Il secondo tragico Fantozzi

Like the first one, this too can be seen in two ways, sad or having fun, not caring about the underlying melancholy. I think these comedies are brilliant for this reason, however this chapter is slightly inferior to the first, badly funny.

Simply put "Il Secondo Tragico Fantozzi" is a masterpiece. I feel myself sorry while commenting on this movie for two main reasons; the first being that this movie was never exported to the States nor to many other foreign countries. I've seen very bad Italian movies exported to the US (where I live), and it's a shame that nobody can check this out here. The second complaint is about the quality of the sequels. While the first three movies of the "Fantozzi" series - this is the second one - are good to great, the rest is a downhill ride to stupidity and badly-recycled jokes... sorta like "Police Academy", only worse. Enough... now let's talk about the movie...

Well... just to put it clear, this is easily one of my favorite comedies of all time, far better than some overrated, over-hyped American comedies such as There's Something About Mary. It's hard to explain how absolutely hilarious and crazy the movie is... you can think about it as "Al Bundy" meets "the Pink Panther" sorta-meets "Monty Phyton" but that still doesn't do justice to the movie. Ugo Fantozzi is a worker in a major Italian Company that makes EVERYTHING. Everyone in the movie is crazy... not just a little bit... everyone is LITERALLY a nut his own way. Plus, Fantozzi is very unlucky. This leads him to a ton of catastrophic situations, him being the victim. When he goes to hunt, people behave like they're at war; there's even a delicious scene involving "The Battleship Potemkin" which might well be one of the most hilarious I've ever seen in a comedy. The scene leads to what's probably Fantozzi's most famous quote ever "Per me... La Corazzata Potemkin... E' UNA CAGATA PAZZESCA!" ("To me... The Battleship Potemkin... IS CRAZY BULLS**T!") - you should see the movie to understand why he's so mad at that. There's not really a story... it's rather a sequence of absurd situations in which Fantozzi gets involved, mainly because of his bosses and his co-workers. It's a glimpse at the Italian office life of the 70s, with every flaw of the system inflated to a monster... an absolutely hilarious one...

In the end, although Fantozzi is not really smart nor sympathetic, you end up respecting him for being the only person that has some integrity.

If you ever have the opportunity you should check this out. This would be my first choice for a Fantozzi movie, with the first "Fantozzi" as a second choice. Those are the only two directed by Luciano Salce and the next sequels are definitely inferior. ABSOLUTELY avoid any Fantozzi movie past 1985.

9/10

This is truly one of the best Italian favorite comedies.

It is too bad these movies have never been released in the States.

Fantozzi movies are pure satire about the work life in a northern Italian corporation in the late 70's. A characteristic of the movie is that Paolo Villaggio/Fantozzi also narrates the events with a unique dramatic tone of voice....must hear to appreciate it!

Ugo Fantozzi is a frustrated accountant of a big old fashioned corporation structured like a royal, divine hierarchy where Fantozzi is at the bottom of it.

Fantozzi at work (and at home)is dis-respected, teased and mocked by his co-workers but he humbly takes all the crap with resignation. He is also doomed by an unbelievable bad luck which is displayed by a stormy cloud over his head. To add to the misfortune, his family life isn't better either. His wife is ugly and his daughter (played by a young man) is even uglier. Fantozzi tries to escape this reality by dreaming romantics randevouz with one of the females co-workers Sig.na Silvani....which of course could care less about him.

All the characters in the movies are really crazy and unique. The "Divine Mega-President" of the corporation is the craziest one of all... he has an aquarium made of "chosen employees" up in his ultra modern office penth-house.

The movies don't have a plot but a series of short comical scenes that show Fantozzi frustrations in the beginning but as the movie goes on, will peak with Fantozzi rebellion to the "corporation's rules" and finally end with Fantozzi defeat and surrender to the corporation's "Creator".

These comedy is very intelligently written and is very original.

A truly enjoyable movie.

Ugo Fantozzi (a very average, timid and down-trodden office worker) is the creation of Paolo Villaggio who penned the adventures of Fantozzi based on his own experiences working for a large corporation. These stories were subsequently used as the basis of a number of films about Fantozzi all starring Villaggio.

Paolo Villaggio was a very fine comedian, who created various characters, of which Fantozzi was the best. Villaggio's humour can be best defined as tragi-comedy. Amid the humour, there is tragedy and things rarely end well for Villaggio's heroes.

"Il secondo tragico Fantozzi" was a follow up to the original and it was the peak of the Fantozzi series. There are a number of hilarious and well-choreographed scenes the best of which is the disastrous ship launch.

Film buffs may also enjoy the scenes where employees are repeatedly forced to watch, enjoy and discuss Sergei Eisenstein's immortal "Battleship Potemkin", culminating in the employees being forced to re-enact the Odessa steps massacre, another film high point.

Non Italian-speaking viewers may not grasp the humour as well as Italians as some specific references may not translate well and besides, much of the humour is in Paolo Villaggio's excellent narration, told in his inimitable fatalistic style. If you see a dubbed version, this is especially lost. A sub-titled version may be better, as at least Villaggio's voice will be heard.

A better director and a little more control on plot would have made a better film, but this is indeed still a bellyful of laughs.

I am not Italian and I have been exposed to Fantozzi only through this movie. I have no idea how the others are or how funny it is when someone doesn't use the proper "congiuntivo". I also cannot understand why a movie that supposedly is one of the finest Italian comedies has only three reviewers. So let's start from there.

Fantozzi is not a nice man. He is just as petty, selfish and insane as the other protagonists. The only thing he is got going for him is that he is the lowest of them. In his tragicomic attempts to upgrade his "level" in the corporate hierarchy, a fake value system that overwhelms everything, including his personal life, he goes further and further down on the scale of human beings. That is why I had a lot of trouble empathizing with the guy (since I am so wonderful, indeed). However that is not the point of the movie and, if I can presume that much, I would say that Fantozzi is not a real character, only a tool in this satire of the northern Italian capitalism of the 70's.

The best American analogy I can think of is Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times, but focused more on the perceived status of each person. Runaway classism where everybody fends for themselves and the owner of the corporation that produces everything and employs everybody is God, Fantozzi's world is funny only through the absurdity of the situation, but mostly tragical because of the reality it satires.

Bottom line: Fantozzi is a piece of Italian culture. Italians laugh at it because they were raised with Fantozzi films. Also some of the language puns and implications are lost on other people. However this film is well done, well acted and has some scenes that are fantastically complex. I can't say that I was terribly amused by it, though, partly because I understood the horrible world it described and that still rears its ugly head in our lives even today and partly because the character is a stupid selfish man with whom I could not really connect. On a more shallow level, though, one can laugh at the absurdity of the situations, brilliantly pushed over the top by the makers.