Renato Pozzetto Movies
- 1988
Before Penny Marshall brought Big to the big screen, an Italian director, Franco Amurri, released this body-changing movie. In his story, Marco (Ioska Versari) is a bedwetter whose mother scolds him one time too often, and his classmates tease him one time too often. The finishing touch is that his father neglects to bring him a Lego set for his birthday. He promptly puts all his heart into wishing he were big and not subject to these indignities. The result is that he bursts through his clothes in the guise of a middle-aged man (Renato Pozzetto) and seeks refuge in the house of his former schoolteacher. Mentally, he is still eight years old, and it's a puzzle what to do with him until someone discovers that he has an uncanny rapport with children. Then he becomes a full-time babysitter -- at least, until he is suspected of abducting the by-now long-missing child Marco. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Giulia Boschi, (more)
- 1987
Two men becomes friends when they are among a dozen people attending a two-week survival camp in this amusing comedy. The group gathers in the Amazon rainforest, and Silvio (Renato Pozzetto) and Mario (Enrico Montesano) are the odd couple who are paired together to survive. Silvio is a banker, there on the advise of his psychiatrist, while Mario tries to overcome his insecurity after being abandoned by his wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Enrico Montesano, (more)
- 1987
In this episodic comedy, the rich are seen to be different from the rest of us: more lustful and less scrupulous, for starters. In one episode, a parish priest fresh from a pilgrimage to Lourdes is drawn into a situation (approved of by the Pope himself) where he must try to discourage the notions developed by an Italian princess, who dreamed of the priest's face and now entertains the idea of marrying him rather than the man society has destined her for. In another episode, the ever-hapless Paolo Villaggio plays an insurance agent who is drawn just a bit too deeply into one of his client's marital schemes. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lino Banfi, Laura Antonelli, (more)
- 1986
In this comedy, the ever-resourceful Alfio (Carlo Verdone) and his pal Silvano (Renato Pozzetto) are medical school graduates who have been unable to find work. The two of them convince Alfio's wealthy wife that she could make a bundle by opening up a "fat farm," or weight-loss clinic, and that they should run it. She agrees to the scheme, and they set up their site and get their first customers through television advertising. Unfortunately for the opera singer, the boxer, and other clients, neither of their hosts has any idea about how to run such a clinic, and one laughable disaster follows another. The crafty doctors scheme to undo their many mistakes and somehow miraculously manage to avoid killing anyone or getting shut down by a lawsuit. After their harrowing experiences with their first customers, however, the two decide to convert their building into a restaurant, aptly named "The Two Gluttons." ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Perhaps taking a cue from the popular 1970s Brit television comedy "Are You Being Served?," this Italian department store comedy is a series of skits involving customers and store personnel from several departments. In one skit, Elena (Laura Antonelli) and her husband the personnel director, are certain that an inept salesman in the bathroom fixtures department is actually the son of the store's owner. They launch into a campaign to woo him over without bothering to check up on his credentials. In another skit, the famous Italian actress Ornella Muti, playing herself, walks into one of the men's departments and sends a salesclerk into near heart failure. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alessandro Haber, Laura Antonelli, (more)
- 1982
In back-to-back stories that are unrelated to each other except through a few shared stabs at sexual and social morés, director Nanni Loy and the two featured stars (and co-writers) Renato Pozzetto and Nino Manfredi have fun with some "taboo" themes. In the first story, Don Emidio (Pozzetto) is actually a Catholic priest who suffers amnesia while on a train and ends up falling for an attractive Milanese woman (Mara Venier), leading to a joyful and uninhibited celebration of their romantic natures -- at least for several blissful days. In the second story, a widowed father is a brash construction worker whose favorite hobby is bragging about his son's great accomplishments as a soccer player. Dad's world is about to be jarred into another dimension when his macho son finally tells him about his true sexual orientation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Mara Venier, (more)
- 1980
Director Dino Risi's guns seem to misfire in this long and cliched diatribe at the filmmaking industry. Antonio (Renato Pozzetto) is an average aspiring thespian from a remote area of Italy who heads to Rome and the film studios to seek both fame and fortune. Instead, he ends up bilked by an unscrupulous agent, exploited by gorgeous actress Cinzia (Edwige Fenech), and regularly hit on by a gay acting coach. Antonio does get some bit parts in several films but that does not necessarily guarantee his future. His misfortunes carry commonly held stereotypes to the limit, and they are just the beginning. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Edwige Fenech, (more)
