Director Damiano Damiani worked in several genres as the market demanded to explore socially-engaged cinema but he found his footing in tales of the Sicilian Mafia, three of which are showcased in this set starring Franco Nero. In THE DAY OF THE OWL, Nero plays a Milan transplanted police captain trying to solve the murder of an construction company owner that everyone wants to pin on his wife's lover rather than his mob-connected rivals. Claudia Cardinale and Lee J. Cobb also star. In THE CASE IS CLOSED, FORGET IT, Nero plays an architect in prison awaiting trial for a hit-and-run whose every move just to survive entangles him in a criminal conspiracy. In HOW TO KILL A JUDGE, Nero is a filmmaker who makes an inflammatory film depicting a corrupt judge. When the judge the film is based on is murdered in the style of his film, everyone suspects his Mafia connections, but Nero suspects that it is all just a smokescreen and that his political rivals may be responsible. Francoise Fabian also stars.
REVIEW LINK: Radiance Films (US/UK/Canada) Region ALL Blu-ray (DVDCompare)
COSA NOSTRA - FRANCO NERO IN THREE MAFIA TALES BY DAMIANO DAMIANI Blu-ray specs:
- Disc One - The Day of the Owl (1968):
- Italian Version (109 minutes):
- 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
- Italian LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Optional English Subtitles
- English Version (103 minutes):
- 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
- English LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Optional English SDH Subtitles
- New interview with actor Franco Nero
- Archival Interview with actor Franco Nero, writer Ugo Pirro, production manager Lucio Trentini
- Belgian TV interview with actress Claudia Cardinale
- "Identity Crime-Sis: An Italian Genre Finds Itself" interview with genre expert Mike Malloy
- "Casting Cobb: A Tale of Two Continents" video essay by filmmaker Howard S. Berger and David Nicholson-Fajardo
- Theatrical Trailer
- Disc Two - The Case is Closed, Forget It (1971):
- 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
- English and Italian LPCM 2.0 Mono Tracks
- Optional English and English SDH Subtitles
- New interview with actor Franco Nero
- "Behind Bars" interviews with assistant director Enrique Bergier, editor Antonio Siciliano, and actor Corrado Solari
- "Italy's Cinematic Civil Conscience: An Examination of the Life and Works of Damiano Damiani" visual essay by critic Rachael Nisbet
- Theatrical Trailer
- Disc Three - How to Kill a Judge (1975):
- English Version (111 minutes):
- 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
- English LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Optional English SDH Subtitles (and English subtitles for scenes never dubbed into English)
- Italian Version (111 minutes):
- 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 Widescreen
- Italian LPCM 2.0 Mono
- Optional English Subtitles
- New interview with actor Franco Nero
- "Lessons in Violence" video essay by filmmaker David Cairns
- "Alberto Pezzotta on Damiano Damiani and HOW TO KILL A JUDGE"
- International Trailer
- Theatrical Trailer
- Limited edition of 3000 copies (each for the UK and US), presented in a
rigid box with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of
certificates and markings, as well as a 120-page book featuring new and
archival writing on the films by experts on the genre including Andrew
Nette on Leonardo Sciascia’s The Day of the Owl; Piero Garofalo on The
Case is Closed: Forget It; Paul A. J. Lewis on depictions of the mafia
in each of the films within this set; Shelley O’Brien on each of the
scores; a newly translated archival interview with Damiani; Nathaniel
Thompson on Franco Nero; Marco Natoli on Damiani’s place within the
cinema politico movement in Italian cinema; a critical overview for each
the films by Cullen Gallagher and credits for each film, and reversible
sleeves featuring designs based on original posters for each film.
