Paz!

The Italians are crazy! I recently watched "L'ultimo capodanno" and "Paz!", two comedies that take their basic premises to extremely unexpected levels. The first one was directed by Marco Risi, son of Dino, the Italian filmmaker who has been acknowledged as the man who most contributed to the creation of the cinematic comedy "all'italiana", and the goings get so out of hand that maybe your jaw will drop. Max Mazzotta, the actor who plays the leading character (if there is one), also appears in Renato de Maria's "Paz!", a fantasy based on four comic strip stories by cartoonist and pop idol Andrea Pazienza, following students and radicals during the 70's in Rome. Actors look too old for their parts (as in "Grease"), but I guess that's the idea in a movie where sex is candid and free, where a kitchen turns into an auditorium full of leftist students or a professor asks structuralist silly questions to Mazzotta about "Apocalypse Now". I wasn't even looking to watch these two films, but after I did, I will look forward for future Italian movies on cable television, by different and new directors.

Really interesting movie, the "screwed-up" type where basically nothing happens, but in the end you had fun and spent a pleasant hour and half. Actors are not bad, and there are even some mythical people like local singers doing small parts. On the overall, the movie could be considered some sort of "Trainspotting alla Bolognese", quite hallucinated, funny in its way while showing students' life during the 70's, with all the political tension of the period. It respects very well the style of the comics by Andrea Pazienza from which by which it was inspired. A nice one.

A riveting account of student life in 1970's Bologna. The outrageous characters will keep you gripped throughout, as will the witty script, its colourful langauge and frequent nudity. Although the film is based on comic strip stories, you need not be a fan of cartoons to enjoy it. It really is Italian comedy at its best. I first saw Paz! Soon after it came out some 20 years ago when I was just 18. Now, at 38, the scene with Vittoria Puccini comparing penis lengths still makes me laugh! The movie is most definitely a cult of Italian cinema. I would like to see it dubbed into English so that it can deservedly achieve global appeal.

Andrea Pazienza was an Italian comic writer, and with his art was the best reporter for the Italian riots of the '70s.

Through the late seventies Italy was shaken by youth movements, inspired to anarchism and pushed by a strong communist/neofascist struggle.

PAZ! mixes characters from the most famous stripes of Andrea, "Le straordinarie avventure di Penthotal" and "Zanardi" (if you are interested, look for "Pertini", too, a perfect satirical operation on one of the most loved Italian presidents): the actors are physically identical to the drawings, especially Zanardi and his friend Petrilli.

Their adventures follow strictly the plot of anarchy, hate, sadism, self destructive rebellion and drug-induced foolishness of the comics, and are a fresh wind in Italian film-making, usually very politically correct.

Andrea Pazienza died in 1988, 32 years old, less than a decade later from the creation of these fantastic characters, so this movie is quite a good way to get in touch with one of the king of Italian comics author.

The stories of the 3 main characters of the film "Paz!" take place in Bologna, that in the 70s, perhaps, was the most leftist city in Italy.

The three main characters (Penthotal, Zanardi and Fiabeschi) were created in 2 Andrea Pazienza's comic strips: Zanardi and Fiabeschi appeared in the Zanardi comic strip, while Penthotal had his own strip.

De Maria had declared that his intention was to show the situation of Bologna in the 70s through Pazienza's characters and stories and to make people think.

The soundtrack comprise original 70s punk and new wave tracks from the Italian scenes (groups like Skiantos and CCCP).