Il deserto dei Tartari (1976)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Valerio Zurlini

Writers:

Dino Buzzati (novel)
Jean-Louis Bertucelli (screenplay) ...

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:

Desert | Fortress | Lieutenant | Military | Deception

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:

Die Tartarenwüste (West Germany)
Le désert des Tartares (France)
Le desert des Tartars
The Desert of the Tartars

Runtime:

140 min | France:138 min

Country:

Italy | France | West Germany

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

West Germany:12 (f) | Italy:T | Netherlands:9 (2009) (DVD) | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Arg-e Bam, Iran

Company:

Cinema Due

Quotes:

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

A profoundly important if not exactly 'great' film

The fact that this film ever got made is a marvel. Some of the biggest stars of European cinema got together with Zurlini to make this one-of-a-kind film about boredom and existential despair. The profound emptiness lurking within every man as he tries to cope with an absurd existence and which always looks for an escape through some distraction or mindlessness (such as war, pointless work, perversion, etc.)rather than face the frightful prospect of coming to terms with itself IS the subject of this film and NO COMPROMISE WHATSOEVER is made to please the audience.

The pace of the film is slow and methodical, deliberately making the audience become as bored and uncomfortable as the protagonists. However, if you know this or sense it, you are no longer bored but aware of the film's intentions and fascinated. When the finale comes to bring together all that went before, the understaed effect is overwhelming. One shot in particular, that of the Tartars suddenly appearing over the hills way out in the distance is so fantastic that it becomes etched in your mind forever. The story is about a military officer (Jacques Perrin) sent to a fort somewhere in the middle of a god-for-saken desert where the endless similarity of the days nearly drive him nuts to the point where he comes to hope for a war or attack of some kind to change things. He's hoping for anything that'll distract him from feeling the emptiness inside and can't find it. The plot is the laboratory experiment by which Zurlini expounds his view of the eternal isolation of man from man and the essential absurdity of existence. Some of the most bizzarely fascinating location photography is featured but the tone of the film is intentionally 'dry' and 'non-poetic' (unlike the very poetic way his previous film "The Professor" starring Alain Delon was made, for instance)and most of the stars (except for Von Sydow and Trintignant) have relatively small roles. Trintignant is pretty hilarious in his role as the fort's doctor.

Overall, "Desert of the Tartars" is a not-too-successful (its impact is nowhere near the level achieved by Antonioni's "The Passenger", for instance) but still thoroughly fascinating experiment in uncompromising dramatic cinema.