The Berlin affair

In 1974, director Liliana Cavani made the extremely controversial film The Night Porter, which divided critics and audiences all over the world. A decade later, she was back with The Berlin Affair (based on the novel The Buddhist Cross by Junichiro Tanazaki), which, while not as controversial as The Night Porter, still explored hotbed topics of sexuality and homosexuality, race, jealousy, torment, deception, betrayal, all set in 1938 Berlin and involving a Nazi official, his wife, the daughter of the Japanese Ambassador, an art teacher, all of whose lives intertwine in ultimately destructive ways. The cast was excellent, with German actress Gudrun Landgrebe elegant and beautiful as Louise, Kevin McNally  as her husband, and alluring Mio Takaki as the object of many people’s desires. The film was beautifully photographed by Dante Spinotti, who would go on to photograph Manhunter, Crimes Of The Heart, The Last Of The Mohicans, LA Confidential, and many others. Capturing the seething passions, eroticism, intrigue, and atmosphere, Pino Donaggio’s score is as much a leading player in the film as any of its characters.