Cosa Nostra: Franco Nero In Three Mafia Tales By Damiano Damiani - Limited Edition

Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia), the first film of the set, has Franco Nero starring as an idealistic and determined Police Captain out to prove a local Mafia syndicate was responsible for the murder of a construction worker and the disappearance of a key witness to the crime. Lee J. Cobb is the head Mafioso inspiring fear and respect among the populace and Claudia Cardinale is the missing witness’s common-law wife who’s torn between abiding by the unwritten law of the Mafia and doing what’s right. I rank this film very highly in Damiani’s body of work, particularly in that it was his first time publicly denouncing the Mafia and its ways.

The story and characters are very lively and engaging, keeping audiences on their toes wondering if it’ll be Nero or Cobb who comes out winning. Counting Nero and Cobb, the characters played by Claudia Cardinale, Nehemiah Persoff, Serge Reggiani, and Tano Cimarosa all feel like true Sicilians and Italians that would’ve been encountered in that time. While I haven’t read the Leonardo Sciascia novel the film is based on, Damiani tended to be fairly faithful to the main crust of any source material he used, adding his own flavor that didn’t take away from said source, but enhancing it. 

The setting in the small Sicilian village is beautiful to look at even with all the crime and deceit roaming all over. The film rarely goes over the top in the story and performances, save for a few scenes near the climax, but the dramatic effect they inspire makes them work despite that. (5/5) 

In L’istruttoria e Chiusa: Dimentichi (The Case is Closed, Forget It) Franco Nero plays the role of Vanzi, a white-collar architect forced to serve a short prison sentence for a hit-and-run accident he couldn’t prevent. While there, he slowly succumbs to the harsh reality of prison life and the control the Mafia exudes over it. While a well-told and engaging story, I found this film to be the most hard-hitting and uncomfortable of Damiani’s output as he doesn’t pull any punches in his depiction of life behind prison walls. The majority of the extras and secondary characters were made up of real-life criminals adds to this effect. Franco Nero delivers an amazing, but heartbreaking performance of an ordinary man who loses a part of himself in his attempts to survive the dehumanization that comes with prison life and the dirty deals made between the inmates, guards, and the Mafia elite.

Character actors Riccardo Cucciolla and Georges Wilson each offer stellar performances as two of Nero’s friendlier cellmates. Cucciolla plays a framed man who won’t be intimidated while Wilson plays the fatherly old-timer who’s accepted he’ll never get out of prison. British expat actor John Steiner is effectively slimy and menacing as a psychotic inmate who enjoys provoking others into attacking him. With prison as the main setting, there’s a lack of pure color, everything is either muted, pure grey, or monochromatic, which adds to the inhuman effect Damiani wants to achieve. I advise viewers to proceed with caution when going into this film as the story hits like a ton of bricks but it’s definitely worth watching for how well Damiani unfolds the story and characters. (4/5)

In the duo’s final collaboration, Perche si Uccide un Magistrato (How to Kill a Judge), Nero sinks his teeth into the role of Giacomo Solaris, a filmmaker whose most recent work has earned him the ire of the government when it heavily infers a prominent Public Prosecutor has a secret alliance with the Mafia. When the man turns up shot to death in his car, Solaris feels responsible. Beginning his own investigation, Solaris aims to discover if a Mafia boss in hiding, an ambitious politician suspected of being a Mafioso, or a mysterious third party, is the killer. This is perhaps the most misunderstood and underappreciated film of Damiani’s career. I didn’t enjoy this film when I watched it years back on the Blue-Underground DVD, but with 10-plus years going by, I finally see the film for the masterpiece it is.

For Damiani, this film was a cathartic experience after learning a judge he openly stated in an earlier film conspired with Mafia leaders was found murdered. Like Solaris, Damiani felt entirely responsible for this crime and wanted to cleanse his conscious via this film. Franco Nero gives one of his finest performances here, playing a man who wants to make positive changes in the world, but not to extremes like killing, and must take a hard look at himself as he seeks out the truth. Seeing the film through Solaris’s perspective allows us to piece together the truth along with the protagonist and reach the same conclusions. (5/5)

Vital Disc Stats: The Blu-ray:

