There is the Paolo Villaggio of grimaces and pratfalls, the one who made entire generations laugh with the accountant Fantozzi. And there is the man behind the mask: cultured, restless, Gogolian. This documentary tells the story of both.

Born in Genoa in 1932, his childhood was marked by war and poverty. He graduated from the classical high school Andrea D’Oria, then turned his hand to a thousand trades: waiter, BBC announcer, clerk at Italsider. It was in the offices of that company that the seed of Fantozzi was sown the daily observation of submissive colleagues, tyrannical bosses, and humiliations borne in silence.

But cabaret came first. On cruise ships, alongside a young Fabrizio De André, Villaggio honed his corrosive comic style. Then the clubs of Genoa, where he invented Professor Kranz. Maurizio Costanzo spotted him and brought him to television: Quelli della domenica and Senza rete were born, and the timid Giandomenico Fracchia won over the national audience.

In 1971 Rizzoli collected his stories published in L’Europeo into a book that would become a phenomenon: Fantozzi. The 1975 film adaptation, directed by Luciano Salce, grossed over five billion lire. The accountant with his own personal rain cloud became an Italian archetype, heir to the commedia dell’arte. Villaggio’s coinages entered the language: fantozziano is now synonymous with grotesque, Kafkaesque, humiliating.

But behind the mask there was an actor whom the great directors recognised. Mario Monicelli wanted him for Brancaleone at the Crusades. Federico Fellini entrusted him with The Voice of the Moon David di Donatello 1990. Ermanno Olmi directed him in The Secret of the Old Wood Silver Ribbon 1994. In 1992 Venice awarded him the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

In this documentary, Donatella Baglivo looks beyond the laughter to find the man: the dramatic temperament, the refined culture, the melancholy that feeds the most savage comedy.