The most famous accountant in Italy, Ugo Fantozziwas born from an idea by Paolo Villaggio between the late sixties and the early seventies. The character begins to take shape in a small column that the Genoese comedian took care of the weekly The espresso Inspired by their work experiences as an employee in a company of the Cosider steel systems. Subsequently perfected on television in the program Those of Sundayreaches success with two novels published by Village for Rizzoli in 1971 and 1974, respectively Fantozzi And The second tragic book by Fantozziup to the cinematographic debut that seals the definitive popular triumph. Fifty years ago, on March 27, 1975, the film came out in Italian theaters Fantozzithe first of the ten films of the saga of the most famous accountant in the history of Italian cinema. The deeds of the employee of the “megaditta”, the Italpetrolcemetermotesilfarmomethmica, remained in our collective imagination so as to mention some of the symbol of a humble, unfortunate, servile, venated, cowardly, slaveized, above all: “How human you!”. A raw and prophetic imagination moved by contradictions and paradoxes, today more than ever mirror of our modern society marked, as then, by opportunism, malice and arrival.
A universe constantly between the sacred and the profane, between corporate culture and the power of the Church. Grooty, surreal, tragicomic, as Paolo Villaggio said: “Fantozzi was not a comedy, it was a film a little atypical little one, with a malice, a ferocity towards the unfortunate, who was fully made”. A perfectly successful character thanks to Paolo Villaggio’s great transformation ability. The absurd clothing, the Basque, the enormous shyness and the insecurity that lead to rivers of continuous sweat, the way of speaking and interacting with colleagues and superiors, but also and above all his car, true emblem of man Fantozzi, a loser car, perceived as a cathorcio, but that a catholic was not.
Considering the chic alternative to the Fiat 500, the famous Bianchina Autobianchi was presented in 1957 by the brand designed two years earlier by Ferruccio Quintavalle, head of the historic white bicycle company, together with the commander Giuseppe Bianchi, Alberto Pirelli, son of the founder of the company of the same name, and a young Gianni Agnelli, with a production plant in Desio. A car with original design starting from the rear fins and the numerous chrome very popular at the time. Produced in different versions until 1969, Villaggio decides to drive a “4 -seater” white of 1962 to her character, in 1975, six years after its exit of production, making her the car lightened par excellence. In the 1975 film, other vehicles applied to be told: the legendary Fiat 124 Sport Spider Blu of 1968 of the surveyor Luciano Calboni, the Fiat 2800 Ministerial of 1939 with the illustrious “Ministr du Petrol” El ‘on boardOm Tigrotto bib Menarini of 1964 protagonist of the legendary bus scene to “take on the fly”.