Fantozzi

This film is a veritable milestone in the history of Italian film comedy and was the start of a series of 10 outings (which spanned nearly 25 years) featuring the hapless titular character, the epitome of a working-class underdog (who had been introduced in novel form by star/co-writer Paolo Villaggio himself); in itself, while patchy overall, it's still the second best in the entire series.

Here we are introduced to the characters which would reappear throughout the series: Fantozzi's frumpy wife (which would eventually be played, from the third entry onwards, by Luis Bunuel regular Milena Vukotic), his hideous daughter who looks more like a monkey (actually played a boy - subsequently a man - in drag!); his overbearing colleagues - the ever-optimistic myopic organizer (Gigi Reder), the playboy figure who's arrogant to his peers but utterly complacent to his superiors (Giuseppe Anatrelli), the free-spirited woman (Anna Mazzamauro) whom he desires but who's really quite unattractive herself; the employers, as befits the satiric nature of the films, are depicted as near deities with their offices fitted with armchairs in human skin and in whose aquariums swim a selected number of 'lucky' employees!!

The first entry has its fair share of memorably comic sequences: the football game during a thunderstorm between single and married men, Fantozzi's recurring mystical visions which invariably occur after having incurred a particularly heavy physical blow, the road rage sequence featuring a confrontation with a gang of thugs, the billiard game in which Fantozzi, after much verbal abuse, turns the tables on his superior and eventually kidnaps the latter's love-struck mother as security against his vengeance and a scene at a Japanese restaurant where, among other calamities, samurai are lopping off the limbs of those customers who are not appreciative of their cuisine!!

Fantozzi is a literary character created by Paolo Villaggio who stars in this film and in all the rest of this franchise. The filmic version of Fantozzi has a much less heavy satire but still very sharp and very enjoyable. Fantozzi is a classic of the Italian Comedy. The first Fantozzi is without any argument the best of the whole franchise.

"Fantozzi" are the first of a long series of movie (going more and more ahead it has been arrived to a repetitive comedy). The story speak about the accountant Ugo Fantozzi, a man much ill-fated, and of it's daily adventures, in the office and in the house. All it is drawn from the book "Fantozzi", published in the 1971 by Rizzoli. And it is just this last one that distributes this movie. An enriched film thanks to Villaggio and the rest of the cast (between which Liu Bosisio, Anna Mazzamauro and Gigi Reder). But also thanks to a good script, written without stupidity. It's a full film of catastrophic adventures, in which Fantozzi goes always fall to us, to times without it's will. With this comment I have commented also the other "Fantozzi" films.

The Fantozzi saga in Italy is something you can not do without. A lot of quotes are common use in everyday life of people. Paolo Villaggio, who is the author of the original books of Fantozzi, is also the perfect cast for the part, but also all the other characters are outstanding representations of the real life working environment (I personally enjoy very much "Geometra Calboni" interpreted by Giuseppe Anatrelli).

I happened to think, and more then once, that these movies are not to be lost, they are a portrait of Italian life in the 70s and they are an example on how you can laugh (and laugh loud!) with a very low level (especially in the first and second episodes) of vulgarity. I'll take for me VHS or DVD collection to show them to my children's, with the hope that their generation will enjoy them as much as mine.

Despite the absence of an actual plot (the movie is more or less a sequence of sketches), Fantozzi is probably the last hooray of the Italian-style Comedy. Sure, the general tone is much lighter if compared to classic Italian-style Comedies, but nonetheless the fire of a merciless socio-cultural criticism still burns under the see-through veil of the farce.

Accountant Ugo Fantozzi embodies every possible stereotype of your Average middle-class Italian of the 70s. Stuck in a frustrating job, exploited and made fun of by his coworkers, designated victim of his bosses, unhappy and disheartened family man (married to an unbelievably ugly and dull wife, and with a simian daughter), he always seems to draw the shortest straw. No matter what he does, and how hard he tries, Lady Luck will always turn her back on him. Better if after having given him some hope.

But mind you, behind all the improbable situations and the over-the-top comedy stuff, the message is indeed deeper. Everything Fantozzi wishes for is the so-called Italian Dream: after the economical boom of the late 50s, every Italian dreamt about landing a good 9-to-5 job, buying himself a house and a car, living a nice and quiet family life with summer holidays, plenty of hobbies etc. And, should things have gone very well, maybe a mistress too...

Instead, poor Fantozzi is stuck in a rut: he has a second-rate version of all of that... And the more he tries to attain "happiness", the worse it ends.

Clearly, the comedy aspect is prominent, and the movie is also enjoyable for its slapstick comedy, for its sketches and for its caricatural portrait of Italian lower/middle-class. But once the funny parts are an "acquired taste", you can see past it and the sadness of the characters appears, offering a whole new dimension to the movie.

In origin Fantozzi was a literary character, created by Paolo Villaggio himself (who'll star as Fantozzi in all the subsequent movies), and on the written page the social criticism was much heavier. The cinematic version made the satire more enjoyable, probably less sharp, but for sure not less noticeable.

In the end, Fantozzi is a classic of Italian Comedy, and has had a long-lasting impact on Italian language, comedy and society. Every single character, quote and episode is well known in Italy and can easily be "recycled" in everyday's life, even 35 odds years after its original creation.

Had it been "just another silly comedy", it wouldn't had the same impact.

The only real downside of the movie, and of the whole saga, is you have to watch it in Italian, possibly understanding the language to a decent degree. Otherwise many jokes and situations will go over your head