''Il secondo tragico Fantozzi'' (''The Second Tragic Fantozzi'') is an Italian comedy film released in 1976. It is the second film in the

saga is a series of science fantasy role-playing video games by Square Enix. The series originated on the Game Boy in 1989 as the creation of Akitoshi Kawazu at Square (video game company), Square. It has since continued across multiple platforms, ...

of the unlucky clerk

Ugo Fantozzi Ugo Fantozzi () is a fictional character, appearing in Italian literature and film, created by Paolo Villaggio. The character, initially part of Villaggio's television monologues, later became protagonist of a series of short stories published at ...

, played by its creator,

Paolo Villaggio Paolo Villaggio (; 30 December 1932 – 3 July 2017) was an Italian actor, voice actor, writer, director and comedian. He is noted for the characters he created with paradoxical and grotesque characteristics: Professor Kranz, the ultra-timid G ...

Plot

Fantozzi is working

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society), ...

to protect the "''Clamorous Mega-Director Duke-Count Engineer''" Semenzara, (a

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

) who is cheating on his wife. Missing

security guard A security guard (also known as a security inspector, security officer, or protective agent) is a person employed by a government or private party to protect the employing party's assets (property, people, equipment, money, etc.) from a variety ...

s shooting (that mistake him as a rogue), he's even "physically" forced by his colleagues to return to work in normal daylight hours.

Casino A casino is a facility for certain types of gambling. Casinos are often built near or combined with hotels, resorts, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships, and other tourist attractions. Some casinos are also known for hosting live entertai ...

CEO Semenzara is a very superstitious

gambler Gambling (also known as betting or gaming) is the wagering of something of value ("the stakes") on a random event with the intent of winning something else of value, where instances of strategy are discounted. Gambling thus requires three eleme ...

and

poker Poker is a family of comparing card games in which players wager over which hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, however in some places the rules may vary. While the earliest known form of the game w ...

player. Fantozzi is chosen to accompany him to

Monte Carlo Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...

, where he is forced to touch his bum, be stomped on, and drink gallons of water just for superstitious reasons. Unfortunately for Fantozzi, the Duke-Count loses all his money, blaming Fantozzi and forcing to him return home clinging for dear life under a train. Fantozzi comes back home totally immobilized, and is "cured" by Mrs. Pina with scalding cloths at a terrible temperature, causing him "''mystic hallucinations''" of

St. Michael Michael (; he, מִיכָאֵל, lit=Who is like El od, translit=Mīḵāʾēl; el, Μιχαήλ, translit=Mikhaḗl; la, Michahel; ar, ميخائيل ، مِيكَالَ ، ميكائيل, translit=Mīkāʾīl, Mīkāl, Mīkhāʾīl), also ...

announcing his imminent

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ca ...

Hunting Party

Filini and Fantozzi enjoys some hunting time; unfortunately the space reserved for hunters is very tiny: with extreme competition and an almost total absence of games, manhunt skirmishes quickly begin escalating to heavy machine guns and tanks. Fantozzi and Filini fall "just" as captured

safari A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...

prey.

Launching ship

Philanthropic ''Countess'' Serbelloni Mazzanti Viendalmare is selected to launch a new and massive cruise ship, but always misses targets when throwing bottles of champagne, hitting Fantozzi twice times, the

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

, a

government minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, � ...

, and a

centenarian A centenarian is a person who has reached the age of 100 years. Because life expectancies worldwide are below 100 years, the term is invariably associated with longevity. In 2012, the United Nations estimated that there were 316,600 living cente ...

baron Baron is a rank of nobility or title of honour, often hereditary, in various European countries, either current or historical. The female equivalent is baroness. Typically, the title denotes an aristocrat who ranks higher than a lord or knig ...

''. Then it is decided to cut a wire as a substitution, but she misses and cuts the

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

's pinkie toe with a hatchet, resulting in the man cursing and chasing her, swearing to kill her. That same evening, noble lords organize a dinner with politicians, workers and clerks: including Fantozzi and Filini, being in the clutches of the giant, ferocious watchdog "

Ivan the Terrible Ivan IV Vasilyevich (russian: Ива́н Васи́льевич; 25 August 1530 – ), commonly known in English as Ivan the Terrible, was the grand prince of Moscow from 1533 to 1547 and the first Tsar of all Russia from 1547 to 1584. Ivan ...

