As strange as it sounds, even Fantozzi gets good moments once in a while.
Fantozzi (1975 movie)
- The billiard game with Castellani. At first Fantozzi willingly plays poorly so as to ingratiate himself with the boss, but at the 39th "coglionazzo" (an insult comparing someone to a testicle) he gets fed up and starts playing seriously... And in less than a minute the score goes from 49-2 for Castellani to 49-51. Then, seeing Castellani is furious, Fantozzi kidnaps his mother for use as hostage, and from a phone boot negotiates her release in exchange for a plane for abroad and an annuity for Pina and Mariangela... Or at least he tries, as he has accidentally seduced Castellani's mother and reacts by blocking her in the boot with three thrash cans and running away.
- To make everything better, Fantozzi had just learned how to play. He had initially tried to learn how to lose honorably, but he stumbled on a very strict instructor who forced him to learn how to win... And win he did.
- The final moment of awesomeness: Fantozzi got away with everything. He beat a boss at his own game in front of all employees, kidnapped his beloved mother, (accidentally) seduced her, and escaped any and all consequences.
- Trying to slim down, Fantozzi went to a slimming hospital only to find the "therapy" consists in locking the patients into cells without any food and water by day, with the personnel then showing up every night to sell them food (often fattening food) at ridiculously high prices and even pre-written promissory notes. After a few days of this treatment, however, Fantozzi notices that the priciest item on the menu is Montecristo spaghetti, orders it... And promptly breaks out with the file in the spaghetti.
- We see the promissory notes for the Montecristo spaghetti, showing that Fantozzi's address as Via Oberdan (Oberdan street) in Rome... But not only the very first scene of the movie established Fantozzi lived in Via Prenestina, in Rome there's no Via Oberdan (closest thing being the Lungotevere Guglielmo Oberdan, an alley with no building that runs along the river Tiber) - even as the hospital was starving him he had enough presence of mind to scam his captors through invalid notes and make it humiliating for them.
- A rather vulgar one: during their stay at Courmayeur, Fantozzi, Calboni, and ms Silvani are invited at a party by the daughter of the Countess Serbelloni Mazzanti Viendalmare, and Fantozzi ends up drinking a lot of beer. He needs to belch but can't do it in the presence of the countess and he guests, so he goes out of the cabin, turns toward the Mont Blanc... And the belch is so powerful it causes an avalance.
- At the end of the movie Fantozzi, indoctrinated by the one Communist coworker and furious at everything that had happened to him, throws a brick against the Megaditta's building... Cue the appearance of the Galactic Megadirector (whose existence was even doubted by many employees), who in just a few minutes demonstrates just why he's the one in charge by talking Fantozzi back into the ranks, to the point that when he reveals his acquarium filled with employees Fantozzi volunteers for the role of the mullet.
The Second Tragic Fantozzi
Fantozzi getting his 92 minutes of glory!
- During the hunting party Fantozzi's bird call canary is shot by one of the many crazy hunters in the area... And Fantozzi, having noticed just how quickly the others turn on anyone with a vaguely animal trait, calls him a hyena. The guy has barely the time to realize what's happening that the other hunters decide he's indeed a hyena and shoot him.
- After the hunting party has degenerated into open warfare we are treated to a hunter who was stabbed in the belly with a sword... And casually walks around with the sword still inside complaining of a slight burning feeling in the belly.
- During the launching of the company's new cruise ship, the Countess Serbelloni Mazzanti Viendalmare is selected to enact the ceremonial breaking of a bottle, but misses and hits Fantozzi twice, both times throwing him in the harbor's waters. After the second Fantozzi decides to just stay in the water until the ship is launched... And for once deflects his usual bad luck on someone else, as the Countess misses every time and wastes the last three bottles on the mayor, the Minister of the Merchant Navy, and a centenarian baroness, and when they try and have cut a wire in substitution the finger cut is that of the archbishop.
