To celebrate the first, legendary chapter of the Ragioniere film saga, Giunti Odeon, in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, brings the restoration of Fantozzi to the big screen, on the very day of the 50th anniversary of the film's release: Thursday 27 March 2025.

On 27 March 1975, exactly fifty years ago, one of the most formidable comic masks of the entire 20th century in Italy saw the light of day on the screen - after a successful passage in story form. Paolo Villaggio, its inventor and performer, had indeed been an employee, and the world he described knew him intimately. Based on the two novels that Paolo Villaggio published for Rizzoli in 1971 (Fantozzi) and 1974 (Il secondo tragico libro di Fantozzi), the film Fantozzi was directed by Luciano Salce. Like that of a mysterious hero, the cinematographic epiphany of Rag. Ugo Fantozzi takes place from behind: a back shot, a blow to the head, and the character already has his destiny sewn on. The face is, of course, that of its author, who had been polishing his features on television for some time, and then pulled from the pages of two best-sellers what we can now consider the most popular comic mask in Italy.