Cranstonman

Damiano Damiani remains one of the most difficult Italian directors to categorise. He is comfortable at the helm of commercial exploitation such as Amityville 2, but would be better remembered as the key political movie-maker of his generation, with a string of socially aware dramas that puts the better known cinema of Rosi and Gavras to shame.

Massacre Play (The Killing Game) is a rather unknown entry in the Damiani canon, but is well worth the investment of a couple of hours purely for the amazing performances of the two leads. Milian is quite magnificent and Elliott Gould shows just how good an actor he is:they play two friends, both film directors who have taken very different paths. Wordy, intelligent but never boring and with a few little surprises along the way.

If there is a complaint it is only a minor one, and that is the small insignificant part played by John Steiner. Steiner had previously delivered two key performances for Damiani, first in The Case is Closed - Forget it and then in Goodbye and Amen. Here he simply wanders through the proceedings, but as said it is only a minor quibble.

Not in Damianis's top league but all in all, very worthwhile.

The last film in the Von Buttiglione cycle remains the best known of the series due to the considerable presence of John Steiner as the evil Colonel Schwein.

Its a mixed bag of bad taste jokes and the usual buffoonery, that does not always hit the target, but when it succeeds it is very funny and the film retains a quaint 70's charm.

Dufilho is as usual his most irritating self, so its left to Steiner to completely steal the show as the mad Nazi colonel. From his enigmatic entrance to eating a young chick straight out of the egg, to hobbling about on crutches after accidentally severing his own leg, its a barnstorming piece of camp that the great man is obviously wallowing in.

We won't see cinema like this again, so its worth appreciating no matter where a print comes from.

In the wake of Fellini's way over the top ancient Rome epic Satyricon, it was always obvious that there would be the inevitable deluge of imitators. Well, strange as it may seem there was not a great tidal wave of like pieces, there were a few and this is by far the best of them all. It is therefore a great pity that now it is so difficult to track down.

The Golden Ass is quite simply a joy from start to finish. Samy Pavel and John Steiner make a great comic double act in the first third of the film. Steiner especially is quite magnificent, with witty asides to the camera and perfect comic expressions. Bouchet in the female lead is as lovely as you would expect.

Not at all easy to find, but well worth taking some time over.