- For years Riccardelli, the avant-garde cinema enthusiast among the bosses, had forced the employees and their families to go to the company's film club every saturday and suffer through avant-garde movies only he likes (in particular The Battleship Kotiomkin, an 18 reels-longnote parody of The Battleship Potemkin) and then have everyone praise them, with special care of humiliating Fantozzi every time due him making him look like a fool in front of the other bosses by claiming he was a fellow enthusiast during the job interview. One night, however, Riccardelli makes a sudden summon on the same night Italy's association football team played a World Cup qualifier against England... And Fantozzi, in his most awesome moment, takes the word and in front of everyone declares "To me, The Battleship Kotiomkin is INCREDIBLE SHIT!". A 92 minutes standing ovation follows... And after that, Fantozzi slaps Riccardelli into the waiting hands of the other employees and their families and leads them into burning his personal copy of the movie in front of him before forcing him to watch trashy movies like Giovannona Long-Thigh and The Exorciccio for two days straight. All while Riccardelli is forced to kneel on chickpeas. Eventually the police intervene and restore the status quo... But not only it was satisfying, but Riccardelli's copy of The Battleship Kotiomkin stayed burned... And it couldn't be replaced.
Fantozzi Contro Tutti
- Normally, the bosses are easily fooled when the employees actually work up the courage to try. Not Cobram, the bicycle enthusiast who had risen from the bottom through years of hard work:
- To ingratiate themselves to him, the employees had collectively decided to feign commuting on bicycles, only to have their cars hidden nearby. Just as they dismount the bikes to go home with their cars, Cobram appears and has everyone there take a 20 km ride.
- Forced to enter the Cobram Cup, Fantozzi and Filini decide to feign having a medical excuse, with Fantozzi calling him by phone with his voice heavily masked and pretending to be a doctor. Cobram recognizes him immediately.
- As said above, the employees were forced to enter the Cobram Cup, a 70 km bicycle race with a terrifying turn and a localized blizzard... And to go the full 70 km they had to take multiple laps. This is when some of the employees finally outsmart Cobram:
- Calboni shows up in a body cast, pretending to have multiple fractures... And is excused.
- Filini getting in the restaurant under the turn at the first lap isn't awesome, he had broken his brakes. Surviving with little harm and joining a wedding party, on the other hand, is this.
- Fantozzi not only completes the race, he actually wins.
- How he wins: right before the race he had bought a "bomb", a mix of doping substances, and took it during the final lap when there was only one other competitor; under the effects of the "bomb" Fantozzi becomes much faster, so his competitor decides to attach himself to his bike with a hook, only for Fantozzi to start going as fast as a motorcycle and throwing him in the middle of the wedding party, before completing the race.
- In a moment of rebellion, Fantozzi wishes to write "The Megapresident is an asshole!" in the sky... And the writing actually appears.
- One for the Megapresident Archangel: befitting his status as a Suspiciously Similar Substitute for the Galactic Megadirector, he talks Fantozzi in changing the writing into "Fantozzi is an asshole!"
Fantozzi Subisce Ancora
- In the opening scene, every employee at the company skips work, and come back just in time to not be caught by inspector Lobbiam's final inspection. How did he fail to catch them during the previous inspections? Easy: Fantozzi successfully covered for all of them, fooling Lobbiam through multiple stratagems the whole day, and finally getting one over the boss who had previously counted as vacation the days he had spent besieged by a ferocious dog and fired him from a cannon.
- For the other employees, the sheer organization of what they had set up to skip work. They had even hidden a windsurf board in a desk, and set up a heliport on the roof.
- In one scene, Fantozzi has to organize a meeting with the building's inhabitants. The meeting immediately turns into a brawl with all the seemingly polite people beating the crap out of each other (two men even throw a third one out of the window). Fantozzi, being clearly used to all these brutal "meetings", is able to fight and defend himself, and even chokeslams a person against the table.
- When ms. Silvani wins a camper, Filini organizes a road trip, everyone with a camper, a roulotte, or equivalents, but he and Fantozzi foil each other when they try and acquire actual roulottes. Thus Filini shows up at the trip with a camper equivalent... Namely, an El Alamein-style armored car, complete with working gun.
