165 Confessions of a Police Captain

[Finch]

In Palermo, Sicily, seasoned police captain Bonavia (Martin Balsam, 12 Angry Men) orders the release of a criminally insane inmate – then watches him set out to assassinate a local construction magnate. When the plan backfires, Bonavia faces the scrutiny of young and idealistic district attorney Traini (Franco Nero, Django, The Day of the Owl). Neat conceptions of justice, corruption and madness shatter in this hard-hitting investigative thriller from Damiano Damiani (The Day of the Owl, How to Kill a Judge). Balsam and Nero’s face-off is complemented by a striking supporting cast and an innovative jazz, pop, and electric guitar score by Riz Ortolani (Cannibal Holocaust).

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

2K restoration presented with Italian and English audio options
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Interview with actor Franco Nero (2026)
Interview with actor Michele Gammino (2026)
Interview with editor Antonio Siciliano (2026)
Interview with film score expert Lovely Jon about Riz Ortolani’s score (2026)
Trailer
Newly improved English subtitle translation for Italian audio and English SDH subtitles for English audio
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by film scholar Mark Shiel and an archival interview with Damiano Damiani
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

[vertigo]

The worst of the 4 mafia Damiani made with Nero. I'watched twice and I only can say I don't remember it very well.

I wish they could rescue Io ho paura (about Italian secret services and the years of lead) and specially Girolimoni il mostro di Roma, that in my opinion is the second best movie about Fascist years after The Conformist, and Damiano's best one movie.

https://www.imdb.com/it/title/tt0068641/

Il rossetto is quite good. A thriller in black and white.

[olmo]

The worst of the 4 mafia Damiani made with Nero. I'watched twice and I only can say I don't remember it very well.

I wish they could rescue Io ho paura (about Italian secret services and the years of lead) and specially Girolimoni il mostro di Roma, that in my opinion is the second best movie about Fascist years after The Conformist, and Damiano's best one movie.

https://www.imdb.com/it/title/tt0068641/

Il rossetto is quite good. A thriller in black and white.

Have to admit I have been thoroughly underwhelmed by all the Damiani releases on Radiance, especially A Man On His Knees & Goodbye & Amen which were a real slog. Slightly bemused as to Fran's admiration.

[tenia]

If you disliked even A Man on his Knees, it's logical to be bemused.

[MichaelB]

And I didn't remotely find Goodbye & Amen to be "a real slog".

As I wrote at the time:

The pleasures of Damiano Damiani’s hostage procedural lie primarily in its serpentine narrative: the opening scenes (in which CIA operatives plot an assassination) suggest a different type of film altogether, while the closing ones tie up loose ends in unexpected ways – not least a crucial revelation at almost the last minute.

The action is largely set in a modern hotel complex, from the roof of which John Steiner’s character (naming him would be a spoiler) randomly kills two people with a sniper rifle before taking hostage vacuous himbo actor Jack (Gianrico Tondelli) and his adulterous squeeze (Claudia Cardinale). Damiani cheerfully undermines various Hollywood and Italian cinema clichés. Despite his name, Jack is struggling to learn dialogue in English, and we see a lot more of him – including a full-frontal shot of him in nothing but a cowboy hat – than of her. As often in Damiani’s work (A Bullet for the General, 1967; How to Kill a Judge, 1975), expertly staged genre set pieces are peppered with tart political insight, the latter embodied by Tony Musante’s amoral CIA man, for whom the hostage crisis is a potentially job-threatening distraction from his core mission to destabilise an unnamed African country.

Though the film was shot in English, it’s more familiar in the longer Italian cut – indeed, this is the English version’s home video debut. Severely damaged source materials (flagged up by the disc menu) make for a less satisfying viewing experience, but it’s worth a look, since several scenes play somewhat differently – for example, the incongruity between Jack’s carefully crafted all-American appearance and his strong Italian accent is more satirically loaded.