Deserto dei Tartari, Il (1976)

Director:

Valerio Zurlini

Writers:

Jean-Louis Bertucelli (screenplay)
Jean-Louis Bertucelli (story)

Release Date:

29 October 1976 (Italy)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

As his first assignment, lieutenant Drogo is sent to an isolated fortress on the borders of a desert and of a range of high mountains...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Awards:

4 wins

Cast

Vittorio Gassman	...	Filimore
Giuliano Gemma	...	Mattis
Helmut Griem	...	Lieutenant Simeon
Philippe Noiret	...	General
Jacques Perrin	...	Drogo
Francisco Rabal	...	Tronk
Fernando Rey	...	Nathanson
Laurent Terzieff	...	Amerling
Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Le médecin-major Rovin
Max von Sydow	...	Hortiz
Shaban Golchin Honaz	...	Soldat Lazare
Giuseppe Pambieri	...	Lieutenant Rathenau
Bryan Rostron
Kamran Nozad	...	Capitaine Sern
Manfred Freyberger	...	Caporal Montagne

Also Known As:

Désert des Tartares, Le (France)
Desert des Tartars, Le
Tartarenwüste, Die (West Germany)
The Desert of the Tartars

Runtime:

140 min | France:138 min

Country:

Italy | France | Iran | West Germany

Language:

Italian | French | English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Arg-e Bam, Iran

Company:

FIDCI

Quotes:

Drogo: I was sent here by mistake.
Le médecin-major Rovin: Here or elsewhere, we're all somewhere by mistake.

Neglected masterpiece

This extraordinary film sprang from a fertile time in world cinema. In the USA the medium was experiencing heady creativity but in Italy such exceptional ability was expected. To see it now is to witness movie making at its most devoted and personal. Zurlini casts it brilliantly. The acting by an acclaimed cast is both restrained and gut wrenching. Adapted from a classic novel, which I have not read, it leaves its literary provenance behind while still managing to address what are normally literary obsessions: existentialism, nihilism and romantic futility. Visually the film is stunning and makes a mockery of the ghastly special effects which in a film like Gladiator make the world seem like a landscape of precious celluloid grey. It is filmed in the middle east in a now earthquake-torn ancient town. If one didn't know such a place existed one would think that special effects had accomplished impossible beauty. But no, its all real. And all spectacularly realised.