" XXXII. At dinner the two accountants, without social skills of any sort, botch almost everything, embarrassing their director: cruel jokes with a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

ambassador, troubles with baked

mockingbird Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the family Mimidae. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. ...

and burning

tomato The tomato is the edible berry of the plant ''Solanum lycopersicum'', commonly known as the tomato plant. The species originated in western South America, Mexico, and Central America. The Mexican Nahuatl word gave rise to the Spanish word ...

es. Eventually threatened again by Ivan the Terrible, Fantozzi suddenly flees in a fast

Maserati Maserati S.p.A. () is an Italian luxury vehicle manufacturer. Established on 1 December 1914, in Bologna, Italy, the company's headquarters are now in Modena, and its emblem is a trident. The company has been owned by Stellantis since 2021. Ma ...

, but the dog chases and confines him in the car for one week (counted by his CEO's as holidays).

American circus

In reaction to already "spending" his holidays, Fantozzi pretends to be sick and goes to see the circus with free tickets. Unfortunately, he stumbles into his director, who recognizes him immediately. Hiding in a

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

, Fantozzi is fired and blown up in

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

where, again under "mystical hallucinations", is informed by

archangel Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብር� ...

of his 9-months

Cineforum

The powerful ''Professor'' Riccardelli is a CEO that 20 years ago hired Fantozzi (asking anomalous questions about

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...

s) as a "sponge for stamps" assignment. As an

avant-garde cinema Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

enthusiast, he periodically forces his underlings to watch boring and long foreign silent films such as ''

Day of Wrath ''Day of Wrath'' ( da, Vredens dag) is a 1943 Danish drama film directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and starring Lisbeth Movin, Thorkild Roose and Preben Lerdorff Rye. It is an adaptation of the 1909 play '' Anne Pedersdotter'' by Hans Wiers-Jensse ...

'', ''

Man of Aran ''Man of Aran'' is a 1934 Irish fictional documentary (ethnofiction) film shot, written and directed by Robert J. Flaherty about life on the Aran Islands off the western coast of Ireland. It portrays characters living in premodern conditions, d ...

'', and ''

Battleship Potemkin '' Battleship Potemkin'' (russian: Бронено́сец «Потёмкин», ''Bronenosets Potyomkin''), sometimes rendered as ''Battleship Potyomkin'', is a 1925 Soviet silent drama film produced by Mosfilm. Directed and co-written by S ...

'', mobbing a bored Fantozzi in debate sessions after screenings while his servile and hypocritical colleagues fake enjoy the films. One of this screenings forces ''Megacompany'' clerks to miss the

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

broadcast of an important

world championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

match. In after-movie debate, Fantozzi rides disgruntled employees, openly denouncing the movie as "a crazy crap" (which results in a 92 minutes-long standing ovations, "a new world record") and takes CEO Riccardelli hostage, watching

B movie A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...

s and destroying reels of his beloved films. Eventually the police sedate the rebellion and the clerks are forced to reenact key scenes of ''Battleship Potemkin'' every Saturday as punishment.

Night Club

Unexpectedly home alone, Fantozzi calls Calboni and Filini and organizes an evening with prostitutes. They finally spend the night in a hot club, buying everything that is possible; they go so far that the accountants will be so salty (over 3000 £, $3200) later, and can not find the money to even pay for the taxi drivers, lynching Filini. As the only one with a girl, Calboni betrays his wife.

Honeymoon

It's the opportunity Fantozzi awaited so long and this time he finally succeeds. The two lovers land on

Capri Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been ...

for a honeymoon, but it is studded with tragic situations (a crash on a giant stack, dives into an empty pool and by altitudes) and misunderstandings that result in reconciliation of Silvani and Calboni; a struggling Fantozzi, attempting suicide, is caught by a fishing boat and sold as a "sea product". Then he is bought by his wife Pina, returning home safe and sound and just in time to celebrate

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...

. Fantozzi is positive, and in an evening call by ''Galactic Mega-Director'' is offered back his old job, from which he was fired from before the honeymoon. The unfortunate accountant resumes work in his company, but this time as a lightning rod.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Secondo Tragico Fantozzi, Il Italian comedy films 1976 comedy films 1976 films 1970s Italian-language films Films directed by Luciano Salce Films set in Rome Films shot in Rome Films scored by Fabio Frizzi Italian sequel films 1970s Italian films