Le Soldatesse Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Le Soldatesse Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 27, 2022

Valerio Zurlini's "The Camp Followers" a.k.a. "Le Soldatesse" (1965) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video. The only bonus feature on the release is an exclusive new video introduction by Marco Muller, director of the Film Art Research Centre at Shanghai University. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

They are waiting for you up north.

On October 28, 1940, Mussolini, to be on par with the German allies in Europe, declared war on Greece, convinced they would surrender within a few weeks -- and thus, polite men of ancient civilization clashed fiercely on the mountains of Epirus. The Greek army resisted heroically and, at the end of the winter, retaliated with a counterattack, which pushed the front line back to Albania. It was a long, tragic, and useless massacre -- 23,755 deaths, 50,870 injured, and 12,268 frozen, of which 3,000 underwent amputations. The war, however, was won. Under unendurable pressure by the Germans, who eventually intervened, Greece capitulated on April 22, 1941.

After the quoted text disappears from the screen, the camera slowly begins to reveal a country full of desperate survivors. On the outskirts of a provincial town, at a giant landfill, men and women are seen going through scattered garbage looking for food. But there is nothing that they can pick up and bring back to their crumbling homes.

At an Italian military base, Lt. Gaetano Martino (Tomas Milian), an apolitical volunteer who has been with the Italian army for twenty-eight months, is told to report to Col. Gambardella (Guido Alberti), who informs him that he will be dispatched on an important mission. Martino will lead a group of Greek and a few Italian prostitutes from the southern town of Piraeus to the northern town of Ocrida and along the way distribute them among Italian outposts. Gambardella explains that the prostitutes have become “auxiliaries of the army” but the real reason they are heading north is different. They are desperate, hungry women, and working as prostitutes is their best chance to avoid dying of hunger. In exchange for their sexual services, the Italian army has agreed to pay them a daily wage of four liras plus a regular meal. The truck transporting the prostitutes will be driven by Sgt. Castagnoli (Mario Adorf), a veteran soldier and genuine firecracker with an unforgiving sense of humor.

Soon after the group exits Piraeus, at an outpost, Martino is asked to help Major Alessi (Aleksandar Gavric), who has come from Italy, get to the northern city of Porta. Even though the truck is already carrying thirteen women, Martino agrees.

The remaining two-thirds of Valerio Zurlini’s The Camp Followers a.k.a. Le Soldatesse will likely remind some viewers of Henri Georges-Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear. While the period environments in these films do not have much in common, the drama they produce is defined by extremely similar overlapping of a genuine sense of desperation and easily detectable danger. In certain areas, both films ooze comparable cynicism, too.

But for obvious reasons, the drama in The Camp Followers has a different purpose. As Martino and later Castagnoli begin connecting with the prostitutes, the entire journey to the north evolves into a tiny piece of a grandiose tragedy. The intimate stories that are shared are unique summations of wasted lives and future failures and losses that no one would care for, and this is what depresses the most. As gut-wrenching as these stories are, they are just drops in a giant sea of human suffering, so while the war rages, they are truly meaningless.

It is imperative to underscore, however, that Zurlini does not transform The Camp Followers into a miserabilist endurance test. Also, The Camp Followers does not share the classic aesthetics of the celebrated Italian neorealist films. Instead, Zurlini merges the drama and the cynical comedy in a very particular manner that gives The Camp Followers its identity.

The large international cast is outstanding but also vulnerable to criticism. Many of the prostitutes are played by big Italian and French stars that do not look even remotely Greek. Among them are Lea Massari, Marie Laforet, Anna Karina, and Valeria Moriconi.

The original material for The Camp Followers came from Ugo Pirro’s best-seller of the same name. Pirro’s writings have been used in such greats of Italian cinema as Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and The Bandit a.k.a. L'amante di Gramigna.

Zurlini collaborated with the great cinematographer Tonino Delli Colli, whose credits include timeless classics like Mamma Roma, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and Once Upon a Time in America.

Le Soldatesse Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, The Camp Followers arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Raro Video.

The technical presentation is underwhelming. The release is sourced from an older remaster with obvious traces of filtering that give the entire film the type of flat appearance you would typically get when you upscale a less-than-stellar DVD release. A few close-ups reveal borderline decent detail, but too much has been lost by the filtering adjustments. Backgrounds, in particular, where nuances become important, can be quite problematic. Unsurprisingly, depth is never convincing. Occasionally, clarity can appear decent, but nine out of ten times it is mediocre, or worse. The grayscale is actually quite good, but because of the adjustments, blacks and grays tend to appear anemic. Predictably, the dynamic range of the visuals is never right. Image stability is very good. The entire film looks very clean as well. My score is 2.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

Le Soldatesse Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is very good. It is sharp, clear, and easy to follow. It as some sporadic thinning, but I am quite certain that the fluctuations are inherited. Why? Because the entire track features Italian overdubbing and these types of fluctuations were common on them. They are very small and, in my opinion, meaningless, but I have to mention them. The overdubbing was done because many of the international actors spoke their lines in different languages. The English translation is good.

Le Soldatesse Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction - presented here is a filmed introduction to The Camp Followers by Marco Muller, director of the Film Art Research Centre at Shanghai University and artistic director of the Hainan Island International Film Festival. In English, not subtitled. (10 min).

Le Soldatesse Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Some years ago, when the defunct boutique label NoShame Films finally brought Valerio Zurlini's two masterpieces, Violent Summer and Girl with a Suitcase, to America, I thought that it was only a matter of time before his hugely impressive body of work is rediscovered. Zurlini is one of the great masters of post-war Italian Cinema, and yet his films are practically impossible to track down in America. Sadly, the rediscovery never materialized. When the folks at Raro Video revealed that they were preparing a Blu-ray release of The Camp Followers, I became excited again, and then the Blu-ray release was canceled multiple times. I finally have this elusive Blu-ray release with me, and to be honest, it is not what I wanted it to be. The Camp Followers is a big film that deserves to be rediscovered by serious cinephiles, but at the moment it does not look right. So, what should you do if you are one of these serious cinephiles? If you can find it heavily discounted, get a copy for your library because who knows when The Camp Followers will resurface again in America. This could very well be its last appearance here. Hopefully, when Violent Summer and Girl with a Suitcase are acquired for local distribution again, both will be properly restored and presented on Blu-ray. It would be a tragedy if they were treated like The Camp Followers.