''Superfantozzi'' is an Italian film from 1986. It is the fifth film in the saga of the unlucky clerk

Ugo Fantozzi Ugo Fantozzi () is a fictional character, appearing in Italian literature and film, created by Paolo Villaggio. The character, initially part of Villaggio's television monologues, later became protagonist of a series of short stories published at ...

, played by its creator,

Paolo Villaggio Paolo Villaggio (; 30 December 1932 – 3 July 2017) was an Italian actor, voice actor, writer, director and comedian. He is noted for the characters he created with paradoxical and grotesque characteristics: Professor Kranz, the ultra-timid G ...

. This film portrays the "evolution" of Fantozzi in History, from the Creation of the World to a far,

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imagination, imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, Paral ...

-esque, future.

Plot

Genesis Genesis may refer to: Bible * Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind * Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book o ...

. After creating Heaven, Earth, the seas and the animals,

God In monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Oxford Companion to Philosophy'', Oxford University Press, 1995. God is typically ...

proceeds to create man, resulting in Ugo Fantozzi. Disappointed with his first attempt, God rests for one day then tries again, thus creating Adam and Eve, and also provides Fantozzi with a woman, his horrible future wife Pina. After Eve seduces Fantozzi into committing the

original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 ( ...

in her place, Fantozzi and Pina are banished from the

garden of Eden In Abrahamic religions, the Garden of Eden ( he, גַּן־עֵדֶן, ) or Garden of God (, and גַן־אֱלֹהִים ''gan-Elohim''), also called the Terrestrial Paradise, is the Bible, biblical paradise described in Book of Genesis, Genes ...

and condemned to spend eternity as underlings of Adam's and Eve's descendants. Stone Age. As he struggles with dinosaurs and other prehistoric perils to feed his family (now including daughter Mariangela), Fantozzi meets another human being, his future colleague Filini. He also creates a rudimentary

barbell A barbell is a piece of exercise equipment used in weight training, bodybuilding, weightlifting, powerlifting and strongman, consisting of a long bar, usually with weights attached at each end. Barbells range in length from to above , alth ...

, which will occasionally appear as a

sight gag In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humour visually, often without words being used at all. The gag may involve a physical impossibility or an unexpected occurrence. The humor is caused by alternative interpretation ...

in the episodes to follow.

Ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...

. In a recreation of the heroic deeds of Philippides, Fantozzi runs to

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

to report the Greek victory in the

Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination ...

. However, by the time he has reached Athens after a 42 kilometer race, he can no longer remember the outcome of the battle and must run back to Marathon to refresh his memory.

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

. Fantozzi earns a living out of a small market garden by

Lake Tiberias The Sea of Galilee ( he, יָם כִּנֶּרֶת, Judeo-Aramaic: יַמּא דטבריא, גִּנֵּיסַר, ar, بحيرة طبريا), also called Lake Tiberias, Kinneret or Kinnereth, is a freshwater lake in Israel. It is the lowest f ...

. Upon learning that his wealthy uncle

Lazarus Lazarus may refer to: People * Lazarus (name), a surname and a given name * Lazarus of Bethany, a Biblical figure described as being raised from the dead by Jesus * Lazarus, a Biblical figure from the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus * Laz ...

has died, Fantozzi rejoices and burns down his own house, anticipating a rich inheritance. However his plan is foiled as

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

resurrects Lazarus. Fantozzi is later mistaken for a convict and crucified on the

Golgotha Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

with Jesus and two thieves.

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

. Fantozzi, now a crusader returning from

the Holy Land The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Holy ...

, falls in love with a beautiful princess, who is promised as bride to the winner of an upcoming

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

. Fantozzi retrieves

Excalibur Excalibur () is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. It was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. Excalibur and the Sword in t ...

from an enchanted lake, intending to wield it at the tournament, but his jealous wife Pina secretly replaces the sword with a duplicate. As Fantozzi is nearly killed during the final bout of the tournament, Pina gives him back the real Excalibur to save him. Fantozzi is victorious, but refuses the princess' hand as a token of gratitude to his wife. Fantozzi is later seen as a beggar, who receives a large sum of gold from

Robin Hood Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is de ...

, who steals to the rich to give to the poor, only to be robbed minutes later, after joyously stating that he is rich, by Robin himself.

French revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...

. King

Louis XVI Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was e ...

is taken to the gallows to be executed, but the

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

jams.

Sans-culotte The (, 'without breeches') were the common people of the lower classes in late 18th-century France, a great many of whom became radical and militant partisans of the French Revolution in response to their poor quality of life under the . Th ...

Fantozzi thrusts himself against the guillotine in anger, shaking it until it releases and castrates him.

Unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single s ...

. On September 20, 1870, Fantozzi moves to

Porta Pia Porta Pia is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Por ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

, where a cannonade breaches a wall of his house and a platoon of

bersaglieri The Bersaglieri, singular Bersagliere, (, "sharpshooter") are a troop of marksmen in the Italian Army's infantry corps. They were originally created by General Alessandro La Marmora on 18 June 1836 to serve in the Royal Sardinian Army, which ...

marches through. Fantozzi and Filini, now employed at their characteristic mega-company, take part in a regatta on the river

Tiber The Tiber ( ; it, Tevere ; la, Tiberis) is the third-longest river in Italy and the longest in Central Italy, rising in the Apennine Mountains in Emilia-Romagna and flowing through Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio, where it is joined by the Ri ...

organised by their director the Earl Duke Modestino Balabam. The race turns out to be a disaster of which Fantozzi and Filini are the only survivors: they end up paddling in the sewers leading to the open sea until, in 1912, they are rescued by the ''

Titanic RMS ''Titanic'' was a British passenger liner, operated by the White Star Line, which sank in the North Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912 after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York City, Unite ...

