“Rapiniamo il Duce”, fact and fiction

TORONTO – Renato De Maria’s film is many things, a comedy, a heist, a romance, one that draws inspiration from various works, past and present while leaving nothing off the table in the effort to entertain. From the opening credits, a familiar percussive beat: the Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black” covered in Italian by actress Matilda De Angelis, the film’s Femme Fatale. She glides onto the stage in a classy Cabaret Bar, a young singing starlet named Yvonne. Her long bouncy curls, coiffed in sleek waves has a touch of Rita Hayworth’s Gilda, minus the trademark hair flips. De Angelis actually sings the cover, with a mix of sultry and sombre, a foretelling of the character’s predicament.

Continue reading