- Franchino, the guy met during the camper trip. At first he seems just some overweight guy with disputable hygiene and grooming habits (his armpit hair being incredibly long, and emitting a smell that Filini compared to a whale's corpse) and talks everyone to camp in a seaside garbage dump... Then his Hidden Depths kick in:
- Fantozzi and Filini are tasked to catch some fish. They spend half the day trying and miserably failing... Then Franchino just comes out of the sea with enough fish and an octopus for the dinner.
- After dinner Miss Silvani suggests to go skinny dipping, Fantozzi obviously agres in, then Pina, who had come to keep an eye on him, announces she'll do it too, to which Fantozzi objects. Cue Franchino, who had been reading a philosophy book, calling him out on his hypocrisy, and when Fantozzi tries to justify himself and declares himself a cultured man Franchino asks "Literary culture, scientific culture, or small culture?", and proceeds to shut him up.
- The fact Franchino could have just punched Fantozzi, as he's huge, but instead just used his even bigger culture.
- During a hospital scene, Fantozzi is mistaken for a disabled person by a nun. The nun literally throws herself at Fantozzi to bring him to the hospital room, and doesn't want to listen to Fantozzi when he tries to explains her that he's not disabled. Fantozzi meets her twice, and since the nun is completely Ax-Crazy, he has no other choice but to give her a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, and what makes it awesome is that perennial loser Fantozzi comes out on top in both fights, even if the nun was extremely persistent and violent. However it's also a case of politically incorrect Values Dissonance since they would never get way with similar scenes nowadays.
- While the employees are looking at a picture of Fantozzi's granddaughter, miss Silvani shows up and asks what they're looking... And Filini, without missing a beat, gives her the picture without warning. The scare is the first time someone other than the bosses actually manages to give her a lesson...
- For years Fonelli has been the most humiliated employee in the company, mocked and tormented even by Fantozzi. Then, literally overnight, he becomes Natural Mega Director of Personnel with the name of Cobram II. It took him some work,note but he went from lowest-ranked employee to one of the bosses... And to cap it off, when Fantozzi shows up without knowing and insults him he doesn't take any more revenge, settling for enjoying his reaction when Filini (who had tried to call him the entire night) finally manages to tell him about Fonelli's promotion.
- During the company's sports game organized by Fonelli, the Accidents Department fails miserably at all games and thus risks being transferred to a coal mine in Sardinia to be used as pack animals. To avoid this fate they must win the relay race, but with Fantozzi as their most athletic member they don't have many chances... Then Filini replaces their baton with a dynamite stick to motivate the runners. It works.
- Them actually having the courage to do it. Filini himself, an unnamed worker, Calboni, and finally Fantozzi actually running with a dynamite stick in their hands.
- As the last runner, Fantozzi notices he doesn't have a large advantage... So he waves the dynamite stick around, making the runners from the other offices realize he's holding explosive and causing them to run away and forfeit. He wins by default, even with the dynamite exploding in his hand right as he's crossing the line.
Superfantozzi
This movie shows the "evolution" of Fantozzi in the course of history, and while he's unlucky as ever he still had his moments.- The prehistoric Fantozzi invented the wheel, complete with axle, and bow and arrows. Had it not been for Filini's stupidity he would have changed history then and there.
- Upon seeing the pair of wheels with axle, Filini invents the barbell and uses it to become strong enough he doesn't need the wheel to move objects.
- Fantozzi made the wheels-axle assembly tough, as it shows up intact even in the far future.
- The Greek Fantozzi is possibly the most awesome of all Fantozzis:
- He's first seen in the aftermath of the Battle of Marathon, wearing a linothorax armor and helmet... And since Greek soldiers had to pay for their own equipment, this means the Greek Fantozzi is wealthy in spite of his horrible luck.
- Right after the battle, in which he was beaten up by what Fantozzi estimates was 15,000 Persians, Miltiades assigns him to run to Athens and inform the Archons of the victory. This being Fantozzi, he goes in full armor... And he's over halfway when he loses the helmet, that quickly gets replaced by a marble chapiter Filini wants him to to deliver to the Archons. And then, since he forgot who won, he goes back to Marathon, writes down who won, and comes back... Still holding the chapiter.
