Comedy

  • Henry Koster – The Rage of Paris (1938)

    1931-1940ComedyHenry KosterScrewball ComedyUSA

    Quote:
    Nicole has no job and is several weeks behind with her rent. Her solution to her problem is to try and snare a rich husband. Enlisting the help of her friend Gloria and the maitre’d at a ritzy New York City hotel, the trio plot to have Gloria catch the eye of Bill Duncan, a handsome millionaire staying at the hotel. The plan works and the two quickly become engaged. Nicole’s plan may be thwarted by Bill’s friend, Jim Trevor, who’s met Nicole before and sees through her plot.Read More »

  • Richard Wallace – The Young in Heart (1938)

    1931-1940ComedyRichard WallaceScrewball ComedyUSA

    The Carletons make a living as card sharps and finding new suckers to mooch off of. When their latest scam backfires, they are asked to leave Monte Carlo. At the train station, they meet Miss Fortune, a very wealthy but lonely elderly lady. As a reward for saving her life after the train derails, Miss Fortune invites the Carletons to come live with her. The family hopes that by winning her affection, they can eventually be named sole beneficiaries in her will. But will a change of heart soften their mercenary feelings before that time comes?Read More »

  • Jean Rouch – Petit à petit AKA Little by Little (1970)

    1961-1970ComedyDocumentaryFranceJean Rouch

    Jean Rouch’s Nigerien collaborators travel to France to perform a reverse ethnography of late-1960’s Parisian life.Read More »

  • Yasujirô Ozu – Shukujo wa nani o wasureta ka AKA What Did the Lady Forget? (1937)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyJapanYasujiro Ozu

    Synopsis:
    An affluent medical professor, Komiya, and his bossy wife, Tokio, are to look after Setsuko, their high-spirited niece from Osaka. Setsuko is a liberated woman who does what she wants, including smoking, even though she is a minor. On Saturday, the professor does not feel like going to his weekend golf game, but his wife packs him off anyway. So he leaves his bag at the apartment of his student Okada, and goes to a bar with a friend. Setsuko traces him there, and insists that he take her to a geisha house. When she gets rather tipsy, the professor calls Okada to take her home, while he sleeps at Okada’s. The wife becomes suspicious of Setsuko when she sees Okada bringing her home, and also of her husband when she discovers that he did not go golfing.Read More »

  • Armando Iannucci – In the Loop (2009)

    2001-2010Armando IannucciComedyUnited Kingdom

    Quote:
    It is somehow fitting that the unruly plot of “In the Loop,” a sharply written, fast-talking, almost dementedly articulate satire on modern statecraft, should commence with a verbal slip-up. In an atmosphere of impending military action, as the governments of Britain and the United States gear up to invade an unspecified Middle Eastern country, Simon Foster (Tom Hollander), the British minister of international development, gives an interview to the BBC. Surprised by a question outside his area of expertise —whatever that might be — he declares that in his view “war is unforeseeable.”Read More »

  • Quentin Dupieux – Steak (2007)

    2001-2010ComedyFranceQuentin Dupieux

    Quote:
    The year is 2016 and fashion and standards of beauty have changed dramatically. A new rage has swept through the ranks of the young: radical facelifts. George, a young graduate who has recently had a facelift, takes advantage of his summer holidays to join up with the most respected bigshots of the area, 15 rich bullies with extreme facelifts who pass their time watching virtual sports and using superfluous technologies. After a failed attempt to give himself a facelift with a stapler, Blaise is rejected by George, his one-time childhood friend. Desparate, Blaise kidnaps a young girl so that the ransom money will buy him a proper facelift just like everyone else’s.Read More »

  • Preston Sturges – The Lady Eve [+Extras] (1941)

    1941-1950ComedyPreston SturgesRomanceScrewball ComedyUSA

    Criterion wrote:
    Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cruise liner sailing up the coast of South America, Stanwyck’s conniving card sharp sets her sights on Fonda’s nerdy snake researcher, who happens to be the heir to a brewery fortune. But when the con artist falls for her mark, her grift becomes a game of hearts—and she is determined to win it all. One in a string of matchless comedic marvels that Sturges wrote, directed, and produced as part of a dazzling 1940s run, this gender-flipped battle-of-wits farce is perhaps his most emotionally satisfying work, tempering its sparkling wit with a streak of tender poignancy supplied by the sensational Stanwyck at her peak.Read More »

  • Vera Chytilová – Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliste AKA Panelstory – Or Birth of A Community (1980)

    1971-1980ArchitectureArthouseComedyCzech RepublicVera Chytilová

    Quote:
    An old man is wandering round a badly signposted and as yet mostly under construction Prague housing estate looking for the high rise block into which he is supposed to be moving with his daughter’s family. The old granddad from the countryside likes chatting, nothing escapes his eyes and he wants to give everyone a helping hand.Read More »

  • William Richert – Winter Kills (1979)

    1971-1980ComedyCultUSAWilliam Richert

    Synopsis:
    Nineteen years after President Timothy Kegan (John Warner) was assassinated, his brother Nick (Jeff Bridges) discovers a dying man claiming to have been the gunman. While trying to avoid his wealthy and domineering father’s attempts to control his actions, Nick follows the clues that have been handed to him. As he progresses, it becomes increasingly difficult to discern the real trails from the dead ends, and increasing dangerous as unknown parties try to stop Nick from uncovering the truth.Read More »

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