Comedy

  • Michael Winterbottom – 24 Hour Party People (2002)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaMichael WinterbottomUnited Kingdom

    New York Times;
    New Order’s album ”Power, Corruption and Lies” would make just as fitting a title for the magnificent ode to Factory Records, ”24 Hour Party People,” which tracks the rise and fall of that postpunk label.

    Factory Records was the home of New Order and the flamboyantly self-destructive Happy Mondays, whose hot-to-the-touch song gives the film its title. The intersecting point of both these groups, and the story that comes in between, is the film’s central figure: the Factory Records co-founder and journalist turned postpunk impresario, Tony Wilson, played with a stinging, unctuous vitality by Steve Coogan.Read More »

  • Paul Verhoeven – Steekspel AKA Tricked (2012)

    2011-2020ComedyDramaNetherlandsPaul Verhoeven

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    Quote:
    Director Paul Verhoeven returns to the camera for this unique comedy drama surrounding a birthday party that goes horribly wrong for the host. The film was written via crowd-sourcing (close to 400 writing credits in all), with Verhoeven and his writing team of Kim van Kooten and Robert Alberdingk Thijmeach cherry picking the best parts of the scripts that were submitted after each segment of the film was shot and screened.Read More »

  • Arto Koskinen – Kahlekuningas AKA The Handcuff King (2002)

    2001-2010Arto KoskinenComedyDramaFinland

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    Quote:
    In the 1970s, a 12-year-old boy Esko lives in Tornio, northern Finland, a town bordering Sweden across the river. Esko befriends a Swedish boy, Pate, and learns to share his obsession for Harry Houdini, the legendary escape artist. While standing handcuffed on the railway bridge, contemplating a stunt jump into the icy river, he reminisces the dramatic events of the summer before. For the viewer, his problems are presented with warm humour: gang fights, feeling guilty for lying, Father losing his job, Mother losing her nerves, not to mention Grandfather having lost his willingness to speak since a traumatic war experience 30 years earlier.Read More »

  • Lívia Gyarmathy – Ismeri a szandi mandit? AKA Do you know szandi mandi? (1969)

    1961-1970ComedyHungaryLívia Gyarmathy

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    Juli (Ilona Schuetz) is a 17-year-old student who takes a summer job in a local chemical factory.
    She is befriended by Piri (Adit Soos), a girl with an unsavory reputation who has worked there
    before. The two friends are ogled by male workers who have overactive libidos and imaginations.
    Juli spurns the advances of a deluded Romeo while Piri continues to work and endure open hostility
    from the older female workers while her slothful parents sink deeper into alcoholism. The title
    is taken from a popular Hungarian song.Read More »

  • Ousmane Sembene – Xala (1975)

    1971-1980African CinemaArthouseComedyOusmane SembeneSenegal

    Synopsis:
    A corrupt politician is cursed with impotence on the night of his third wedding after embezzling 100 tons of rice.Read More »

  • Jirí Menzel – Ostre sledované vlaky AKA Closely Watched Trains (1966)

    1961-1970ArthouseComedyCzech RepublicJirí Menzel

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    Quote:
    “The entire town knows that I want to be a train dispatcher for the simple reason that I don’t want to do anything?just like my ancestors?but stand on the platform with a signal disc and avoid any hard work, while others have to drudge and toil.” – Milos HrmaRead More »

  • Michel Deville – Le mouton enragé AKA Love at the Top (1974)

    Drama1971-1980ComedyFranceMichel Deville

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    Quote:
    Nicolas Mallet (Jean-Louis Trintignant, The Conformist), a naive bank clerk, meets Marie-Paule (Jane Birkin, Je Taime Moi Non Plus, Keep Your Right Up), a beautiful but lonely young girl, in a quiet corner of Paris. She smiles at him and he offers to buy her a drink. When she agrees, he assumes that his luck has finally changed. But when later on they rent a room in a cheap hotel, he discovers that she is a prostitute. Before they make love, he forces her to tell him that she came to the hotel because she truly wanted him.Read More »

  • Ján Lacko – Skalni v ofsajde aka Soccer Fans (1960)

    Comedy1951-1960Ján LackoSlovakia

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    Three soccer fans are determined to do literally anything to get to the soccer match between Czechoslovakia and the famous representation team of Brazil. Reaching their goal to see the dream match live cannot be precluded neither by a sudden work task nor family obligations. However, there is one more obstacle in their way: for some time, their enthusiastic behavior during soccer matches has been monitored by the police. This time, it will not be easy for them to get to the stadium.Read More »

  • Eric Rohmer – L’ami de mon amie AKA My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend (1987)

    1981-1990ComedyDramaEric RohmerFrance

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    Boyfriends & Girlfriends is the sixth of French director Eric Rohmer’s “Comedies et Proverbes” cycle. The sterility of the “new”, prefabricated Parisian suburb of Cergy-Pontoise is used as the backdrop for the colorful activities of the film’s five principals (literally colorful, in that each character is represented by a different hue). The dramatis personae includes Ministry of Cultural Affairs worker Blanche (Emmanuelle Chaulet); Blanche’s friend, computer school student Lea (Sophie Renoir); Lea’s beau (Eric Viellard); unregenerate “wolf” (Francois-Eric Gendron); and his lady friend, iconoclastic art student Adrienne (Anne-Laure Meury). A windsurfing weekend is the scene for an elongated shakeup and reassessment of everyone’s relationships.
    @Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »

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