11 July 2023

Review: Cosa Nostra – Franco Nero in three Mafia Tales by Damiano Damiani

Blu-ray: Cosa Nostra – Franco Nero in three Mafia Tales by Damiano Damiani

Cosa Nostra a collection of 3 ‘mafia’ films by director Damiano Damiani starring Franco Nero.
The Day of the Owl (based on the novel of the same name) stars Franco Nero as police chief Bellodi in Sicily investigating the murder of truck driver Salvatore Colasberna, who was killed while delivering cement to a highway construction project.

The murder takes place near the house of Rosa Nicolosi (the most gorgeous Claudia Cardinale) and her husband, who ‘disappears’ after the murder, making him a chief suspect. Bellodi hears that the company building the highway are corrupt, and as a sideline, he’s told Rosa has ‘loose morals’, so anything she says should not be believed. She denies it strenuously and claims that she has been faithful to her husband.

Bellodi doesn’t know if Colasberna was murdered because he knew about the corruption racket, or because he was Rosa’s lover, and was shot by her husband, or if in fact, Rosa’s husband saw the murderer and was murdered himself.

This is the first time the Mafia are mentioned in a film and the story itself shows Bellodi being let down by the Mafia’s system of ‘honour’, where no one will cross the local Mafia don, Mariano Arena (J Lee Cobb).

I’m a big Franco fan and haven’t seen any of these films before. Seeing him so young (26) and thin was quite a surprise, but even at that young age he already has that ‘intenseness’ he’s well known for.

In The Case Is Closed: Forget It Nero plays Vanzi, a man awaiting trial for a motoring offence and is on remand. He’s not like the other inmates, who are all ‘criminals’ and a bit… rough. He’s refined and an architect. Again, this is Mafia based and shows how they control everything even in jail.

I think Damiani was trying to show corruption and how more affluent ‘posher’ inmates got an easier time in prison (at one point Vanzi is taken to a room and ordered to have sex with a female prisoner, and it sort of looks like SHE’s paid the guard for this ‘service’). He’s then roped into a scheme by the Mafia to turn a blind eye to the murder of his cell mate Pesanti, who is giong to dob the Mafia in over a dam disaster. They tell Vanzi if he says it was suicide (they slash his wrists) he’ll get out of prison. That’s what happens. The Mafia need a ‘good’ witness. Damiani’s take on 1970’s Italy, along with other films of the time is that that the state was rotten on all levels.

In How to Kill a Judge, Nero plays filmmaker Giacomo Solaris, whose latest film features a judge – based on a REAL judge (in the film itself) who’s been corrupted by his involvement with the Mafia and who is ‘mysteriously’ murdered. The real judge the character is based on confiscates the film, but is then killed in the same way. Solaris feels he has to be involved in the real judges murder because of his film and he begins to investigate, and the more he looks the more people die.

A very twisty turny film, where Damiani – quite bravely at that time – looks at the control and impact of Mafia violence and shows us an Italy where the Italian people in the 70s lost its faith in the justice system, because the Mafia controlled everything, from politics to the police.

Blu-ray Limited Edition Box Set Special Features:

2K restoration of The Day of the Owl from the original negative presented in the original Italian version (109 mins) and the shorter export cut with English audio (103 mins)
2K restoration of The Case is Closed: Forget It from the original negative presented with Italian and, for the first time, English audio options
2K restoration of How to Kill a Judge from the original negative presented in Italian and English audio options
Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
New interview with star Franco Nero, featuring archive footage of Damiano Damiani and Leonardo Sciascia discussing The Day of the Owl (2022, 17 mins)
Archival interview with Franco Nero, writer Ugo Pirro and production manager Lucio Trentini discussing the making of The Day of the Owl (2006, 27 mins)
Identity Crime-Sis: filmmaker and Italian crime cinema expert Mike Malloy discusses The Day of the Owl in the context of the formation of the Italian crime film genre (2022, 20 mins)
Casting Cobb: A Tale of Two Continents: A video essay by filmmaker Howard S. Berger looking at actor Lee J. Cobb’s career transition from Hollywood to Italy and the archetypes he tended to play (2023, 33 mins)
Archival interview with Claudia Cardinale from Belgian TV in which she discusses her long and storied career (2017, 22 mins)
New interview with star Franco Nero discussing The Case is Closed: Forget It(2022, 14 mins)
Archival documentary on the making of The Case is Closed: Forget It featuring actor Corrado Solari, assistant director Enrique Bergier and editor Antonio Siciliano (2015, 28 mins)
Italy’s Cinematic Civil Conscience: An Examination of the Life and Works of Damiano Damiani: A visual essay on the career of Damiani Damiani by critic Rachael Nisbet (2023, 35 mins)
New interview with star Franco Nero discussing How to Kill a Judge (2022, 13 mins)
New interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of Regia Damiano Damiani, who discusses Damiani’s contribution to the mafia and crime genres and the reception of his films in Italy (2022, 34 mins)
Lessons in Violence: A new video essay on How to Kill a Judge by filmmaker David Cairns (2023, 22 mins)
Original trailers for each film
New and improved optional English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio for each film
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters for each film
Limited edition 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
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