- 1980
- PG
Monica Vitti stars as Tina Candela, a housekeeper on trial for murdering her husband. As she recounts her testimony, the jury becomes taken with fantasies about the marriage of the accused. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1980
In this routine, provincial Italian comedy, sex and jealousy take center stage. Lorenzo (Renato Pozzetto) is the cubby mayor of a small town who is both blessed and plagued by a sexy wife (Gloria Guida). Although his wife is faithful, he is not sure of that and invents ways to prevent any man from misbehaving with her. Meanwhile, Arrigo is the town's notorious playboy, and everyone gets suspicious when he starts paying frequent visits to the mayor's house. The question no one considers is: which half of the married couple is Arrigo pursuing? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Gloria Guida, (more)
- 1980
The Italian La Patata Bollente (Hot Potato) casts some light on the intolerances of those involved in "liberal" Italian political and labor organizations. Popular comic-actor Renato Pozzetto plays an ill-tempered "old line" communist union organizer. One evening, he rescues a homosexual (Massimo Ranieri) from a gang of hooligans. The communist allows the poor man to spend the evening in his apartment -- a wholly innocent set-up that is misinterpreted by the communist's girl friend (Edwige Fenech). When word gets out that their leader and the gay man are "shacking up," the members of the allegedly progressive union and their political cohorts are more vociferous than anyone in their condemnation of his "sins." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Edwige Fenech, (more)
- 1978
In this zany romantic comedy, a financially comfortable woman, bored with her life, follows the intriguing sound of a saxophone to its source, which is being played by Renato Pozzetto. Imagining him to be poor, she seeks to win his heart not only by her ardor, but by a judicious use of her checkbook. Happily, even though he is not impressed with her finances, he finds the prospect of a romantic alliance acceptable. As the main story progresses, many humorous vignettes throw a surreal light on everyday life. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Mariangela Melato, (more)
- 1978
The main character in this comedy-detective story is Riccardo Finzi, played to the hilt by the real main character, comic Renato Pozzetto. The apparently plodding, Sad Sack-type P.I. has just gotten licensed and arrives in Milan with high hopes, however high they are in his case, of launching his investigative career. A trip to a night spot lands him a place to live in, a nubile young woman, and a murder case when he finds out the next morning that the nymphet has been killed. Finzi has a voluntary assistant in the form of a retired cop (Enzo Cannavale) who helps him make progress in spite of himself. Contempo subjects like left-wing students or terrorism pop up here and there in one-liners, providing humor at unexpected moments. Especially made for an Italian audience familiar with Renato Pozzetto's style and the local references in the script, this fun comedy may still amuse other audiences as well. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Silvano Tranquilli, (more)
- 1977
Three episodes of slapstick sexual comedy comprise this film. In the first, a young priest is deserted by his flock until an American protestant minister comes to town with his lovely wife. When the parishioners are convinced that their priest has proved his manhood with the minister's wife, church attendance resumes. In the second episode, a travelling salesman is challenged by the nearly nude state of a lovely female hitchhiker. In the third episode, a woman trying to collect information on her philandering husband, in order to divorce him, is seated on an airplane next to a man who is deathly afraid of flying. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Dalila di Lazzaro, (more)
- 1977
In this slapstick comedy, almost a vaudeville revue, the Italian side of World War II is affectionately re-created, while the cream of Himmler's German troops, the dreaded Stormtroopers, consistently make fools of themselves. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Massimo Boldi
- 1975
After inheriting a faucet factory, Gianluca (Renato Pozzetto) does not have the skills to manage his workers. He is lucky he has the one-man sex machine Luigi (Teo Tocoli) around to show him how to do things. Indeed, so well does he learn his lessons that he leaves the factory behind in favor of wine, women and song. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Renato Pozzetto, Teo Teocoli, (more)
- 1975
Maria Schneider is Michele, a young student sculptress assigned to look after the kidnapped baby of her ex-lover. She and the kid hit it off but are unable to escape until the kidnappers begin to kill one another off. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maria Schneider, Sydne Rome, (more)
