Compagni di Scuola (English: Schoolmates) is a 1988 Italian Dramedy film, directed by and starring Carlo Verdone.
The film is a cynical deconstruction of a Class Reunion between old schoolmates, fifteen years after the graduation.The reunion starts off as cheerful and fun, with old friends remembering their school days together, but it quickly becomes clear that the guests are deeply frustrated and unsatisfied with their lives, and many of them have dark secrets. After spending all day together, their party goes Darker and Edgier.
Tropes:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Resident psychologist Maria Rita acts as the Closer to Earth character who gives everyone advice, but she has a not-so-hidden mean and cynical streak. Even in the beginning, she laughs at Fabris along with everyone else, and by the end, she lashes out at Piero and tells him that she coldn't care less about his problems. She's not entirely bad though, as seen when she becomes protective of Cristina.
- Break the Cutie: It happens to Piero's young mistress, the cute Naïve Everygirl Cristina. After attending the reunion, meeting all these terrible adult people, and being seduced by Sleazy Politician Valenzani, she breaks into tears. By the end of the movie, she leaves Piero because she doesn't want to become like him and his "friends".
- Butt-Monkey:
- Poor Fabris is ruthlessly treated like a laughing stock by his former schoolmates. They keep laughing in his face, just because he aged badly and is less attractive than he used to be. He leaves the party very soon, probably for the better.
- Among the main characters, there are Piero/Patata (as the usual "loser" character played by Verdone) and Ciardulli (Christian De Sica's character), who are both pathetically unlucky throughout the entire movie. Especially Ciardulli, who completely loses his dignity at the end, but you can still feel sorry for him.
- Deadpan Snarker:
- Finocchiaro is very good at snarking and making fun of everyone. He often takes it too far.
- Psychologist Maria Rita is snarky in a passive-aggressive way, and it's one of the early signs that she's not as nice as she pretends to be.
- Everyone Has Standards:
- They all laugh when Finocchiaro insults and makes fun of Fabris. But when Finocchiaro makes a mean-spirited joke even about Barbagallo, a recently deceased classmate, the others feel embarrassed and the only one who laughs is Ciardulli.
- Attenni laughs at Fabris in early scenes, until he realizes the jokes could offend him, and tells the others to stop making fun of him. In a later scene, when everyone else is laughing at Fabris (again), he just says "That's really too much".
- Towards the end, the remaining guests show sympathy towards Patata after he gets into a fight with the sociopathic Valenzani. Even Finocchiaro comments that Valenzani is still the biggest asshole of all.
- Faux Affably Evil: Valenzani, who acts as a False Friend to Patata while planning to seduce his girlfriend. He later manipulates and abuses the naive Cristina.
- Future Loser: Some of them were not losers in high school, but they are definitely all losers now.
- The Ghost: There are at least four ex-classmates who are mentioned but are not present at the Class Reunion, including one who recently died from leukemia.
- Hate Sink: Most characters are terrible people, but Valenzani is the only who has almost no comedic traits, and is just ruthless and hateable. Even Lepore and Santolamazza have no redeeming qualities, but their actions are Played for Laughs.
- High-School Sweethearts: Luca and Valeria get married after graduation. Their marriage is in crisis, but they reconcile at the reunion.
- Hypocritical Humor: Finocchiaro ruthlessly makes fun of Fabris because the latter aged badly and looks ugly compared to their high school years. While both are supposed to be in their early 30s, Finocchiaro looks at least 10 years older and Fabris definitely looks younger than him, despite being balding (his actor is indeed younger).
- Informed Deformity: People act like Fabris is terribly hideous and odd-looking, but he doesn't look much worse than many other male characters in the film.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Implied with Fabris. His ex-schoolmates tease him for his current physical appearance, implying that he was probably more attractive when he was younger.
- Last-Name Basis: Most male characters are referred to by their last names. The only exceptions are Luca Guglielmi (who is usually called Luca), and Piero Ruffolo himself, who is known by his Embarrassing Nickname Patata.
- Loser Protagonist: Piero/"Patata" himself, like most characters played by Carlo Verdone. In this film, he is a frustrated Henpecked Husband who cheats on his wife with his younger student.
- Motor Mouth: Postiglione, who can't stop talking and annoying everyone around him, until Finocchiaro and Ciardulli secretly put sleeping pills in his wine. He later also starts talking in his sleep...
- Obfuscating Disability: Santolamazza pretends to be paralyzed and brain-damaged because of a car accident, but it was just a tasteless prank organized by him and his friend Lepore. They use this to annoy and harass their ex-classmates.
- Riches to Rags: Federica, the party planner and former owner of the mansion. She eventually reveals that she is broke, after being abandoned by her rich partner.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Fabris leaving the party soon. In the first part of the movie, we see Fabris repeatedly being treated like the laughing stock of the party by his ex-classmates, and you would think he would have been the resident Butt-Monkey in the entire movie. However, Fabris gets sick of being treated so badly and decides to leave the party very soon, only appearing in the first 15 minutes and leaving viewers wondering what happens to him after he goes away. He's never mentioned again.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Piero Ruffolo has a relationship with his student Cristina, made worse by the fact that Piero is already married to another woman. He loses both his wife and Cristina at the end.
- The Un-Reveal: We never find out who stole Finocchiaro's money at the party. Ciardulli gets accused and takes his clothes off to prove his innocence, but then Finocchiaro decides to forget about the whole thing.
- What Does She See in Him?: Valenzani asks Cristina what does she see in Piero/"Patata", her older teacher. Her answer is that he makes her feel "safe".
- Women Are Wiser: All the characters are messed-up in some way, but most of the men are portrayed as sleazy assholes to varying degrees, while most of the women are decent people who just happen to have troubled lives. This is inverted with Patata's horrible wife though, but she's not one of the "schoolmates" at the reunion and only appears in one scene.
- Younger Than They Look: They are all supposed to be about 33/34 years old (fifteen years after high school's graduation), but some of the actors are visibly older, especially Athina Cenci, Piero Natoli, and Angelo Bernabucci.
