An Italian Comedy - Fantozzi

Fantozzi is a 1975 Italian comedy film. It is the first film of the saga and it tells the story of an unlucky Italian clerk Ugo Fantozzi's life. The main character's role was played by Paolo Villaggio: he was born on 30 December 1932 in Genoa (Italy) and he died on 3 July 2017 from complications of diabetes.

The film is divided into eleven episodes: going to work, Mrs Silvani, a football match, camping, Christmas, New Year's Eve, a snooker match, tennis, dining at a Japanese restaurant, a trip and the Galactic Mega-director.

Ugo Fantozzi undergoes a variety of bad experiences over the course of one year, partly due to his lack of common sense. A bad camping trip, a hellish office party on New Year's Eve, having too many drinks and burping in public, resulting in an avalanche. He works in an Italian office for a mega-company and ends up beating his shift leader at pool, thanks to a bit of discipline from a stern instructor. He also has to become a “human fish” in the Galactic Mega-director's aquarium.

Fantozzi is seen as a symbol of the Italian middle class of the 1970s, unhappy and frustrated at work and with family. Fantozzi's films are my favourite Italian films and Paolo Villaggio is my favourite Italian actor, comedian and writer. I wish I could have met him before he died.