The Cosa Nostra boxset comes to both the US and UK in a thick rigid box and each film in the set comes in its own clear Scanavo case with reversible artwork, featuring three variants of original posters. Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia) is presented with two cuts of the film, the original Uncut Italian version running 109 minutes and the US Version running 103 minutes. L’istruttoria e Chiusa: Dimentichi (The Case is Closed, Forget It) running 106 minutes. Perche si Uccide un Magistrato (How to Kill a Judge) running 110 minutes. All three discs are Region A/B, so customers in North America and Europe shouldn’t have any playback issues. Also included is a 120-page book with a mix of new and archival writings on the films, including a piece on Leonardo Sciascia and his novel The Day of the Owl and a retrospective on Damiano Damiani and his place within world cinema. This set is strictly limited to 3000 units in the US and UK.

Author’s Note: During Pre-Order, Radiance Films noticed errors on the discs of Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia) and L’istruttoria e Chiusa: Dimentichi (The Case is Closed, Forget It), and immediately set to making replacements. All who pre-ordered the set directly from Radiance Films (this reviewer included) got the replacement discs along with the set, and those who pre-ordered elsewhere should contact Radiance for replacements.

Both cuts of Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia) on Blu-ray look amazing, clear, crisp, and vibrant. I never did pick up the old double-bill Wild East DVD that featured this film and the Giuliano Gemma Crime film Il Prefetto di Ferro (The Iron Prefect), for comparison, but I would imagine the Blu-ray is a mile-high upgrade in quality. Colors like blue, yellow, and red pop with clarity, and others like brown and white are crisp. Facial features are nicely detailed, and there are even moments where the sweat droplets can be distinguished on the actors' faces. Little to no damage is noticeable in the Italian cut and English cuts, only the occasional line, while the opening credits in the shorter US cut are noticeably grainier. Grain in general contrasts well with each scene. I feel both cuts have benefited greatly from the 2K scan with only minimal issues that couldn’t be avoided. (4.5/5)

L’istruttoria e Chiusa: Dimentichi (The Case is Closed, Forget It) makes its second run on Blu-ray, already seeing release from Germany’s Koch Media (now called Plaion Pictures) back in 2018. While I don’t own this previous release, someone had uploaded it to YouTube and I went by this for comparison. The original Koch Blu-ray looked very solid and clear, but the 2K restoration by Radiance is the overall better product. While the colors are mostly muted given the film is set in prison, the little we do get to see is very crisp and lively. Clothing and facial features are exquisitely detailed, and while not 4K quality, audiences can make out a good bit of how everything looks. The 2K restoration also benefits from a nice flow with the grain, also topping the Koch Blu-ray which looked a little too smooth. (4/5)

Perche si Uccide un Magistrato (How to Kill a Judge) making its Blu-ray debut is a fine upgrade from the Bue-Underground DVD. The DVD was pretty crisp and vibrant, but Radiance’s 2K restoration ups that vibrancy a lot. The DVD’s colors had an overt harsh brightness to them, while the Blu-ray evens out the colors to a crisp and detailed image, eliminating any harshness. Faces, clothing, and scenery are fairly detailed thanks to this new restoration and while every fiber can’t be made out individually, still looks very impressive. Grain is distributed a little more evenly on the Blu-ray than on the old DVD, offering solid contrast. (4/5)

Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia) Italian Cut: The film is presented with Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono and English DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono language options. Both options sound really good, though I felt the Italian had a lot more consistency with pitch, music cues, and overall vocal clarity. The English dubbing does suffer a little with voice projection, and many of the dubbers don’t give enough emotion and depth to the characters they’re looping over. A positive is that Lee J. Cobb and Nehemiah Persoff do provide their voices for the English dubbing. There are no lows or highs with music or dialogue so the volume only needs to be adjusted based on viewers' sound equipment. Two subtitle options are available – one that translates the Italian audio track and one of the deaf and hard of hearing on the English dub.

