Fantozzi: Italy’s Underrated Everyman You’ve Never Heard Of
Everybody in Italy knows about Fantozzi, but few know of him outside the country. So allow me to briefly introduce you to this underrated comedic gem.
It all began with Paolo Villaggio writing a series of short stories about a chronically unlucky everyman in Italy. Those short stories were initially published in L’Espresso, a popular Italian magazine. Later, they became books and eventually movies starring Villaggio himself as the narrator and in the role of Ugo Fantozzi, a corporate accountant abused by his employer and society at large.
Villaggio drew his inspiration from a brief stint as a reluctant corporate employee as he dreamed of making it in comedy and show business.
On the surface, this is all very silly. The comedy has a lot of slapstick elements. The genius of Fantozzi, however, lies beneath the surface. Under the veneer of surreal comedy, you’ll find a sharp satirical critic of Italian society in the 70s and 80s. A society that didn’t offer many prospects to the majority of the population.
It’s a comedy saga by all means, but it’s tragicomic. The tragedy is always there like a shadow of the comedy. We laugh at Fantozzi far more than we laugh with him, but feel bad for it. In part due to empathy towards him and in part because deep down we find a bit of Fantozzi within us.
In fact, I suspect part of the reason why the series of movies became so popular is that many people were secretly frustrated by the oppression of their own routine life. Not to the same caricature extent as Fantozzi, of course, but they too felt undervalued at work and home and felt like they couldn’t catch a break.
The Fantozzi Saga includes the following movies:
Fantozzi (1975)
Il secondo tragico Fantozzi (1976)
Fantozzi contro tutti (1980)
Fantozzi subisce ancora (1983)
Super Fantozzi (1986)
Fantozzi va in pensione (1988)
Fantozzi alla riscossa (1990)
Fantozzi in paradiso (1993)
Fantozzi - Il ritorno (1996)
Fantozzi 2000 - La clonazione (1999)
The first three movies in particular achieved a cult-status in Italy and have been quite popular in Italy for decades.
50 years after its debut, this silly saga remains a critical snapshot of society in those years. And as we laugh at Fantozzi, a doubt arises.
Fantozzi was a chronically unlucky loser. But he had a family, his own house, his car, a stable job, he took a couple of vacations each year, and frequent weekend trips exploring various activities and hobbies.
Sure, he was unhappy in his job, his wife was rather mousy, and he had an ugly child. But perhaps, he didn’t have it so bad. Perhaps, things got a lot worse over the years, and Fantozzi, for all of his tragicomic circumstances, was not such a loser. He was just a man, a victim of the system. Like most of us.