(Cover) - EN Movies - Robert De Niro shows his sensual side in new movie Ages of Love by performing a striptease.

His co-star in the Italian drama, Monica Bellucci, has promised fans of the tough guy actor that they will see a different side to him. Ages of Love tells the story of an art professor (De Niro) who is living a lonely life in Rome following a divorce. However, things change when he meets Monica's character.

"We discover a new De Niro: solar, sweet, romantic, sensual," she told French magazine L'Express Styles. "This sequence is a tribute to Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, a classic comedy of the 60's in which Sophia Loren performs a unforgettable strip tease for Marcello Mastroianni."

In a role reversal it's the male character who performs the striptease this time. And Monica was delighted with the concept.

"I would never imagine being in my knickers in front of De Niro, stripping to Marvin Gaye's music," she added.

While she shows her lighter side in Ages of Love, Monica can also soon be seen in complex movies The Whistleblower and Rhinos Season. The Italian actress loves playing bleak roles because it means she can tap into her dark side through her acting.

"Cinema allows you to express a schizophrenia, while having it under control," she explained. "I had the opportunity to live, virtually, extremes lives, which scare me as much as they attract me. I have a dark side, vivid, but I don't want to express it in the real life. Better to don't wake up the beast who lives inside me." (C) Cover Media