The Night Porter appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a respectable but not especially impressive presentation.
Admittedly, I suspect the nature of the source played a large role in this, as the 47-year-old project almost certainly always offered a gritty experience. Still, the end result seemed a bit more dull than I’d have anticipated.
For the most part, sharpness seemed fine. Occasional shots came across as a bit soft, but the majority of the film appeared reasonably concise, if not razor-sharp.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. With ample grain, noise reduction didn’t become a concern, and source defects remained minor. I saw a few instances of gate hairs/debris but no other specks or marks appeared.
Colors leaned toward a bland, dreary palette, with a distinct emphasis on a sickly green much of the time. I guess this reflected the source, but the hues seemed lackluster nonetheless.
Blacks were acceptably deep – though a bit inky – while shadows offered decent delineation, with a few moderately soft shots along the way. Ultimately, this was a pretty blah image, albeit one that may represent the source.
Similar thoughts greeted the adequate LPCM monaural soundtrack of Night Porter. Music showed reasonable range, though the score lacked particularly good impact.
Effects fell into the same domain. These components came across as acceptably accurate and didn’t suffer from much distortion, though they didn’t have a lot to do in this character piece.
Speech varied due to the nature of the production. Some lines offered dialogue recorded on the set, but plenty of looping occurred as well, and the two didn’t tend to connect smoothly.
Because the track mixed/matched original and dubbed material so much, this made the looped lines even more noticeable. All remained intelligible, but speech tended to sound a bit flat. In the end, the audio felt fine for a movie of this one’s vintage and ambitions but it didn’t rise above that level.
A few extras appear here, and we get an Interview with Director Liliana Cavani. Recorded in 2014, this eight-minute, 33-second reel features Cavani’s thoughts about casting, photography, some production choices, and reactions to the film.
Expect a decent array of thoughts here. Unfortunately, the interview spans too little time to offer lots of insights, so its brevity acts as a flaw.
From 1965, Women of the Resistance provides a TV documentary created by Cavani After a four-minute, 55-second introduction from the director, the program runs 49 minutes, 56 seconds.
Cavani’s intro gives us background for the project, and Resistance itself covers the role of Italian women during World War II. Focused mainly around interviews from the actual participants, this becomes an involving program.
Finally, we get a booklet. This mixes art, credits, an essay by scholar Gaetana Marrone, and an excerpt from a 1975 interview with Cavani. It becomes a satisfactory addition to the package.
With The Night Porter, we find an unusual take on material related to the Holocaust, though the end result does not especially satisfy. The film itself offers nothing more than a mediocre thriller and not the lavish, controversial character study it wants to become. The Blu-ray offers adequate picture and audio along with a few bonus features. Though it occasionally seems intriguing, the end result feels lackluster.