For the English Cut DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono, the dubbing for the shorter US version is virtually the same as the longer Italian cut, though the music cues and early dialogue during the opening credits do suffer some from age damage. Otherwise, nothing majorly different. English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing are optional. (4.5/5)

L’istruttoria e Chiusa: Dimentichi (The Case is Closed, Forget It) features two audio tracks: Italian and English (both DTS-HD MA 2.0 mon. The Italian soundtrack is the superior of the two, both the dialogue and the music balanced out fairly well. Occasionally the crescendos of Ennio Morricone’s score will have a slight hiss, but this also depends on viewer sound systems, sometimes noticeable, sometimes not. While I haven’t noticed any flaws, if there are any, they are very minimal to nonexistent. The English dub suffers quite a bit of pops, high volume, and dropouts during dialogue, making following what the cast is saying difficult on these occasions though the music cues are much the same with the original Italian. According to Radiance’s website as well as on the box’s removable card, this is the worldwide premiere of the film’s English soundtrack, hinting the track was lost for quite some time before being rediscovered. The English audio is poor unfortunately, but is still a curio worth checking out as it was in limbo for so long. Two English subtitle options are available, one that translates the Italian audio and the other is for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English dub. (4/5)

Perche si Uccide un Magistrato (How to Kill a Judge) offers two audio options: Italian and English both DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono. Like with the Blue-Underground DVD, the English audio is incomplete, and parts lost forever or unable to be restored, so certain scenes will play in Italian with translated English subtitles. Both sound really good, but the Italian track has better clarity and quality, very close to 5.1 Stereo. Music cues and dialogue balance out very well and little to no detectable hiss throughout. Radiance’s remastering of the Italian audio is many miles better than the Blue-Underground presentation, which did have some hiss. The English dub appears to come from a mono source, and while overall is fair, the dialogue suffers a little from drown out or drop out on occasion, though the music cues are near identical in both tracks.

That the old Blue-Underground DVD English track sounded crisper has me wondering if either that company put priority to the English dub over the Italian track or that the English track itself just hasn’t aged well over the years. Franco Nero looped his dialogue for both the original Italian and English dub, so audiences will hear his voice in whichever version they pick. Three English subtitle options are available: one that translates the Italian audio, one for the deaf and hard of hearing on the English audio, and one that translates the scenes that aren’t in English on the English dub. Radiance’s translation of the Italian track is 100 times better than Blue-Underground’s, which was really just the transcribed English dubbing, save for the missing English parts. (4.5/5)

Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia):

• Franco Nero Interview (HD 17 min) The iconic actor discusses and reminisces about his friendship with Damiano Damiani. Filmed exclusively for Radiance Films in collaboration with Freak-O-Rama Productions in 2022.  Also includes archival segments with Damiani and author Leonardo Sciascia about the making of Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia):  In Italian with English subtitles. Franco Nero’s interviews are always a joy to watch as he has so many good stories to tell, and to hear him speak fondly of a close friend like Damiani is wonderful.
• On the Subject of… The Day of the Owl (SD (26 min) Franco Nero, writer Ugo Pirro, and production manager Lucio Trentini discuss the making of the film in this archival mini documentary from 2006. In Italian with English subtitles. This is a fun behind the scenes retrospective of the production history regarding the film and offers quite a few interesting anecdotes.
•  Hep Taxi – Claudia Cardinale (HD 22 min) In this archival interview from a popular Belgian TV interview program in 2017, actress Claudia Cardinale discusses her life and extraordinary career. In French with English subtitles. While Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia) isn’t discussed, it’s still fascinating to hear Ms. Cardinale go over her life and career in a fun, laid back manner, made more interesting from being filmed in a taxi cab.
• Identity Crime-Sis: An Italian Genre Finds Itself (HD 20 min) Euro Crime genre expert Mike Malloy examines Il Giorno della Civetta (The Day of the Owl/Mafia) within the context of Italian Crime and Mafia focused films. Filmed exclusively for Radiance Films in 2022. Mike Malloy is certainly the go to interviewee when it comes to Euro Crime cinema, and it’s quite interesting and refreshing to hear him talk about the genre’s origins and the three sub genres that vied for first place before it’s mid 1970’s popularity.
• Casting Cobb: A Tale of Two Continents (HD 33 min): Filmmaker Howard S. Berger discusses actor Lee J. Cobb’s career transition from Hollywood to Italy, and the archetypes he tended to play in this video essay recorded for Radiance Films in 2023. Howard Berger paints a very beautiful picture of Cobb taking all his personal struggles and demons and transferring them to his Italian genre roles.
• Theatrical Trailer (HD 2:50)

