''Angel of Evil'' ( it, Vallanzasca – Gli angeli del male, also known as ''Vallanzasca - Angels of Evil'') is a 2010 Italian crime film directed by

Michele Placido Michele Placido (; born 19 May 1946) is an Italian actor, film director, and screenwriter. He began his career on stage, and first gained mainstream attention through a series of roles in films directed by the likes of Mario Monicelli and Marco ...

. It is based on the biography ''Il fiore del male. Bandito a Milano'' (The flower of evil. Bandit in Milan) of bank robber Renato Vallanzasca, by Italian journalist Carlo Bonini.

Plot

Locked up in prison serving a life sentence for his crimes, an old Renato Vallanzasca (Kim Rossi Stuart) proceeds in the memories of a youth spent as head of a crime syndicate known as the chronicle

Banda della Comasina La Banda della Comasina (; "Gang of the Comasina") is the name which the Italian media used to describe a criminal group active in the 1970s in robberies, kidnappings and weapons trafficking in the northern area of Milan: the Comasina. The area of ...

, which raged in the 1970s in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

between

robberies Robbery is the crime of taking or attempting to take anything of value by force, threat of force, or by use of fear. According to common law, robbery is defined as taking the property of another, with the intent to permanently deprive the perso ...

, kidnappings, murders and evasions.

Cast

Kim Rossi Stuart Kim Rossi Stuart (born 31 October 1969) is an Italian actor and director. Early life and career Rossi Stuart was born in Rome. His father, Giacomo, was an actor of Italian and Scottish descent (his mother was Scottish). Kim's mother, Klara M ...

as Renato Vallanzasca *

Filippo Timi Filippo Timi (born 27 February 1974) is an Italian actor, director and writer. Biography Winner of ‘best actor under 30’ at the 2004 UBU Awards, the maximum prize for Italian theatre, onstage he has been Orpheus, Danton, Perceval, Cupid, H ...

as Enzo *

Paz Vega María de la Paz Campos Trigos (born 2 January 1976), known professionally as Paz Vega (), is a Spanish actress. She became popular for her performance in comedy television series '' 7 vidas''. Her film credits include '' Sex and Lucia'' (2001 ...

as Antonella D'Agostino *

Moritz Bleibtreu Moritz Johann Bleibtreu (; was born in Munich, Munich, Germany on August 13, 1971. He has worked over the years as a film actor, voice actor, and film director. Bleibtreu has been a successful actor in many movies such as ''Run Lola Run, Das Exp ...

as Sergio *

Francesco Scianna Francesco Scianna (born 25 March 1982 in Palermo, Italy) is an Italian actor. Biography Early education and career Francesco Scianna began his acting career in theater, debuting in 1997 with the recital of poems by Salvatore Quasimodo, "CEI". ...

as Francis Turatello * as Carmen * as Spaghettino *

Valeria Solarino Valeria Solarino (born 4 November 1979) is an Italian actress, born in Venezuela. Life and career She was born in Barcelona, Venezuela to a Sicilian father and Turinese mother. After studying philosophy at the University of Turin, she debute ...

as Ripalta Pioggia, aka Consuelo * Lino Guanciale: Nunzio * Nicola Acunzo: Rosario * : Fausto *

Paolo Mazzarelli Paolo Mazzarelli (born 21 January 1975) is an Italian actor. Career Theatre In July 1999 he graduated as an actor in the school "Paolo Grassi" in Milan. In 1997 he was co-founder of the collective ''Vulesse fa'mmore co' Dioniso!'', with whom ...

: Beppe * *

Gerardo Amato Gerardo Amato (born 15 October 1948) is an Italian actor and voice actor. Life and career Born Gerardo Placido in Ascoli Satriano, the brother of the actor and director Michele Placido, Gerardo Amato at a young age moved to Milan where he trai ...

: Padre di Renato * Lorenzo Gleijeses: Donato * : Madre di Renato * : Giuliana * Stefano Chiodaroli: Armando *

Monica Bîrlădeanu Monica Elena Bîrlădeanu ( (born December 12, 1978), professionally known as Monica Dean, is a Romanian actress and model. Career Born in Iași, she studied law at the University of Iași. Bîrlădeanu was a popular television host before acce ...

as Nicoletta * Riccardo Leonelli: Bruno, portantino

Production

In 2008,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

showed a project of Renato Vallanzasca's movie to

, proposing him to direct it. The director, initially uninterested, accepted the job only after being approached by

, who wanted to play the role of the protagonist. Placido spoke for the first time about it in a January 2009 interview, in which he announced his plans for the future, directing ''Vallanzasca'' and two other films.
Gazzetta di Parma

Release

Italy

20th Century Fox has taken care of Italian cinema distribution. Before being confirmed as the distribution company, the producers had thought of Medusa Film and Rai Cinema, but neither were interested in film studies and rejected the script. On 12 July 2010,

said in a press release about the film that both houses had refused the rights acquisition because of the "hypocritical respectability" in Italy. ''Vallanzasca'' was originally planned to be theatrically released in Italy in October 2010, but 20th Century Fox delayed it a few months after, to 17 December.

U.S.

The film was released in the United States in 2011 with the title ''Angel of Evil''.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a 52% rating based on reviews from 25 critics.

References

External links

* 2010 films 2010 crime films 2010 biographical drama films 2010s Italian-language films French crime drama films Romanian crime drama films Italian biographical drama films Films directed by Michele Placido Biographical films about gangsters Biographical films about Italian bandits 20th Century Fox films Italian crime drama films Romanian biographical drama films French biographical drama films 2010s French films {{2010s-crime-film-stub