'' on its doomed maiden voyage. After the invention of

cinematograph Cinematograph or kinematograph is an early term for several types of motion picture film mechanisms. The name was used for movie cameras as well as film projectors, or for complete systems that also provided means to print films (such as the Cin ...

, Fantozzi and family are watching the films of the

Lumière brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: *Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, a ...

. While watching the '' Arrival of a train'', everyone flees the cinema in fear, but Fantozzi stays and laughs at their credulity, only to be run over by a real train tearing through the screen.

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. Fantozzi serves as an

air observer An air observer or aerial observer is an aircrew member whose duties are predominantly reconnaissance. The term originated in the First World War in the British Royal Flying Corps, and was maintained by its successor, the Royal Air Force. An ai ...

for the

Red Baron Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a seco ...

. Tasked with carving notches into the fuselage in order to keep the score of his superior officer's aerial victories, he damages the plane to the point that its tail detaches, taking Fantozzi himself down with it.

American Prohibition In the United States from 1920 to 1933, a Constitution of the United States, nationwide constitutional law prohibition, prohibited the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. The alcohol industry was curtai ...

. The Fantozzi family relocate to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, unaware that their unscrupulous landlord is using their apartment as a decoy for his

rum-running Rum-running or bootlegging is the illegal business of smuggling alcoholic beverages where such transportation is forbidden by law. Smuggling usually takes place to circumvent taxation or prohibition laws within a particular jurisdiction. The ...

operations. As the police break into his house during a dragnet, Fantozzi is arrested for smuggling a single bottle of wine and framed for the landlord's entire business.

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Fantozzi is a Japanese pilot who is selected for a

kamikaze , officially , were a part of the Japanese Special Attack Units of military aviators who flew suicide attacks for the Empire of Japan against Allied naval vessels in the closing stages of the Pacific campaign of World War II, intending to ...

mission, but ejects before crashing his plane. He flees to the nearest city, which is however revealed to be Hiroshima, seconds before it is hit by an atomic bomb. 1980's. Fantozzi and Filini take unauthorized leave to attend a football match between

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to th ...

. Their bus comes face-to-face with another one carrying Scottish fandom, resulting in a confrontation in the style of

swashbuckler films Swashbuckler films are a subgenre of the action film genre, often characterised by swordfighting and adventurous heroic characters, known as swashbucklers. Real historical events often feature prominently in the plot, morality is often clear-c ...

and the ''

Cavalleria rusticana ''Cavalleria rusticana'' (; Italian for "rustic chivalry") is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from an 1880 Cavalleria rusticana (short story), short story of ...

''. Later at the stadium, Fantozzi and Filini end up by mistake among Scottish supporters, whom they try to elude by disguising as traditional Scotsmen. However, Fantozzi's faulty

bagpipes Bagpipes are a woodwind instrument using enclosed reeds fed from a constant reservoir of air in the form of a bag. The Great Highland bagpipes are well known, but people have played bagpipes for centuries throughout large parts of Europe, ...

spontaneously play '' Fratelli d'Italia'', causing the duo to be discovered and beaten. Real-life journalist

Enrico Mentana Enrico Mentana (born 15 January 1955) is an Italian journalist and television presenter. He founded the Italian news program '' TG5'' and directed it from 1992 to 2004. In 2005, as Canale 5's editorial director, he conceived and curated the tal ...

later reports the incident in the news, thus exposing Fantozzi's scheme to his family and employers. The future. Fantozzi and family prepare to dine in their technologically advanced apartment, until they are ordered outside by Fantozzi's boss who wants to use the house for a secret encounter with a lover. Fantozzi decides to celebrate in open space anyway, but is hit by an asteroid.

Cast

as Ugo Fantozzi *

Liù Bosisio Liù Bosisio (born Luigia Bosisio Mauri; 30 January 1936), is an Italian actress and voice actress. Biography Bosisio was born in Milan in the end of January 1936. From 1953 to 1955, She attended the Accademia d'Arte Drammatica in her hometown ...

as Pina Fantozzi *

Plinio Fernando Plinio may refer to: *Pliny, in Italian ** Pliny the Elder (c. 23 – 79) ** Pliny the Younger (61 – c. 113) *Ulmus 'Plinio', an elm cultivar named after Pliny * Plínio (footballer, born 1946) José Plínio de Godoy (born 3 February 1946), k ...

as Mariangela Fantozzi *

Gigi Reder Gigi Reder (born Luigi Schroeder; 25 March 1928 – 8 October 1998) was an Italian actor and voice actor. He was best known for the role of Filini in the '' Fantozzi'' film series. Biography Born in Naples in to a German father and a Neapolit ...

as Filini *

Luc Merenda Luc Charles Olivier Merenda (born 3 September 1943) is a French film actor. He was one of the most prominent actors of the Italian poliziotteschi genre, working several times with Sergio Martino and Fernando Di Leo. He is of Italian origin t ...

as various characters (including

Adam Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...

, the

and Fantozzi's boss Modestino Balabam), all associated with being the cause of Fantozzi's troubles *

Eva-Lena Lundgren Eva-Lena Lundgren (born 1961) is a Swedish model, and a former Miss Sweden 1981.Fröken Sv ...

as various characters, all female counterpart to the characters played by Merenda

Reception

A reviewer known as "Yung." of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' commented that "Thought pics is jumpy and uneven, there are still some funny bits and Villaggio's humiliated little man is a treat of comic gestuality."

References

Sources

External links

* {{Neri Parenti Italian comedy films Italian sequel films 1986 films 1980s Italian-language films 1986 comedy films Films directed by Neri Parenti Films about reincarnation Films about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Films scored by Fred Bongusto Robin Hood parodies Robin Hood films 1980s Italian films