My Friends

Set in mid-1970s Florence, the film reflects a Italy undergoing social shifts while retaining traditional civic life. The city’s cafes, offices, and villas provide a backdrop where friends scheme and connect with their families. This era’s atmosphere—informal humor, changing mores, and urban vitality—frames the comedy and its bittersweet tone.

Florence serves as the film’s vivid urban backdrop. The city’s historic streets, cafes, and municipal buildings frame the friends’ schemes and social interactions. Through its everyday life and architecture, Florence highlights the blend of tradition and humor that drives the story.

🤝 Friendship

The story centers on four middle-aged friends who cling to youth through humor and shared mischief. Their zingarate rituals become a test of loyalty, trust, and boundaries. The camaraderie sustains them through financial strain, romantic entanglements, and personal disappointments. The film treats friendship as both a resilient bond and a source of comic jeopardy.

💀 Mortality

Perozzi’s death marks the film’s turning point, reminding the friends of their own mortality. They cope with loss through humor, even as their rituals of mock mourning blur the line between reality and prank. The funeral scene reveals both their affection for their friend and their irreverent approach to life and death.

🎭 Pranks

Elaborate practical jokes and staged crime acts are the group’s calling card, turning everyday Florence into a stage for mischief. They invent a fake Marseille mafia to spur capers, dragging in a pensioner and other locals. The pranks reveal both creativity and risk, showing how far they will go to reclaim their youth.

💘 Love & Relationships

Romantic and sexual entanglements complicate the group’s dynamics: Mascetti’s relationship with Titti, Perozzi’s strained marriage, and Melandri’s pursuit of an ideal woman. The men’s relationships serve as a foil to their public pranks, exposing vulnerabilities beneath bravado. The film uses these romances to explore how affection, fidelity, and desire intersect with friendship.