Armand
and more than an admirable novel adaptation. a kind of experience who seduce and transforms. the images, the acting, the dialogs, the atmosphere. one of rare films who can give the feeling of deep, delicate, bitter and terrible work. because, after years, after so many blockbusters and art movies, "Il deserto dei tartari" remains a special gem, support for a lot of emotions, discoveries and silence sides. before see the film, read the book ! not for compare. not for understand the story. but only for magnificent circle defined by the two pieces of it. the music, the cast, the images. a terrible masterpiece. about basic things. about expectation price. and, sure, about reality. more than a film. or a parable. maybe, only an open window. surely, a rare masterpiece.
Cosmoeticadotcom
The Desert Of The Tartars (Il Deserto Dei Tartari) is a film that has been described as a cross between Beau Geste and Waiting For Godot, and into that mix I would toss some of the films of Hiroshi Teshigahara, especially Woman In The Dunes, as well as the troop interactions seen in the 1960s American television sitcom F Troop, even though The Desert Of The Tartars is not a comedy. This is because the slow moving and contemplative first half of the film follows the setting up of the main military officer characters between each other, and with their men, while the second half of the film speeds up the pace of the diegetic time, and focuses more on the reactions of the officers to the world outside their fortress, rather than within it. The reason for these comparisons are that, unlike three of those four mentioned influences, this 140 minute long, color, 1976 film, by Italian director, Valerio Zurlini, with a screenplay by André G. Brunelin, based on a novel by Dino Buzzati, called The Tartar Steppe, is a film almost hermetically sealed from laughter. Having stated that, it's not a film that is overly somber. It is the sort of film, like those in the canons of Bela Tarr, Theo Angelopolous, and John Cassavetes, that is simply nonpareil, in the sense that there really is no other film like it, for good or ill. Overwhelmingly, I'd claim that the film's difference is overwhelmingly for the positive, but there are a few negatives that keep the film in the near-great category, rather than that of the unequivocally great.
jrcham94
In spite of its high-minded ambitions, Zurlini's film must be seen as a failure. It's one thing to create a world which draws the viewer into feeling the tedium and angst experienced by the protagonist (which I think is what Zurlini was attempting). It's another thing entirely to make a film that is itself tedious and meaninglessly episodic. Despite beautiful cinematography at a haunting location - and a wonderful score - the film never lures the audience in. Too much is unintentionally funny (the phony sound of dripping water in Drago's quarters, for example, or the silent-movie mugging by some of the actors) or simply confusing (Why exactly does Drago want to leave the fort the first time?) for the film to succeed as a coherent work.
blutosky
From the great Italian book "il Deserto dei Tartari" by Dino Buzzati - one of the masters of European 20th century - Valerio Zurlini managed this strange film with a great cast of characters. In a lost fort named Bastiano in the heart of an unknown dessert some soldiers are waiting for an attack to give a sense to their life.This is the story of a great part of us and this is what Buzzati thought. The life of Giovanni Drogo (Giuliano Gemma) - young lieutenant - is inside the fort like our life is inside something perhaps more immaterial but very similar.
AD
