'' Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man '' ( ) 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 . 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 . " In a small Italian village , Primo runs a cheese factory , but one morning he witnesses his son kidnapped by terrorists . As the film progresses , he has two problems : paying the ransom the terrorists demand and trying to save his factory which might face bankruptcy . What 's a businessman like him to do ?
1981 Cannes Film Festival
1981 Cannes Film Festival
Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man