THE DESERT OF THE TARTARS (Italy-Fra-W.Ger / 1976)



While film critics and programmers don't mind scavenging through the bins at far-flung festivals and markets in order to unearth "hidden masters," its remarkable how often they miss the boat on important filmmakers from major film-producing territories that have stared them in the face all along. Italian director Valerio Zurlini (1926-1982) -- a hitherto neglected post-neorealist whose career got into gear alongside such filmmakers as Ermanno Olmi and Francesco Rosi -- may not by an indisputable master of the caliber of an Antonioni or a Rossellini, but hes left behind a formidable body of work which deserves our respectful attention.

Adapted from a controversial 1938 Dino Buzzati novel of the same name, Zurlini's final effort, The Desert of the Tartars (Il deserto dei Tartari), is perhaps the best among the 8 features he made. The film stars one of his favorite actors, Jacques Perrin (also the project's co-producer), as a fresh-faced young officer in the early-20th century Austro-Hungarian Empire who gets assigned to a remote desert fort on the eastern frontier, not that far removed from where Tartars reportedly roamed. Once there, it doesnt take long for him (and us) to recognize that the constant transition of ranks among the elite is the only major activity that has taken place for years, if not decades, much to the chagrin of his fellow commanding officers constantly searching for the mythological "enemy." (The inestimable supporting cast includes such greats as Vittorio Gassman, Philippe Noiret, Giuliano Gemma, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Fernando Rey and Max von Sydow.) Zurlini skillfully manages the slow-burning tension as the days turn into months and years, causing the men to gradually wither away in mind and body. A few eventually find a way to wiggle out; others, including our protagonist, get caught in the bureaucratic quagmire. Set to the understated, melancholic score of the great Ennio Morricone, and shot by the renowned Luciano Tovoli -- whose on-location work in the ancient Persian city of Bam is just as impressive as his austerely lit sets inside Cinecitt, resolutely capturing the metaphysical erosion of the subjects and their ideals -- The Desert of the Tartars, in its essence, is an existential ghost story featuring silences that speak louder than words.

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*Available in the U.S. on DVD (NoShame Films).

*Extras include:

-Interview with DP Luciano Tovoli (who has also worked with the likes of Pialat, Antonioni and Argento).
-Interviews with actor Giuliano Gemma. 
-Original Italian Theatrical Trailer.
-CD of the original soundtrack.

*NoShame has also released a box set of two other fine Zurlini films: Violent Summer (1959) and Girl with a Suitcase (1961). (Please stay away from the poor Koch Vision edition of the latter.)