Bruno Bozzetto’s Mr. Rossi Became the Face of Italy’s Economic Boom Anxieties
Mr. Rossi is a fictional character created by Italian animator and cartoonist Bruno Bozzetto, for whom a total of 17 short films and 5 feature films were produced, along with a TV series of 11 twelve-minute episodes titled Mr. Rossi and Sports (never commercially distributed), and another 6-episode miniseries called The Adventures of Mr. Rossi, broadcast within the program Gulp!. The music for his shorts, always considered of special importance by Bozzetto, was first composed by Milanese jazz musician Paolo Tomelleri and later by Franco Godi, who created Mr. Rossi’s most famous theme song: Viva la Felicità (“Long Live Happiness”).
As his very common surname suggests, Mr. Rossi was conceived as a symbol of the average Italian citizen, dealing with the social ills of his time, in the midst of the country’s postwar economic boom of the 1960s. In a nation experiencing unprecedented prosperity, the first drawbacks of progress began to appear: loneliness, lack of communication, excessive work, pollution, alienation, neuroses. From this came the first short, An Oscar for Mr. Rossi.
With the important collaboration of Guido Manuli, his right-hand man, Bozzetto went on to produce a series of shorts featuring Mr. Rossi, each portraying experiences that reflected Italy’s economic and cultural transformation of the 1960s: skiing, seaside holidays, buying a car, and so on. Each episode became an exceptional social portrait of the era, presented from a distinctly ironic—at times almost bitter—perspective.
In 1976, Bozzetto partnered with the German production company Halling Film to make three feature films starring Mr. Rossi. Maurizio Nichetti and Manuli were in charge of the project. From then on, the character was given a voice; supporting figures like his loyal dog Gastone were added; the visual style became increasingly psychedelic; and the stories softened their cynicism to appeal also to younger audiences.
By the late 1970s, the character had gained wider popularity, particularly in Italy, Spain, and Germany, where there was growing interest in all things related to Mr. Rossi.
In 2015, the fifth and final feature film, Rossi Boomer, was previewed at Cartoons on the Bay, in which Mr. Rossi and Gastone travel through time with a time machine.
Lyrics
Viva la felicità
Chi la cerca non ce l’ha
Viva la felicità
Signor Rossi cosa vuoi?
Un gelato al Polo Nord,
un castello di cacao,
tre bigné, sei caffè, trentatrè marron glacé
E poi, e poi, e poi
Signor Rossi cosa vuoi?
Pilotare un’Auto Jet,
far la doccia di champagne,
con un frac rococò e sbancare il casinò
E poi, e poi, e poi
Viva la felicità
Chi la cerca non ce l’ha
Viva la felicità, chi la cerca non ce l’ha,
Viva la felicità, chi la cerca non ce l’ha
Ma dovè? Ma dovè?
Chi lo sa? Che cos’è? Che cos’è? Che cos’è?
Sole, sole giallo sole
Mare, mare verde mare
Cuore, cuore grande cuore
Fiore, fiore, bianco fiore.
Questa è la felicità
Chi la cerca già ce l’ha
Questa è la felicità
Lyrics
Long live happiness,
Those who search don’t have it,
Long live happiness!
Mr. Rossi, what do you want?
An ice cream at the North Pole,
A chocolate castle,
Three cream puffs, six coffees, thirty-three marron glacé.
And then, and then, and then…
Mr. Rossi, what do you want?
To pilot a Jet Car,
Take a shower in champagne,
Wear a rococo tailcoat,
And break the bank at the casino.
And then, and then, and then…
Long live happiness,
Those who search don’t have it,
Long live happiness, those who search don’t have it,
Long live happiness, those who search don’t have it.
But where is it? But where is it?
Who knows? What is it? What is it? What is it?
Sun, sun, yellow sun,
Sea, sea, green sea,
Heart, heart, big heart,
Flower, flower, white flower.
This is happiness,
Those who search already have it,
This is happiness.
Sources: Wikipedia
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