Comedy

  • Richard Wallace – Raggedy Rose (1926)

    1921-1930ComedyRichard WallaceSilentUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Rose, who works for a penny-pinching junk dealer, dreams of romance with wealthy bachelor Ted Tudor.
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  • Luigi Zampa – Bello, onesto, emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata AKA A Girl in Australia (1971)

    1971-1980ComedyCommedia all'ItalianaItalyLuigi Zampa

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Early 1970s. Amedeo is a poor Italian immigrant living in Australia for twenty years. Seeking to marry an Italian wife, he corresponds with Carmela, a pretty girl from Rome. They do not reveal their true identities and do not mention their hardships in their letters. Carmela is actually a prostitute seeking an opportunity to change her life style. Amedeo, embarrassed about his looks, sends a photograph to Carmela of his handsome friend Giuseppe. Finally, Carmela lands in Melbourne. Amedeo meets Carmela at the airport and he is struck by her beauty. Thinking he will be rejected because of his looks, he decides to tell Carmela that he is Giuseppe, and he reserves to tell her the truth at a later moment. This starts a three day eventful journey across Eastern Australia. Carmela will soon become better acquainted with Amedeo and she learns of his hardships as an immigrant. She eventually meets the real Giuseppe, however, she believes that he is her betrothed groom, Amedeo. She quickly learns Giuseppe’s true shady intentions. In fact, she finds herself living in a red light district and then escapes. Amedeo and Carmela finally find true happiness together.Read More »

  • Joseph McGrath – 30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia (1968)

    1961-1970ComedyJoseph McGrathUnited Kingdom

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Plot: Rupert Street, a piano player and composer, decides to write a musical and marry before he reaches his thirtieth birthday. One minor problem: he’ll be 30 in six weeks… Written by Homme A. Piest

    British musician/composer Rupert Street is turning thirty on September 13th, six weeks away. He sees turning thirty as a milestone which will define the success or failure of his life. As such, he plans to write a stage musical by then, even signing a contract with his agent Oscar to hire the necessary crew to stage it by his birthday. The other goal for his thirtieth birthday is to get married, despite having no potential “Mrs. Street” in his life. He is hoping that it will be Louise Hammond, a young woman who has just moved into the same rooming house in which he lives. His hope is despite Louise already having a boyfriend named Paul and she stating early in their meeting that she has no intention of getting married. As Rupert pursues both his six week goals, they seem incompatible as he needs to spend quality time on both to get both. But things change closer to September 13th when reaching one goal seem predicated on achieving the other. Written by Huggo Read More »

  • Federico Fellini – I vitelloni (1953)

    1951-1960ComedyDramaFederico FelliniItalian Neo-RealismItaly

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Five men walk arm-in-arm through a sleepy Adriatic town, their lockstep a gentle echo of Italy’s Fascistic past. Such posses are quite common in Italy, where close male friendships, equal parts sensuality and ritual, are second only to the family in importance. I Vitelloni (the best sense of it is “the idlers”), Fellini’s third film, includes some of his most subtle filmmaking and most personal material. Loosely structured and oddly narrated, I Vitelloni is like a sketch for both La Dolce Vita and Amarcord. Paradoxically, I Vitelloni is also an insightful and accurate representation of Italy in the immediate postwar period, full of references to the massive social changes underway. Fifty years after its release, I Vitelloni can finally be seen as a seminal film in Italian cinema, one of the first to detail the effects of technology, celebrity, and mobility on Italian life.Read More »

  • Hajime Anzai – Hentaida (2016)

    2011-2020ComedyHajime AnzaiJapan

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    This directorial debut from art director Anzai Hajime adapts a short story from popular writer and music personality Miura Jun. A guy (Maeno Kenta) spends an extra year studying for college entrance exams but ends up at a second-rate university, and becomes a musician after randomly getting involved with a misguided university rock ‘n roll club. Eventually the guy gets married, has a child, and builds an ordinary life for himself, but he hasn’t been able to break off his college romance with Kaoruko (Tsukifuna Sarara), his S&M dominatrix. When he and Kaoruko go off to one especially shitty gig, existential angst erupts and the trajectory of weirdness goes parabolic, leading to an ending you will never forget.Read More »

  • Preston Sturges – The Great Moment (1944)

    1941-1950ComedyDramaPreston SturgesUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    In the winter of 1868, Eben Frost (William Demarest) goes to a Boston pawnshop and redeems a silver medal, inscribed to “Dr. W.T.G. Morton, the Benefactor of Mankind, with the Gratitude of Humanity.” Frost drives to a country farmhouse and gives the medal to Morton’s widow, Elizabeth Morton (Betty Field) who explains to her daughter, Betty (Donivee Lee), that Frost was the first person given anesthesia by her father, Boston dentist Dr. W.T.G. Morton (Joel McCrea.)Read More »

  • Pietro Germi – La presidentessa AKA Mademoiselle Gobete (1952)

    Comedy1951-1960ClassicsItalyPietro Germi

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Based loosely on fact, La Presidentress stars Silvana Pampanini as a sexy nightclub singer with loftier aspirations. Posing as the wife of a judge, the singer manages to bed a high-ranking government official (Carlo Dapporto). As a result, the nonplused judge (Luigi Pavese) is given all sorts of promotions and special perks. When he finds out about the girl’s subterfuge, his first reaction is stark, raw terror: Wait till his real wife (Ave Ninchi) discovers what’s going on! When the judge’s former mistress (Marilyn Buferd) joins the fray, the fur really begins to fly.Read More »

  • Alfonso Cuarón – Sólo con tu pareja AKA Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991)

    1991-2000Alfonso CuarónComedyMexicoRomance

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    Quote:
    The hero of Alfonso Cuarón’s “Sólo Con Tu Pareja” is Tomás Tomás (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a young man living alone in a roomy Mexico City apartment with a tedious job writing advertising copy and a hyperactive romantic life. Apparently and perhaps not quite plausibly irresistible to women, he is also unable to resist them, which is believable enough, since the women in this movie favor garter belts, half-slips and other kinds of retro-sexy lingerie, which they seem happy to display, or to remove, in Tomás’s presence.Read More »

  • Jonas Akerlund – Spun (2002)

    2001-2010ComedyCrimeJonas AkerlundUSA

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    This roller coaster ride depicting four days in the life of a group of speed freaks has a real gay feel to it. Blondie diva Deborah Harry plays a nosy man-hating, butch-dyke neighbor who steals the girl, Eric Roberts dives right into the role an over-the-top totally queenie drug dealer adorned on both sides by hunky Abercrombie and Fitch-type models. Openly gay Alexis Arquette butches it up as a drug-addicted cop with some wild sunglasses. A heavily tatooed ex-Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford (who it is rumored was booted out of the band for coming out) makes an appearance as the manager of an adult video arcade. And sexy John Leguizamo spends most of the film either half dressed or undressed as he performs a hilarious extended masturbation scene wearing only a sock over his dick. All this, a great story and a terrific soundtrack (and cameo) from ex-Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan.Read More »

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