valerio zurlini.

This dude is great. An underappreciated master. Girl with a Suitcase, The Professor/La Prima Notte di Quiete, several others, all great. I find him a bit cooler than the other famous Italian directors, like he was part French. Hard to find out much about him.

Quite high on my to see list.

That movie is great too! Those user comments are pretty much otm.

"valerio zurlini, il ritrovato ["the rediscovered"]. lauded by fellini & pasolini and worked with delon, cardinale, karina, trintingnant, morricone but 'disappeared'. thr should be retrospectives coming soon (?? I'm not sure how these come about, do they start with a localised film festival programs and thereon branch out?) (if so, starting with the EIFF then coming to you).
his films span from '54 to '76 so I presume yr only interested in the last two ('72, '76) given the thread title.

'the professor' ('la prima notte di quiete') - alain delon in film abt sexual obsession, as a ruined teacher, unhappily married, psychotic wife, chance encounter with beautiful student &c. 'magnificently photographed, acutely observed and unflinchingly honest in its treatment of male neuroses' zurlini offers up here what he termed 'an ode to the eternal quiet, after the deceits of life.'

'the desert of the tartars' ('il deserto dei tartari') - stunning, brilliant, interminable, beautiful, 'kafkaesque'. a garrison of soldiers await the attack of an enemy they don't know will ever come, stationed as they are in the most unending expanse of desert, gradually they succumb one by one to madness, paranoia and illness. 'the most elegant distillation of zurlini's existential take on human alienation.' an all-star cast! (max von sydow, phillipe noiret, jean-louis trintingnant.)"

Just got a hold of "tartars" on DVD. I hope there's more VZ where that came from.

The Desert Of The Tartars, fools!

Oh, now Ken wants to play Weekend At Bernie's with ILF? Make uppa you mind!

I had a miracle recovery.

Violent Summer/Girl With A Suitcase double feature is out today.

There's a writeup in today's Times as well, by Dave Kehr.

This is a great package. So far have only watched La Ragazza con la valigia. Pristine restoration, nice extras- I love NoShame!

amazon's selling most of the noshame titles (though not the new violent summer / girl with a suitcase) for half price at the moment. i just bought the desert of the tartars and am reading the tartar steppe while i wait for it to arrive. good stuff.