Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man

Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (Italian: La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo) is a 1981 Italian film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. It stars Anouk Aimée and Ugo Tognazzi, who was awarded the Best Male Actor Award at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival for his performance.[2] In his review, Vincent Canby describes the film as, "Bernardo Bertolucci's very good, cerebrally tantalizing new film, Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, the story of what may or may not be a terrorist kidnapping of the sort that has been making Italian headlines with increasing frequency in recent years."[3]

Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man
Directed byBernardo Bertolucci
Written byBernardo Bertolucci
Produced byGiovanni Bertolucci
StarringUgo Tognazzi
Anouk Aimée
CinematographyCarlo Di Palma
Edited byGabriella Cristiani
Music byEnnio Morricone
Production
company
Fiction Cinematografica SpA[1]
Distributed byPIC Distribuzione[1]
Release date
  • 12 February 1982 (1982-02-12) (US)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryItaly
LanguageItalian

Plot

Primo Spaggiari is a small cheese factory worker from Parma. Primo is of peasant origin and did not go beyond elementary school, so he is considered as a self-made man. His wife Barbara, on the other hand, is a refined woman of French origin. One day, their son Giovanni is kidnapped by a group of terrorists and Primo has to raise a billion of lire for the ransom. Meanwhile, the dairy he owns is hit by a serious economic crisis.

A young worker, Laura, Giovanni's girlfriend, and a worker priest, Adelfo, who know a lot about the kidnapping, intervene in the story. From them, Primo learns that his son has died. Primo, however, continues to collect the money, helped in this by his wife, to save his second creature: the factory, on the verge of bankruptcy.

Following the indications of a false letter, written by Giovanni's girlfriend, the couple deposits the ransom money in the indicated place. The sudden reappearance of Giovanni means that in the end the billion is invested precisely in the dairy, transformed into a cooperative company, under the control of the workers.

Cast

References
  1. "La tragedia di un uomo ridicolo (1981)". Archivio del Cinema Italiano. Retrieved 30 April 2023.
  2. "Festival de Cannes: Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-05-31.
  3. Canby, Vincent (February 12, 1982). "Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man: A Kidnaping as Seen by Bertolucci". The New York Times.
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