Young Boualem just wants a little quiet, a little space to be himself and follow his desires. He works six nights a week at a French bakery in the impoverished section of Algiers known as Bab el-Oued, and then returns to his room to sink into well-earned sleep. However, right on the rooftop of his apartment building is a loudspeaker from the local mosque, incessantly blaring out admonitions and condemnations in a pounding, mind-numbing monotone. It is a North African version of 1984 and Big Brother. Finally, Boualem can take it no more. In a fit of madness, he tears down the loudspeaker and throws it into the sea. Boualem is quickly filled with guilt and apprehension for what he has done. He is a decent young man and a believer, and desecrating the property of the mosque is a sin.. But more than that, he quickly finds himself the quarry of a relentless pursuit.
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Comedy
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Merzak Allouache – Bab El-Oued City (1994)
1991-2000African CinemaAlgeriaComedyDramaMerzak Allouache -
Paolo Genovese – The Place (2017)
2011-2020ComedyDramaItalyPaolo GenoveseSynopsis:
The fates of an apparently random group of strangers who each come into contact with a mysterious figure who they believe possesses the power to grant any wish, in return for which they must carry out a task he assigns them. Read More » -
Corneliu Porumboiu – A fost sau n-a fost? AKA 12-08 East of Bucharest (2006)
2001-2010ComedyCorneliu PorumboiuDramaRomaniaQuote:
It’s the 22nd of December. Sixteen years have passed since the revolution, and in a small town Christmas is about to come. Piscoci, an old retired man is preparing for another Christmas alone. Manescu, the history teacher, tries to keep up with his debts. Jderescu, the owner of a local television post, seems not to be so interested in the upcoming holidays. For him, the time to face history has come. Along with Manescu and Piscoci, he is trying to answer for himself a question which for 16 years has not had an answer: “Was it or wasn’t it a revolution in their town?”Read More » -
Gregory Ratoff – Wife, Husband and Friend (1939)
1931-1940ClassicsComedyGregory RatoffScrewball ComedyUSA20th Century-Fox evidently adored “triangle” comedies like Wife, Husband and Friend; apparently so did Loretta Young, who appeared in most of these films. Young plays the wife of businessman Warner Baxter, while “friend” Cesar Romero is an amorous singing teacher who convinces Young that she has a future in opera. To show up his wife, Baxter takes lessons from diva Binnie Barnes–and as it turns out, he’s the one with the ideal operatic voice. The romantic quadrangle is resolved when Baxter makes a disastrous stage debut, whereupon Romero and Barnes exit and Baxter and Young realize the error of their ways. Wife, Husband and Friend was remade in 1949 as Everybody Does It, with Paul Douglas (of all people) as the would-be Caruso. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideRead More »
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Seijun Suzuki – Tokyo naito AKA Tokyo Knights (1961)
1961-1970AsianComedyJapanSeijun Suzuki東京騎士隊
After the sudden death of his father, high school kid Koji is elevated to company president of the Matsudara Syndicate. The old guard thinks they got themselves an easy stooge, but Koji has some hidden talents up his sleave.Read More »
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Sulev Nõmmik – Mehed ei nuta AKA Men Don’t Cry (1968)
1961-1970ComedyCultSulev NõmmikUSSRSynopsis:
A group of sleepless nerds should be taken into sanitarium for hard-therapy. They are taken to a lonely island but no sanitarium is in sight. Suddenly turns out that the nurses have kidnapped the men and are about to give them the only useful medicine they need – fresh air and work. But the patients decide to disobey. There’s only one solution – to escape. The film is absolute cult in Estonia. Read More » -
Clarence G. Badger – Party Husband (1931)
1931-1940Clarence G. BadgerClassicsComedyUSAPlot:
Early Talkie titanness Dorothy Mackaill stars in this steamy pairing of racy dramas that tested the limits of the censors – and of marriage! The Office Wife features Mackaill playing a “welcome danger to the tired businessman” while sharing the screen alongside a scene-stealing and clothes-shedding Joan Blondell (in her sophomore screen appearance!). Party Husband finds ex-Ziegfield Girl Dorothy playing the better half of a thoroughly “modern marriage” whose openness threatens to bring about its premature end. Fellow Ziegfield alum Mary Doran plays the coquette whose intended conquest of the free-thinking hubby (James Rennie) starts to throw the couple’s “understanding” awry. From Warner Brothers!Read More » -
Mario Camerini – Ma non è una cosa seria AKA But It’s Nothing Serious (1937)
1931-1940ClassicsComedyItalyMario CameriniSynopsis:
Based on a Pirandello play, Vittori De Sica plays a wealthy young social lion who has to constantly fight off a horde of women who are eager to marry him because of his position and money. He weds Elisa Cegani, a servant girl, who turns out to be a more appealing wife than any of the others could have been. Assis Noris decorates the screen well as one of the chasers and pursuers. In 1937, De Sica and Noris made a film, “II Signor Max,” which, other than the setting and character role names, basically has the same plot as this film.Read More » -
Ruben Östlund – The Square (2017)
Drama2011-2020ComedyRuben ÖstlundSweden

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A prestigious Stockholm museum’s chief art curator finds himself in times of both professional and personal crisis as he attempts to set up a controversial new exhibit.Read More »







