If the name Valerio Zurlini doesn’t ring a bell, you’re not alone. Films by the Italian director (1926-1982) almost never get shown on the big screen and are hard to find on video.

Or as Film Comment magazine says in its July-August edition:

“When you think of the great flowering of postwar Italian cinema, the name Valerio Zurlini may draw a blank. Too young to be a Neorealist, too old to be a ’60s radical, and not sexy enough to stand alongside Fellini and Antonioni, he may have been an odd man out, but nevertheless he created a highly personal body of work.”

Film Comment is published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, which just happens to be sponsoring a Zurlini retrospective – eight features and five documentary shorts. It kicked off on Friday and runs through Sept. 6.

One feature is “Girl With the Suitcase” (1961), which brought Claudia Cardinale to worldwide attention.

She’s a nightclub singer who leaves her job for a rich cad, who then abandons her. So she takes up with his 16-year-old brother. (Ah, those passionate Italians!)

Another is “Family Diary” (1962), in which Marcello Mastroianni pulls out all stops as a journalist struggling with the premature death of his brother.

Rounding out the features in the series, at the Walter Reade Theater, are: “The Professor” (1972), a tragic love story with Alain Delon and Alida Valli; “The Girls of Sanfrediano” (1954), the tale of a 22-year-old mechanic who uses his resemblance to Hollywood hunk Robert Taylor to pick up women; “Violent Summer” (1959), with Jean-Louis Trintignant; “La Soldatesse” (1965), featuring Godard fave Anna Karina; “Black Jesus” (1968), with Woody Strode as a charismatic African rebel leader; and “The Desert of Tartars” (1976), highlighting Trintignant, Vittorio Gassman, Fernando Rey, Philippe Noiret and Max von Sydow.

For more information, check out http://www.filmlinc.com.

* Mea culpa: In last week’s column we reported that “Ran” (1985), which is having a revival at United Artists’ Union Square theater, was Akira Kurosawa’s next to last movie. Actually, it was his third from final work.

V.A. Musetto is film editor of The Post.He can be e-mailed at vam@nypost.com