French label Pathe will release two classic crime films directed by Jacques Deray:
Le Gang a.k.a.
The Gang (1977), starring Alain Delon, Laura Betti, Xavier Depraz, Adalberto Maria Merli, and Roland Mertin, and
Borsalino and Co. (1974), starring Alain Delon, Riccardo Cucciolla, and Daniel Ivernel.
Pathe will also release on Blu-ray legendary Italian director Valerio Zurlini's recently restored masterpiece
Il deserto dei tartari a.k.a.
The Desert of the Tartars (1976), starring Vittorio Gassman, Giuliano Gemma, Helmut Griem, Fernando Rey, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin, Max von Sydow, and Philippe Noiret.
The Gang
Based on a novel by Roger Borniche, this crime drama retells the story of the renowned gangster "Pierrot le Fou," whose band of robbers sought out banks and factories in the period just after the Second World War, when the French police forces were in disarray. In the movie, Alain Delon plays Robert, the gangleader, who plans for his gang to perform a large number of major robberies in one day. After that, he and his gang will retire comfortably for a time with the loot. Performed with split-second timing, the robberies go well almost to the end. (Synopsis courtesy of Clarke Fountain, Rovi). STREET DATE: JULY 16TH.
Borsalino & Co
Gangster impresario Roch Siffredi (Alain Delon, Flic Story; The Leopard) has pre-war Marseille in the palm of his well-manicured hand. But when an upstart Italian mob tries to claim the French port town's vice trade for their own, the resulting gang war leaves Siffredi's partner dead, his theater and nightclub in ruins, his brothel vacant and his allies turned against him. "Kill me fast," Siffredi warns victorious rival Valpone (Riccardo Cuciolla, Sacco and Vanzetti). But Valpone's leering reply, "that would be absurd," seals the destinies of both men. Tortured, humiliated, and cast into an insane asylum, Siffredi is stripped of everything except an all-consuming vendetta against Valpone.
For Borsalino and Co., director Jacques Deray (Flic Story) and producer/star Delon pull out all the stops to create a film of uncompromising violence, impeccable period detail and lucid pulp storytelling. Mixing gunfights, bombings, arson, stabbings and assassinations with a meticulous plot that is equal parts Dashiell Hammett and Sergio Leone, Borsalino and Co. is an action-packed crime film of sly wit and passionate vision. Magnetic performances from Delon and Catherine Rouval (Va Savoir), as Siffredi's brother-keeper love, place Borsalino and Co. in the front ranks of the French gun-operas made in the wake of Delon's international smash hit, The Sicilian Clan. STREET DATE: JULY 16TH.
The Desert of the Tartars
Beau Geste meets Waiting For Godo in this haunting adaptation of renowned Italian writer Dino Buzzati's controversial 1938 novel about life, honor, mystery, paranoia and death during wartime. For his first commission, infantry lieutenant Drogo (Brotherhood of the Wolf's Jacques Perrin) is stationed at a remote desert garrison on the mist-shrouded border of the North Kingdom. Filling their days with endless drilling, the soldiers of Fortezza Bastiano spend the long nights wondering about an enemy no one has ever seen. As the days stretch into months, the strain of waiting for attack takes its toll on Drago's comrades: sadistic Major Mattis (Giuliano Gemma), sardonic Lieutenant Simeon (The Damned's Helmut Griem), cynical medic Rovine (The Conformist's Jean-Luis Tringnant) and humiliated Captain Hortiz (The Exorcist's Max Von Sydow), who lives with the shame of having once sounded the alarm against an attack that vanished before anyone could see.
Rarely screened outside of Europe since its 1976 premiere, Il Deserto dei Tartari (The Desert of the Tartars) was the last film from Italian director Valerio Zurlini before his death in 1982, and also features a legendary international cast: Vittorio Gasman, Giuliano Gemma, Max Von Sydow, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Philippe Noiret, Fernando Rey, and Francisco Rabal.
A multi-national co-production, The Desert of the Tartars makes atmospheric use of Iran's 2000 year-old Barn Citadel where Zurlini and crew filmed on the eve of the 1979 revolution that changed world politics forever. As timely now as the day it was made, The Desert of the Tartars is a study of the madness of warfare in the tradition of All Quiet on the Western Front and Apocalypse Now. STREET DATE: JULY 16TH.
The Desert of the Tartars was recently restored in 4K by Digimage Classics. The new restoration, which was initiated by Jacques Perrin, was introduced at last year's edition of Cannes Classics. 4K image restoration from the original negative with the consent of Cinecitta and under the supervision of Luciano Tovoli, the film's director of photography. Sound restoration by Gérard Lamps.