L’istruttoria e Chiusa: Dimentichi (The Case is Closed, Forget It)

• Franco Nero Interview (HD 14 min) Star Franco Nero discusses the making of the film, the public and critical reactions it invoked, and some curious anecdotes. Filmed exclusively for Radiance Films in collaboration with Freak-O-Rama in 2022. In Italian with English subtitles Nero once again proves why he is a great interviewee as he weaves a wonderful recounting of his career. It’s also worth watching for his surprising unbiased feelings on the role he played.
• Enrique Bergier. Corrado Solari, and Antonio Siciliano on The Case is Closed, Forget It (HD 28 min) Assistant director Bergier, actor Corrado Solari, and editor Antonio Siciliano discuss the making of the film in this archival mini-documentary from 2015. In Italian with English subtitles This is a very interesting and informative look at the film’s origins and the production period. Corrado Solari’s contributions are the most fun as he spent quite a bit of time with director Damiano Damiani, and actors Franco Nero, John Steiner, and Riccardo Cucciolla.
• Italy’s Cinematic Civil Conscience – An Examination of the Life and Works of Damiano Damiani (HD 35 min) Film critic and co-founder of Mondo Digital Rachel Nisbet’s in depth look at Damiani’s work and some of his personal background in this new video essay. Ms. Nisbet’s video essay offers the most comprehensive English language look at Damiani and the inspirations and events that would shape his work as a filmmaker. While some of the material teeters on the dry side, it’s still a fascinating look at Damiani the auteur and Damiani the man.
• Theatrical Trailer (HD 03:14)

Perche si Uccide un Magistrato (How to Kill a Judge)

• Franco Nero Interview (HD 13 min) Star Franco Nero discusses the making of the film and some more career memories. Shot exclusively for Radiance Films in collaboration with Freak-O-Rama in 2022. In Italian with English subtitles. Another must-see Nero interview with all his wonderful stories.
• Lessons in Violence (HD 22 min) Filmmaker David Cairns looks at How to Kill a Judge and Damiano Damiani’s unique approach to filmmaking in this visual essay. Created exclusively for Radiance Films in 2023. David Cairns is a little dry in his delivery of his prepared script and notes, but this visual essay is still worth watching for a closer look at how Damiani constructed and built up his films, How to Kill a Judge in particular. Spoilers early on, so watch after viewing the film.
• Alberto Pezzota Interview (HD 34 min) Alberto Pezzota, author Directed by Damiano Damiani, discusses Damiani’s contribution to the Mafia and Crime genres, as well as core themes in his films of this type and their reception in Italy when originally released. Filmed exclusively for Radiance Films in collaboration with Freak-O-Rama in 2022. In Italian with English subtitles. Pezzota’s interview is a must-watch as he goes fairly in-depth to Damaini’s career as a whole and the influences that sparked his creativity, as well as lamenting world cinema’s forgetting of his contribution to Italy’s filmmaking history.
• English Theatrical Trailer (HD 03:37)
• Italian Theatrical Trailer (HD 03:37)

Like his biographer Alberto Pezzota, I believe Damiano Damiani is long overdue for recognition by a much larger audience. His seamlessness in mixing his convictions with engaging and entertaining storytelling puts him in a league similar to Sergio Leone and Jean-Pierre Melville That rare auteur who is beloved by both artistic types and the general public. That Damiani was basing all of his films on real events or real figures makes his work extra amazing as the majority of the people who inspired the films were still alive and making filming rough, but Damiani would keep going. All three films in the Cosa Nostra set, The Day of the Owl and How to Kill a Judge especially, allow us to be entertained thoroughly but at the same time, give us food for thought on ideas they were previously unaware of. The Case is Closed, Forget It is the bleakest of Damiani’s output as a filmmaker, but he still manages to keep the audience engaged and aware that something rotten is inside a corrupt system. Damiani’s films are a good starting point for any film buff looking to try more artistic style works but still have that entertaining and simplicity factor without going too deep. The Italian language with English subtitles is the best way to go for all three films as they were originally created for and first viewed by Italian audiences. While fans of Crime, Mafia, and Italian films in general will get the most out of this set, I highly recommend it to any film lover as Damiani is worth viewing, if even only once. Highly Recommended