Valerio Zurlini died October 26, 1982, a few weeks after having participated as a jury member at the 50th Venice Film Festival. Zurlini knew he was sick and had spent the last months of his life to writing his own spiritual testament, to be released posthumously under the title The Years of the Lost Images. The ruthless stocktaking of his own life, the story of a world that changes in an irreversible way, a poignant appeal in defense of auteur cinema.
As in the book so in this film Zurlini tells his story in the first person. According to a planned chronological "disorder" Zurlini looks back at the most important events of his life, explains the creative reasons of his film, remembers the artists who have formed him: Luchino Visconti, Giorgio Morandi, Renato Guttuso.
Zurlini mainly denounces the "Lost Images" : many films that he wrote and prepared without being able to bring them to an end. Between 1962 ( the year of the Leone d’oro for “Family Diary”) and 1982 Zurlini directs only four films, while dozens are the projects that remain on paper.
The Years of the Lost Images leads us to the places where Zurlini loved to retire to live and to work, interviews friends and collaborators, rediscovers the original repertoire of conversations of the director, in an attempt to understand the causes of this forced and fatal productive."silent"
Many important actors worked with him, as Marcello Mastroianni, Vittorio Gassman, Thomas Milian...
Claudia Cardinale played her first starring role in the unforgettable “Girl with a Suitcase” (1961).
But are the great French actors who have worked often with Zurlini: Jacqueline Sassard ( “ Violent summer”, 1959 ), Anna Karina ( “ Le soldatesse”, 1965), Jean Louis Trintignant ( “Violent summer”, 1959 and “The Desert of the Tartars”, 1976 ), Alain Delon (“Indian summer”, 1972), Philippe Noiret ( “The Desert of the Tartars” ) and specially Jacques Perrin who was outstanding interpreter of “Girl with a Suitcase”, “Family Diary” and “The Desert the Tartars”.
written and directed by Adolfo Conti
produced by Amalia Carandini
executive producer Ilaria Sbarigia
photography and editing Eugenio Persico
music Pasquale Catalano
narrator Giovanni Crippa
interviewees:
Marco Weiss
Jacques Perrin
Giulio Questi
Carlo Lizzani
Nicola Badalucco
Enrico Medioli
Giuliano Montaldo
Claudia Cardinale
Giorgio Albertazzi
Vittorio Caronia
Furio Bordon
format: HD
a Doc Art production in collaboration with Rai Cinema, Rai Teche, Titanus, Cinecittà Istituto Luce;
in association with Francesco and Maria Zurlini, Regione Emilia Romagna