Comedy

  • Michael Kalesniko – How to Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog (2000)

    Drama1991-2000ComedyGermanyMichael Kalesniko

    Shy, chain-smoking, insomniac Peter McGowan is an L.A. playwright with a string of hits that preceded his current ten years of failed productions. His mother-in-law is sinking into senility, a stranger is meandering the neighborhood claiming to be him, neighbors have a new dog that barks all night; his wife wants to have a child, and he does not: he’s become impotent. He’s working on a new play when a single mom moves in next door with her 8-year-old daughter. His wife immediately invites the girl into the McGowan household. Will this child stir Peter’s paternal feelings? Will she also help him get his dialogue right? And what of his doppelganger and the neighbor’s dog?Read More »

  • Boris Barnet – Alyonka (1961)

    1961-1970Boris BarnetComedyUSSR

    Quote:
    Kazakhstan, the 50s. The main heroine of the film is a nine-year-old girl Alyonka, who is sent to town by her parents to study. The girl meets various companions on her long way. Some of them are telling about the story of their settlement or their attempt to settle in this Far East.Read More »

  • Tomás Gutiérrez Alea – La muerte de un burócrata AKA Death of a Bureaucrat (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseComedyCubaTomás Gutiérrez Alea

    SYNOPSIS
    A worker dies in an accident at his work and is buried with his union card, essential for the widow to receive a pension. To recover it, the family is forced to carry out a clandestine exhumation. The impediments of the bureaucracy make it impossible to bury the corpse again. The absurdity of the situation degenerates into violence.Read More »

  • Carlos Mayolo & Luis Ospina – Agarrando pueblo AKA The Vampire of Poverty (1977)

    1971-1980Carlos MayoloColombiaComedyDocumentaryLuis Ospina

    Quote:
    Film about film-makers who use the Colombian poor to make their films.Read More »

  • Martin Walz – Kondom des Grauens AKA Killer Condom (1996)

    1991-2000ComedyGermanyHorrorMartin WalzQueer Cinema(s)

    Quote:
    A witty and inventive gross-out comedy suggesting a synthesis of John Waters and Terry Gilliam, Martin Walz’s German film adapts Ralf Konig’s graphic comic about killer contraceptives unleashed in a diabolical plot to wipe out New York’s gay population. (Actually the condoms, which eviscerate or castrate their victims, make no distinctions when it comes to sexual orientation.) Luigi Mackeroni (Udo Samel), a gay Sicilian police detective, sets out to track down the source; in the movie’s longest running gag he’s one of the first victims, losing one of his testicles during a hotel tryst. Walz introduces some nice noir shadings (Luigi delivers the ironic voice-overs) and his camera placement is generally smart and revealing–especially in the thoroughly weird shots from the point of view of the condoms. Unfortunately, though, he can’t sustain the wonderful energy throughout the film. Killer Condom certainly isn’t for all tastes–at times it wasn’t for mine–but it’s impossible to walk away indifferent.Read More »

  • Robert Altman – Robert Altman – Short Cuts (1993)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaRobert AltmanUSA

    Quote:
    Given Robert Altman’s fondness for working with ensemble casts, it comes as no surprise that his films often provide a shambolic cross-section of a particular institution or locale, whether the titular mobile army hospital of M*A*S*H, the indigenous country music scene in the great network narrative Nashville, or the intersecting lives of 20-odd Angelenos in 1993’s Short Cuts. For Short Cuts, Altman and co-screenwriter Frank Barhydt mashed together nine stories and a poem from “dirty realist” writer Raymond Carver, shifting their setting from Carver’s beloved Pacific Northwest to suburban Los Angeles—a place Altman clearly feels much more ambivalent about.Read More »

  • Carlos Diegues – Tieta do Agreste AKA Tieta of Agreste (1996)

    1991-2000BrazilCarlos DieguesComedyDrama

    Quote:
    Just when her family starts believing that she is dead, and that they can expect a rich heritage, Tieta returns from São Paulo to her native village in Bahia, which she had been forced to leave long ago because of some involvement with a goat herd. Believed to be fabulously rich – and nobody knows how – she brings to the great disappointment of her family a young step-daughter and heir. With the arrival of Tieta turmoil enters into the life of her family and their fellow villagers. Most particularly into the life of her nephew – promised to the Church – and the young aspiring mayor.Read More »

  • Mark Joffe – The MatchMaker (1997)

    1991-2000ComedyIrelandMark JoffeRomance

    Marcy is an assistant to Senator John McGlory, who is having problems with a re-election campaign. Desperate for Irish votes, McGlory’s chief of staff Nick sends Marcy to Ireland to trace McGlory’s relatives or ancestors. Marcy arrives at the village of Ballinagra when it is preparing for an annual Matchmaking Festival. A well-dressed, handsome and single young lady, she becomes the center of attention for two professional matchmakers, Dermot and Millie, as well as for bartender Sean.Read More »

  • Yôji Yamada – Otoko wa tsurai yo: Shiretoko bojo aka Tora-san 38: Goes North (1987)

    Comedy1981-1990AsianJapanYôji Yamada

    Quote:
    Tora-san, the näive and romantic peddler, returns once more to his home in Hokkaido where, as usual, he falls in love with a lovely young lady. The girl this time is Rinko Ueno, who has come home in an attempt to repair her relationship with her gruff veterinarian father, Junkichi ‘Jun’ Ueno. Tora-san gets caught up in the entanglements not only between Rinko and her father but between Dr. Ueno and Etsuko, a restauranteur with amorous plans for the ornery veterinarianRead More »

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