Angel of Evil

4.5 stars... excellent 1970s Italian crime drama
I was browsing my local library's section of foreign movies the other day and noticed this movie. Didn't really know much, ok, anything about it, but picked it up, and boy, am I glad I did...

"Angel of Evil" (originally released in 2010 as "Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male"; 125 min.) brings the story of Renato Vallanzasca, a notorious bank and other heist robber in Italy in the 1970s. The early part of the movie brings the "trophy" moments of Renato and his co-horts, as they rob and thieve their way through Northern Italy, but the movie really delivers in the last 45 min. or so (when Renato is serving a long prison sentence), and things go from there (I don't want to spoil more of the plot, you'll just have to see it for yourself how it all plays out). Besides the plot itself, the movie showcases a time capsule of Italy in the 1970s, I couldn't stop marveling at the Alfa Romeos and Fiats that appear so prominently in the movie.

I really enjoyed this movie from...

Drugs, Alcohol, Easy Ladies and Alfa Romeos!
This Italian Crime Drama is based on the real life antics of Renato Vallanzasla, who committed his first `crime' by liberating the more ferocious animals from Milan Zoo at the age of nine - they did him for the tiger, a fair cop really. This was as a statement against bullies apparently.

Whilst at Reform School he became well educated in the life skills one requires to take a life of crime really seriously. As well as learning how to annoy guards in a maximum security prison, he also develops what can only be described as silver tongue with the lucky ladies and a taste of finely executed diction. In short he has rules bordering on the sociopath and not very much to like about him. He is played rather well by Kim Rossi Stuart. We first see him in prison in 1981 getting some extra curricular kicking from the guards, a theme that reoccurs throughout the film.

When he is out he has some henchman including his best friend Enzo ( Filippo Timi), and just like girls they...

Real Life Italian Gangster without Mafia ties
Super handsome bad boy Italian gangster Renato Vallanzasca terrorized Milan in the 1970's and 80's. He is no Tony Soprano, that is, he isn't Mobbed up. He was an independent contractor. I saw this in the theater and then purchased the DVD. Why? I study the Italian language and Renato speaks the language perfectly and without dialect. He even beats up a prison guard for speaking slang to him and using the informal 2nd person singular form of address. Kim Rossi Stuart is a hottie. Could he be the new Marcello Mastroianni? Forse.

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