★ 8 / 10
Fantozzi Through the Ages
By the time 'Super Fantozzi' was released in 1986 as the fifth film in the 'Fantozzi' franchise, the risk of creative exhaustion was very real. To its credit…
By the time 'Super Fantozzi' was released in 1986 as the fifth film in the 'Fantozzi' franchise, the risk of creative exhaustion was very real. To its credit, this film is not about another parade of corporate humiliations. Instead, it catapults Fantozzi through history itself, reimagining him across different eras as civilisation's unluckiest bystander. It was an inspired conceit for the time. The franchise's core idea, the small man crushed by vast, indifferent systems, suddenly becomes cosmic rather than merely bureaucratic. Empires rise, revolutions ignite, and Fantozzi is still there, at the bottom of the hierarchy, next to me.The historical vignettes allow for broader parody and more flamboyant production design than the series had previously attempted. The parts with Jesus were nothing short of pure comedy genius, by far some of the best material this film has to offer. The humour remains unmistakably Fantozzian: cruel, exaggerated, tinged with melancholy. Yet the change in setting does refresh the formula, at least initially. The film feels looser, more conceptual, even slightly surreal at times. That said, the momentum does begin to waver, particularly during the extended Garibaldi sequence, which overstays its welcome and blunts the earlier inventiveness.Despite all the creativity, near the end the jokes start to stretch thinner and thinner. Still, there's something admirable in the attempt to reinvent rather than simply recycle. 'Super Fantozzi' may not rank among the series' best entries, but its ambition, taking Italy's most downtrodden clerk and writing him into the fabric of history, keeps it intriguing. Even when it drags, the tragic joke endures: no matter the century, Fantozzi is destined to lose.
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★ 5 / 10
Fifth (a bit tired) chapter of the series on Fantozzi.
robytdd
The tragicomic misadventures of Italy's most unlucky accountant are back, this time over the centuries, from the creation of man in Eden to the…
The tragicomic misadventures of Italy's most unlucky accountant are back, this time over the centuries, from the creation of man in Eden to the super-technological future.
The idea, let's face it, is identical to that already used by Mel Brooks for his "History of the World - Part 1" (1981) and manages only partially to revitalize the Fantozzian series, already well 'squeezed' in its contemporary times in the previous films; here at least there is some gain thanks to the greater variety of settings, managing to propose some hilarious gags, alongside others that are less successful and / or already seen.
The lead actor Paolo Villaggio (author and creator of the character) remains the true comic engine of the film, but the result is still modest and the usual flat direction of Neri Parenti certainly does not help. On the other hand, Fred Bongusto's music is not bad.
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i need the first Fantozzi / English subs before I need 20 of its sequels!