The Night Porter (1974)

Geoffrey Copleston: Kurt

Photos 

Quotes 

• Bert : Max, we all want the same thing - to live as peaceful citizens. Each of us has a respectable profession. Even I have some honorable duties. If you had wished, you could have had another career.

  Max : Look, Bert. If I choose to live like a...

  [directed to Dobson] 

  Max : Like a church mouse - I have a reason. I have a reason for working at night. It's the light.

  [to the others] 

  Max : I have a sense of shame in the light.

  Klaus : We are proud - of having been officers of the finest corps of the Third Reich. And if I were born again, I would do exactly what I did.

  Max : [does a Nazi salute]  Sieg Heil!

  Bert , Klaus , Kurt , Dobson : [instinctively do the same]  SIEG HEIL!

  [Max breaks out of the salute, and ruefully notes that the others still have their arms outstretched. He walks away, shaking his head] 

• Kurt : Why this unexpected meeting?

  Klaus : Max is hiding a dangerous witness in his apartment, and he won't conclude his trial.

  Kurt : It will be concluded. Max, answer me honestly - it'll simplify everything. Have you become a Communist?

  Max : Oh, God - the usual accusation, even for the newly born!

  Dobson : I know you're not a Communist; you're not a defeatist. You're one of us!

  Max : Which means I'm rotten and I stay rotten.

  Dobson : YOU BASTARD!