L’uomo dei cinque palloni / Break-Up

Candy manufacturer Mario Fuggetta (Marcello Mastroianni) develops a balloon fetish and becomes so obsessed with the question of how much air a balloon can hold before it bursts that not only does his relationship with his girlfriend Giovanna (Catherine Spaak) suffer, but also his mental health. The first of six films that Marco Ferreri made with Mastroianni, it was cut by two-thirds by producer Carlo Ponti and integrated as an episode into the omnibus film Oggi, domani, dopodomani (Luciano Salce, Eduardo De Filippo, 1965). After a meeting with Ponti, Ferreri shot a color dream sequence in 1967 and added it to the original version. However, there was never a theatrical release of the feature-length film in Italy. (hjf)