Youtopia is the story of a young woman who decides to sell her virginity to pay debts of her mother and of the man who decides to buy it. It’s a Bildungsroman in which the protagonist discovers new worlds and new feelings.
Trivia from IMDb:
Berardo Carboni said in an interview that he saw around one hundred actresses for the role of Matilde, but was sure from the beginning that Matilda De Angelis was the right one. He said she is an extremely talented actress and also had an aura that reminded him of the character he had in mind. He said that when he cast Matilda de Angelis, she refused to do the nude scenes at first because they made her uncomfortable. Actress Donatella Finocchiaro suggested he talk to de Angelis’ American acting coach, Doris Hicks, about changing her mind. So Carboni traveled to Milan to meet her and de Angelis. When he arrived at Hicks’ house, he looked in the window and saw de Angelis dancing in her underwear. He rang the bell and Hicks invited him in, where she explained she was working with de Angelis to overcome her nervousness about performing nude. After continuing to dance in her bra and panties while Carboni watched, Hicks encouraged her to take the next step and remove them. But de Angelis was nervous, so Hicks said she would get naked too. Then she told Carboni he would have to do the same. He agreed and they all ended up dancing naked together. After that, he said de Angelis had no problem with being nude in the movie. In fact, she went on to appear nude in several films after that.
New collages by Penman:
If we are to believe that IMDB trivia item, we all owe a HUGE debt of gratitude to Doris Hicks, her acting coach, for convincing her to do nudity on film. I guess once she did it, she really, really liked it because she has blessed us with scene after scene of Matilda exposing her beyond sensational body over and over again. Thank the lord (and Ms. Hicks) we are able to appreciate her magnificent breasts in all their glory.
The one time I suggested we all dance naked together, I got permanently banned from that strip club.
We all know her name by heart, but I wonder if Matilda de Angelis is nearly as well known by the general public and not just we “ladies and gentlemen of culture”…
From the bottom of my heart, thank you Doris Hicks. You’re doing the lord’s work.
I always talk about the Omaha Test. That doesn’t exist, but if it did, one would go up to 100 consecutive shoppers in an Omaha supermarket, and ask them if they know “X,” thus measuring true fame. For contrast, go to a high school in that city and do the same with the first 100 students you encounter. Somebody like Tom Cruise or Donald Trump would score close to 100 on both facial and name recognition, but some people we consider famous would score close to zero, because this is the era of niche stars, and we are one of the niches. In a certain nerd niche, many people consider Wil Wheaton a celebrity, but he would probably score close to zero. From our niche, I think Matilda de Angelis would score zero.
Even people who seem widely famous might score very low because of the Balkanization of entertainment. The day of universal recognition has ended. In their days, Johnny Carson, Lucille Ball and Walter Cronkite would have scored close to 100, but I’ll bet Seth Meyers would score well below 50, and Craig Ferguson would score about 5. Kenan Thompson has been on SNL for decades, but how many people would come up with his name if shown his picture? How many people could say “SNL cast member” if told his name? I think you would be surprised how low that number would be.
Sydney Sweeney, who is a star by any reasonable definition, would score very low if I use my family as the reference. Nobody over 50 knows who she is, and she doesn’t score super high among the younger ones, even those aged 15-25.
I had a shock at Thanksgiving. Somebody asked me about the most famous person I ever met. I was in the room with about ten people, ages 15-41. I thought I had a pretty good answer, but not one person in the room knew who Bo Derek was. Not one. Fame is fleeting. I got the same response with Dick Cheney, who was a powerful veep, and was recently in the news when he passed. I got the same response I would have gotten if I claimed to know Hannibal Hamlin. I didn’t bother trying Bob Woodward, because I tried to avoid being even more out of touch.
On the other hand, some people who score high with the high schoolers would score about zero with us.