Comedy

  • John Ford – The Brat (1931)

    USA1931-1940ClassicsComedyJohn Ford
    The Brat (1931)

    A society novelist brings a brash young chorus girl home in order to study her for inspiration for his new novel. His family is distraught, but soon her behavior has forever altered their snobbish ways.Read More »

  • George Huang – Swimming with Sharks (1994)

    1991-2000ComedyDramaGeorge HuangUSA

    from IMDB-
    “A young Hollywood executive becomes the assistant to a big time movie producer who is the worst boss imaginable: abusive, abrasive and cruel. But soon things turn around when the young executive kidnaps his boss and visits all the cruelties back on him.”Read More »

  • Vladimir Bortko – Sobache serdtse AKA Heart of a Dog (1988)

    1981-1990ComedySci-FiUSSRVladimir Bortko

    Professor Preobrazhensky and his colleague place some human parts into a dog named Sharik. Soon the dog transforms into a human.

    Quote:
    This movie (and yes, it’s a movie – it was shot as a two-parter, but the two parts together come down to slightly more than 2 hours) is one of the unsung masterpieces of world cinema. A very well-mannered, and yet at the same time absolutely savage denunciation of the Soviet regime and the type of person who flourished under it, the film is a faithful adaptation of the long-banned eponymous book by Mikhail Bulgakov. Read More »

  • Leonid Gaidai – Ivan Vasilevich menyaet professiyu AKA Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Occupation (1973)

    1971-1980ComedyLeonid GaidaiUSSR

    Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Occupation
    An unconventional comedy based on M. Bulgakov’s play, “Ivan Vassilevich,” when inventor, Timofeev builds a time machine, things go awry. Tsar Ivan the Terrible comes into the year 1973, while Ivan Bunsha, an apartment complex manager, and George Miloslavsky, a petty burglar, are transferred to 16th century Moscow accidentally.Read More »

  • Marcel Camus – Orfeu Negro AKA Black Orpheus [+Extras] (1959)

    Drama1951-1960BrazilComedyMarcel Camus

    Screen: Legend Retold; ‘Black Orpheus’ Bows at the Plaza
    By BOSLEY CROWTHER
    Published: December 22, 1959

    ALL tangled up in the madness of a Rio de Janeiro carnival, full of intoxicating samba music, frenzied dancing and violent costumes, the Frenchman Marcel Camus presents us a melancholy tale in his color film, “Black Orpheus” (“Orfeu Negro”), which came to the Plaza yesterday.Read More »

  • Kaneto Shindô – Fukurô aka The Owl (2003)

    2001-2010AsianComedyJapanKaneto Shindô

    Quote:
    It is often said that comedy is the most untranslatable element from culture to culture. This is perhaps even more the case with surreal mixed genre films like this. In Shindo Kaneto’s film (his 101st!) the old sensei has given us a strange meditation on male lusts and women’s struggle for independence. It is like a play in that the action takes place almost exclusively in a small cabin in a deserted region of Western Japan. A mother and daughter are stranded in a ghost town and are starving to death. They hit on a plan to get them out of their plight which involves exploiting the few men who stray into their cabin. They offer sexual services and then bump off the happy customers. All goes well until a local cop shows up and, then, a relation of theirs from way back.Read More »

  • Ole Giæver & Marte Vold – Mot naturen AKA Out of Nature (2014)

    2011-2020ComedyDramaNorwayOle Giæver and Marte Vold

    Quote:
    A journey inside Martin’s head. He’s on a weekend mountain trip, and we get to know his thoughts. Unsensored, essential, existential and silly about feelings and fantasies. A recognizable film about being human, and how we tick and think.

    Screen Daily wrote:
    A Walter Mitty-esque comedy drama set against the stunning backdrop of the Norwegian great outdoors, Out Of Nature (Mot naturen) is an engaging delve into one man’s troubled sub-conscious as he tries to tackle the issues – mainly sexually orientated – haunting his life.Read More »

  • Lloyd Bacon – 50 Million Frenchmen (1931)

    1931-1940ComedyDramaLloyd BaconUSA

    Olsen and Johnson on the loose in France.

    50 Million Frenchmen is the film adaptation of the hit Broadway play with all of Cole Porter’s music eliminated, with the exception of “You Do Something To Me”, which is used as background music. The songs were omitted because box office receipts for musicals were down and Warner Brothers apparently didn’t want to risk a flop. The movie was originally filmed in 2-color Technicolor, but all that remains is this black and white version.Read More »

  • Jason Alexander – For Better or Worse (1995)

    1991-2000ActionComedyJason AlexanderUSA

    A romantic comedy about Michael (Jason Alexander TV’s “Seinfeld”), a loser whose recent girlfriend dumped him and to make matters worse, he discovers that his recently married brother Reggie (James Woods “John Q,” “Scary Movie 2”) is planning to knock over the credit union where their own mother (Bea Arthur TV’s “The Golden Girls”) works. When it’s discovered that the security codes needed to pull off the heist are in the suitcase of the recent bride (Lolita Davidovitch “Play It to the Bone,” “Mystery, Alaska”), Michael helps her escape and the chase is on! Also starring Oscar-nominee Rob ReinerRead More »

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