Fantozzi (film)

Fantozzi
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Luciano Salce
Produced by	Giovanni Bertolucci
Written by	Paolo Villaggio Leo Benvenuti Piero De Bernardi Luciano Salce
Starring	Paolo Villaggio Gigi Reder Liù Bosisio Anna Mazzamauro
Music by	Fabio Frizzi
Cinematography	Erico Menczer
Edited by	Amedeo Salfa
Distributed by	Cineriz
Release date	1975
Running time	103 minutes
Language	Italian

Fantozzi is a 1975 Italian comedy film. It is the first entry in the saga of the unlucky Italian clerk Ugo Fantozzi, always played by its creator, Paolo Villaggio. It is considered a cult film.

Along with the first sequel Il secondo tragico Fantozzi, Fantozzi is considered the pinnacle of the series, and it shows the involvement of actors who are likely to come into comic episodes: Plinio Fernando (in make-up in order to act his horrible daughter), Anna Mazzamauro and Gigi Reder, among others. Fantozzi can be seen as symbol of the Italian middle class of the 1970s, unhappy and frustrated at work and with family.

The success of this film and the saga that has generated has remained virtually unchanged among the decades. The film was released on Italian cinemas on 27 March 1975. The song playing on the ending credits, Fantozzi's Ballad, written by Leo Benvenuti, Piero De Bernardi and Fabio Frizzi, is sung by Paolo Villaggio himself.

The movie starts with Pina, Ugo Fantozzi's wife, calling the "ItalPetrolCementThermoTextilPharmMetalChemical" mega-company where her husband works, asking to check if her husband is still there since she hasn't had any news from him in eighteen days. They find out that Fantozzi, somehow, has been walled into the company's old bathroom.

In order to get to punch his badge at the 08.30 sharp, 16 years ago Fantozzi, began setting the alarm clock at 6.15. Today, by dint of experiments and continuous improvements, he has finally managed to set it at 07:51... that is, the limit of what is humanly possible. Everything is calculated on the edge of the second: five seconds to regain consciousness; four seconds to get over the daily impact of seeing his wife, and six more seconds to ask himself what pushed him to marry that odd sort of animal; three seconds to drink Mrs Fantozzi's coffee... 3000 degrees Fahrenheit! Between eight and ten seconds to cool down his scolded tongue under the tap... two and a half seconds to kiss his daughter Mariangela; then coffee while simultaneously combing his hair, then brushing his teeth with coffee-flavoured minty toothpaste, resulting in physiological awakening... all of this performed in six flat seconds. He still has a 3-minute buffer to get dressed and run to the bus stop to catch the 08:01 bus. All of this is possible, of course, only without other tragic unforeseen circumstances...

The first episode shows Fantozzi going to work in the morning. Fantozzi is bound to be late because of one of those "tragic unforeseen circumstances" (such as the tearing of a shoelace), so he decides to catch the bus by jumping from his balcony and running for it (unsuccessfully). Eventually he reaches his workplace in an ambulance, signs the release papers with his own blood and runs frantically towards the clocking machine, with his colleagues urging him on (though he's not 'helped' as he would be then "disqualified"). He makes it and then passes out.