Rush does a really good job of putting across his deep-seated sense of emptiness.

Sellers once said of himself, I could never be myself… You see, there is no me.

I do not exist…

There used to be a me, but I had it surgically removed.

I dont think you often see the emptiness of him on film.

When hes fully immersed in his characters theres only the pleasure of being entertained by him.

Were lucky to be able to watchHoffmannow.

Sellers was determined to buy back the negative so he could destroy it, which is fascinating.

What did it show that he couldnt bear to see on screen?

In utter desperation, she agrees.

The film starts with her journey to his flat.

He has the drawn cheeks and ugliness of the original Nosferatu.

Its amazing that Miss Smith can get through the door.

I would have run away screaming.

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So is this a horror film?

Fear underpins everything at first.

Hoffman says terrible, lascivious things to Miss Smith at every opportunity.

kindly make yourself look as if you want to be fertilized, he tells her.

He preys on her, touching her exposed neck, telling her he wants to eat her.

Will the wife come back?

This film, and this sort of dialogue, can only work with amazing actors.

But in those films were watching a battle of intellects.

I wish that Hoffman had gone further down that particular path.

There was a great opportunity to make Miss Smith a match for Hoffman intellectually in their power struggle.

What, exactly, does it all mean?

What kind of film is this?

He is really horrible, and yet we understand his bitterness.

He lies in a no-mans-land of characterisation.

I think its one of Sellers very best performances, andHoffmanis a film that I often think about.

Hoffmanwas one of a string of flops for Sellers in the 1970s.

He died in 1980, after having one final critical success with Hal Ashbys sublimeBeing There(1979).

You get the feeling Hoffman has stared into the abyss.

Its worth watching just to see Sellers embody such blackness of spirit.

Perhaps its the closest we can get to understanding what he really felt about himself.