Many Wars Ago

A disorienting, harrowing account of fighting on the Alpine Front during World War I, between 1916 and 1917, Francesco Rosi’s anti-war war film remains a gritty and chaotic provocation. The film begins in media res, as the Italian Royal Army and the Austro-Hungarian Army have arrived at a tense stalemate, and an escalating sense of desperation has taken hold. The hungry, tired, traumatized Italian soldiers require increasing levels of coercion to dive back into the especially brutal combat for which the First World War is now recognized. Adapted from Emilio Lussu’s pivotal memoir One Year on the High Plateau—a seminal work of anti-war literature—the film notably features a rare performance by Mark Frechette, the infamous star of Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point in the second of his three on-screen roles. 2K DCP courtesy of Cinecittà.