What's your take on Nino?

He's just a horny Teen boy, and with Claudia Antonelli So close I don't blame him at all

When there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...

He is a horny teenager, but it's clearly more than that; the older woman and Porky's nymphoid sister throw themselves at him but he hardly takes notice of them.

He's got it bad for Angela, but he is only able to express it through a splicing together of minor clumsy sexual advances and slightly more sophisticated power games. Theoretically he is in a position where he cannot get her attention, or be important to her on equal terms or on a level where mutual attraction is evident, so in order to have any impact on her at all, he must resort to being a bastard. Although power is strongly involved, he does have genuine affection for her and also feels some jealousy.

He actually misjudges the situation because Angela does in fact like him. She never needed to submit to any of his demands, nor does she need to put up with him. One word to the father from her and he would take her side; he already thinks the boy is a scallywag. Nino thinks he's got the upper hand and that his blackmail is the main reason he's getting his way, but she is blatantly getting off on it too and she is trying desperately to get him to understand that.

She wants him to express it properly instead of the confusing, sadistic and dismissive manner in which he does. In fact she appears distressed and hurt by his behaviour. He doesn't do anything criminal in the context of their particular situation because she is totally complicit.

The way people talk about the final "rape" scene makes me wonder whether I was even watching the same movie. First of all, throughout the film, except for about one occasion where she is irritated with him, she always refers to him as "Ninuzzo" which would be the equivalent of calling a Steven "Steverino" (especially considering that Nino is already a nickname probably from Giovanni). Ninuzzo is a very affectionate appellation. Even when he's at his most bastard she refers to him this way. When she "rapes" him, both his arms are above his head and he is smiling. When they finish, he strokes her hair and says her name and she says "Amore mio", "My love", and throughout the sex she refers to him as "my boy", "bambino mio". And it certainly can't be statutory rape because the age of consent in Italy is 14.