San Felice sul Panaro, in the province of Modena, was transformed for a day into the “Fantozzi Village“. Near the Rocca Estense, more than 200 actors and extras emerged from grand sets built specially for the occasion, parading towards the town centre.
With photo backdrops and scenery scattered across several spots, all drawn from the most celebrated scenes of the film saga made up of 10 films between 1975 and 1999. From the Battleship Potemkin staircase of Il secondo tragico Fantozzi (1976) to the football pitch for the famous match between bachelors and married men.
Every house Fantozzi ever lived in was rebuilt in the Parco della Rocca: the set for the “Megaditta” (the giant company he worked for) stretches a full 250 metres, complete with the offices where the accountant toiled away, from the cupboard under the stairs right up to the executive floor dubbed "Paradise", with no fewer than 50 extras dressed all in white.
There was also the circus where Fantozzi improvises as a Hungarian artist, and the Coppa Cobram, complete with lorries, bowls, a raised platform and even a hearse.
Not only that, there was also Professor Birkemaier from the University of Jena, accompanied by an ambulance and nuns, recreating the scene in which Fantozzi checks himself into a clinic to lose weight, along with the tragic runners from the Inps trip to Venice.
Rounding out the scene were benches with signs bearing iconic quotes, slogans scattered across the walls and a selfie area. Bringing the Fantozzi universe to life were artistic director Roberto Gatti and director Paolo Galassi.
And then there was background music, 1970s cars including the accountant's inevitable Bianchina, and the tennis court from the celebrated Batti lei scene.
The small town, home to the Rocca Estense, threw itself wholeheartedly into a one-of-a-kind undertaking. Partly to give the warmest possible welcome to Elisabetta Villaggio, daughter of Paolo, the creator of the character whose name was borrowed from a colleague at Italimpianti, the company where the actor had once worked as a clerk.
Elisabetta presented the book Fantozzi dietro le quinte – Oltre la maschera la vita (vera) by Paolo Villaggio, an account of some of the actor's most intimate moments. From his childhood in Genoa to summer evenings at Boccadasse, through to the hard graft he put in starting out in Rome, in a damp basement in Trastevere.
But Fantozzi Village was also a vehicle for a «global solidarity village» project: a flood-hit municipality in Romagna was symbolically adopted, and all the funds raised over the course of the day will be donated to it!