Gomorrah was unlucky to miss out on the top prize at Cannes, although Laurent Cantet's The Class was a deserving champion. The two films will probably find themselves battling it out for Foreign Language Film at the Oscars in 2009.

Still, Matteo Garrone's blistering mafia movie is one of the films of the year, a mix of City of God and Goodfellas, which may make it the best mafia movie ever. It has a striking, news-making relevance with every passing week. When I saw it Cannes, I tracked down its director for a quick chat, which we did through an interpreter. He was worried, then, about how the film would be received in Italy and if he too might have to go into hiding with the man who wrote the book on which the film is based, Roberto Saviano.

Matteo's English has improved greatly since, and he's still happily at large, the film having been a hit in Italy and, he tells me, having gone down very well with the Neopolitan gangsters - everyone loves being a movie star, after all.

So, what's the best film about gangsters and organised crime ever made? For sheer sweep and atmosphere, Gomorrah will have to up near the top of the list. I'm a big fan of Paul Muni's original Scarface and, of course, Tony Montana as played by Al Pacino. Or maybe you prefer the guingol gangsters of Some Like It Hot?