a crowd of people being rounded up by the Nazis





One scene shows Max presenting Lucia with the severed head of another inmate - a twisted gift in exchange for a sexual dance

However, the film's creator, Italian director Liliana Cavani, has long insisted it is a powerful and 'honest' love story and that the relationship between its central characters is 'beautiful'.

For modern audiences, the young age of Lucia's character and the fact that Max refers to her as his 'little girl' makes it impossible to see their relationship as anything other than perverse grooming.

'It is a nauseating melting pot of schadenfreude, Stockholm syndrome, Lolita-like obsession, and Nazi fetishism that threatens to tear Max and Lucia apart,' is how culture writer Lillian Crawford characterised the pair's relationship in a BBC interview this year.

Audiences are lulled in by the film's rather innocuous beginning, which sees hotel concierge Max wandering to work, conversing with colleagues and going about his tasks with military precision.

The audience soon discovers that Max is a reluctant member of a group of former Nazis who have been concealing their wartime crimes by destroying documents and eliminating witnesses.

While he supports the group's activities, it becomes clear that Max harbours some shame and ngentot wants to remain 'hidden away like a church mouse'. 

But when a glamorous Lucia checks in at the front desk and his eyes meet hers, the true horrors of his past begin to be revealed and he can no longer escape them.

Twelve years after the end of the war their roles have changed, with Max shamefully hiding his Nazi past and Lucia a socialite married to a wealthy orchestra conductor.