Trivia / My Friends

• All-Star Cast: All the titular friends are played by big Italian and French cinema names of the time.
• Creator Backlash: Played with and averted, as director Mario Monicelli seemingly had a love-hate relationship with the series. Despite the first movie being considered a cult classic, with some critics and fans even going as far as to call it one of the best Italian comedies ever, he didn't consider it worthy of so much praise, and nowhere near to being one of his best works. Part of his issues were about the script he had inherited from Germi - while he considered too dark, he didn't want to change a line of it out of respect to his late friend. That however didn't stop him from directing and co-writing the script for the sequel a few years later, though for the third installment he left the director's chair to his colleague Nanni Loy. On the other hand, when more than a decade later Neri Parenti began working on a fourth film among the skepticism and open hostility of many fans and movie enthusiasts, Monicelli commented: "They did attempt to get my collaboration for the movie, but I decided to keep away from it. People on Facebook [criticizing the movie before having seen it] were right".
• Dawson Casting: In the first movie the role of Tiziana, who's supposed to be 17 going to 18, is played by a 25 years old actress. Given how she has a couple scenes in the nude, it's definitely for the best.
• Died During Production: The first movie was originally to be directed by Pietro Germi, who had also co-written the script, but he died a few days after shooting started. His role was taken up by Mario Monicelli, and the film starts with a dedication to Germi.
• Fake Nationality:
  • The French Philippe Noiret as the Italian Giorgio Perozzi.
  • The French Bernard Blier as the Italian Niccolò Righi.
  • The Greek Olga Karlatos as Sassaroli's unstable wife Donatella.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Necchi is played by Duilio Del Prete in the first movie and by Renzo Montagnani in the second and third movies.
  • Oddly enough, Montagnani was also in the first movie as the voice actor of Perozzi (who is played by French actor Philippe Noiret). In the second film Perozzi is voiced by Pino Locchi, making it another case of this trope.
• You Look Familiar: Bernard Blier played Niccolò Righi in the first film and Stefano Lenzi in the third film.

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