- The New Testament era Fantozzi's run-ins with Jesus show that he was indeed a cool guy... Even though he was apparently acting as His Father's agent to punish Fantozzi for taking the Fruit of Knowledge and giving Adam and Eve ideas:
- Fantozzi was toiling on his vegetable garden on the shores of Lake Tiberias when Jesus arrives to meet the children... By walking over the lake, much to Fantozzi's awe. Then, since He was there to inflict divine punishment, He calls to himself the children on the other side of the garden, with obvious results.
- At some point Fantozzi sees a group of people ready to stone an adulterer, and decides to leave as it's not his problem. Cue Jesus appearing and demanding "He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her'', disperding the angry crow that casts aside their stones... Right on Fantozzi's head.
- Fantozzi reacted with happiness at his uncle's passing, as said uncle was rich and he was the only heir. He thus burns his old and poor home that he doesn't need anymore and shows up at the funeral without even pretending to be sorry, then goes to a long haired man that he thinks is the lawyer to ask him for the documents to get his inheritance... But, in one of the finest examples of Laser-Guided Karma ever put to film, He only says "Lazarus. Rise up and walk". Cue Fantozzi getting punched and disinherited by his rich and formerly dead uncle.
- This leads to one for Liu Bosisio's Pina, as when Fantozzi reacts by saying to just go home as if everything was OK she finally calls him out for his stupidity.
- In this situation Fantozzi has to ask for help by his friend Moses Filini, a carpenter living in Jerusalem... Who may be on the side of the Roman occupiers, but has somehow become important enough to supply them with crosses for executions, and gets away with working on Passover. Leading to Fantozzi being mistaken for a convict and crucified with Jesus and the two thieves...
- Crusader!Fantozzi got a crush for a princess whose father had offered her as a bride to the winner of a joust. His opponent is all but invincible, so what does Fantozzi do? Why, he comes in with Excalibur. That he rented from a wizard. His enemy realizes he's doomed when Fantozzi splits his sword from point to handle, and is quickly forced on his knees begging for mercy.
- Pina can somehow get her hands on a perfect replica of Excalibur, and switched the swords to insure her husband would lose and not leave her, before realizing the enemy knight wanted to kill Fantozzi drove her to give the real sword back.
- Before Fantozzi got back the real Excalibur, the princess ordered the knight to kill him. After winning, Fantozzi very publicily rejects her and presents Pina and Mariangela as his wife and daughter respectively, claiming he entered the joust out of sportsmanship.
- During the French Revolution segment we are shown two aristocrats, apparently husband and wife, being brought to the guillotine... And they spend most of the time flirting with each other before the husband calmly walks to the guillotine and places his neck under the blade.
- The 1870-era Fantozzi had a subtle one by keeping his job: living in Rome, he had got a promotion and a home thanks to a cardinal right before Rome was annexed to the Kingdom of Italy and his boss replaced by a high-ranked member of the new regime, yet Fantozzi somehow managed to avoid losing job and home in spite of his affiliation with the hated Papal regime.
- One in his bad luck: when the new boss forces everyone in a rowing race, Fantozzi and Filini get their boat half-destroyed by a cannon and a man throwing himself in the Tiber with a rock tied to his neck and then get lost in the sewers... And they continue rowing for forty-two years before being finally rescued by the Titanic.
- World War II-era Fantozzi is Japanese and was forced to join a Kamikaze unit, and sent into battle. He manages to desert in the middle of an attack and hide in a small coastal city. Now, if only he hadn't hid into Hiroshima...
Fantozzi Va in Pensione
- For the entire series, Fantozzi is a pathetic Hopeless Suitor to Miss Silvani, who doesn't care for him at all. After they both retire, there is a scene where Miss Silvani herself is the one hitting on Fantozzi. But when Fantozzi realizes that it's not real interest but just desperation because no other man wants her anymore, he rejects her, finally switching their roles and showing Miss Silvani as the more pathetic and desperate of the two.
