Francesco Randisi Fantozzi is the first step in a long journey of movie that spanned over almost 3 decades. While the more and more the journey proceed, the authors seems to lose a the inspiration and the grip over the story and the peace of the comedy, the first two movies in this installment are a true masterpiece for the Italian culture. As a guy born in Italy in the early 80' I can understand the background and how this movie was somehow a portrait (of course exasperated) of a certain corporate mentality made of cowardice toward the powers and servile attitudes. All the ridiculous adventure of Mr Fantozzi are indeed a description of a desperate and unsuccessful attempt of a middle class man to rise in the society. There is more than it can be written about the Fantozzi series but something has to be said in advance: I can understand if a for a non-Italian this comedy might not be look particularly fun. It is indeed an Italian phenomenon, hard to explain if you have not the right background. I think also that to really appreciate this movie you should be fluent in Italian because most of the fun is lost in translation.

MARIO GAUCI 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!!

r-cantillo It's true, Fantozzi is such a cult in Italy that unless you've actually watched at least one movie you're going to miss most jokes by your fellow Italian as at least three out of ten are related to a fantozzi movie somehow:) if you're unlucky or clumsy you are 'fantozzi' and people can pretend to be fantozzi's boss: 'fantozzi, is it you'? One of fantozzi's most popular answers (usually to his boss's magnanimous decision to move him to the basement and increase his shifts from 5 to 8) is to say: "Thank you you are so human" so every time anybody says something evil or mean you can reply jokingly and say 'you're so human':) also his name is hilariously and constantly misspelled 'fantocci' 'bambocci' etc.but unless you know the fantozzi quotes you won't get the gist of it and you'll be lost to most other who watched the movie(s) lots of times..enjoy!

stf-nr 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.