Fans of Michele Placido and Kim Rossi Stuart, get your skates on !

Tonight and tonight only “Ladies” you can attend the screening and Q&A at the Cine Lumiere , 17 Queensbury Place, London SW7 2DT at 20.40. Both Placido and Rossi Stuart will be there for the screening of Angles of Evil, Vallanzasca  Gli angeli del male or just hop along from the Pub down the road and get a quick autograph. Timing is everything , they will be arriving at the front and will also have to leave that way after the  Q&A usually a  30 minutes affair , the film is 125 minute long add the time for the Q&A, you should be seeing the two heart-throbs leaving at  23.20 ish, arrive early to avoid disappointment. If the Criminal Novel, Romanzo Criminale was your cup of tea, you will enjoy this offering from Placido also starring Rossi Stuart.

Subtitles are important !

In Italy all films and programmes are dubbed, it is extremely rare to watch a film on TV or in the cinema with subtitles. I really wish this was not so, watching Brad Pitt speaking with a high pitch voice in one film and a deep tenor in another is distracting to say the least. Living here now, as I am lucky enough to do full-time, I have had to forgo the joy of watching an American or English film unless the actors are unknown to me. I did recently catch up with the much acclaimed “The King’s Speech” starring the now BAFTA and Oscar winner Colin Firth, I am reluctant to admit that after a certain length of time, I did forget that it was not Colin Firth speaking and the speech did often match the movement of his mouth….. Using the term “often’’ loosely.

My pet hate has always been the careless way Italian filmmakers slap on subtitles more and less as an afterthought once the film has been produced. While living in London I often walked out mid film if the subtitles were too offensive. One such example was Romanzo Criminale, A Criminal Novel directed by Michele Placido, in fact I walked out with Placido and I returned for the Q&A with him, I was informed that as a director he was not responsible for the subtitles HA X 2 I am sure if he made enough fuss, something would be done.

I have had many discussions with Directors and Producers about this subject; I have indeed written numerous letters to Cinecitta Luce, Medusa, 01 Distribution, Rai  and Iris trying to encourage good subtitling, is the Italian Film Industry taking any notice of Primociak? No is the answer  NOT YET.

The film La Vita e bella, Life is beautiful has perfect subtitles, not a trace of slang made it onto our screens, it won Roberto Benigni 3 Oscars, cinema gold those moments in Hollywood, with Roberto on the chair….. had me wiping away tears of joy,  his follow-up apology for running out of English when he won best Actor ( first foreign actor ever to do that ), as he had not planned 3 speeches was cute too.

Perhaps all producers should sit and read a few films before actually producing any, if I worked for a film festival and was sent hundreds of films to watch; it would hit the “return to sender” box after 10 minutes if I was struggling to understand the subtitles. The biggest mistake are films made with Italian actors who speak in a local accent such as Romanzo Criminale, the gang spoke in a strong roman accent throughout, in an attempt to pass that across to the foreign viewers, we were treated to gimmi, gonna, gotta, cos’of, dammi, lemmi and other London slang, we had to sit for nearly 2 hours READING a London accent just because the gang spoke Roman….Does that makes sense to you?

La vita e bella , Life is beautiful; I would like to think 100% perfect subtitles played some small part in making this film such a great success outside Italy.

Three clips for you from Italy’s biggest Oscar success ever, that is what I call generous. The 3rd Oscar was for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score by Nicola Piovani  ( I was not able to find a clip from this without the whole run up.)

Vallanzasca – Gli angeli del male, Angles of Evil.

Director: Michele Placido, his latest film is already coursing a political storm for glorifying one of  Italy’s notorious  gang leaders from the 70s. Renato Vallanzasca Constantini head of  the Comasina gang , still serving time ( 260 years to be exact) in an open jail on the outskirts of Milan. Vallanzasca is on day release and free to leave the prison from 7.30  in the morning to 7 .00 at night, he has re-married and is today 60 years old. The Italian prison system is an odd one.

Michele Placido has appeared in and have directed many films dating back to 1972  including Il grande sogno, The big Dream – Romanzo criminale, Crime Novel.

Cast :Kim Rossi Stuart, Valeria Solarino, Filippo Timi,Paz Vega, Moritz Bleibtreu, Francesco Scianna,Toni Pandolfo, Gaetano Bruno,Gerardo Amato, Paolo Mazzarelli, Lorenzo Gleijeses, Marica fracas, Adriana De Guinn and of course Michele Placido himself.

Best moment : The wedding ceremony in prison.

Worst moment : Kissing his sister and the assumption that it went further.

Synopsis :  The film follows  the life of  Vallanzasca  from early childhood and his first gang of boys to his imprisonment serving 260 years. The Comasina gang was ruthless although claiming in the film to be professionals and  not wanting to hurt anyone. Vallanzasca was eventually charged with 6 murders, 4 Kidnappings ( it is believed that there were many more) and numerous robberies.

Kim Rossi Stuart  portrayal of Vallanzasca is very much like his portrayal of Il Freddo in A Crime Novel 6 years ago, it was of course also Directed by Placido so no surprise there.

It will have it first showing in the UK on the 6th June 2011.