e of his shorts would deal with military themes, drawing on his own experiences with the Italian Liberation Corps. Zurlini's films would capture the existentialist vision that Zurlini himself had adopted after the war. Zurlini's desperate vision of life led him to the two fundamental insights that inform all his work: just as death is a certainty, it follows that relationships can never work and that love can't be kept alive- and so it is best to abandon love while awaiting death (Moller).
             Zurlini's eight features were made between 1954 and 1976, while his shorts were all made in the 1950's. His first feature film was the comedy The Girls of San Frediano (Le ragazze di San Frediano) (1954), and was followed by seven more serious post WWII existentialist films. His second film, Violent Summer (Estate violenta) (1959) was a classic coming-of-age story and landmark anti-Fascist film. Next came The Girl with the Suitcase (La ragazze con la valiglia) (1960), an existentialist love story that won the National Selection for Italy at the 1961 Cannes film Festival. Zurlini's 1962 Family Diary (Cronaca familiare) is the second h
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