Comedy

  • Ricky Lau – Geung see sin sang AKA Mr. Vampire (1985)

    1981-1990ComedyHong KongHorrorRicky Lau

    Mr. Vampire is the seminal Hong Kong horror-comedy featuring the infamous hopping vampires of Chinese folklore, and it stars the genre’s undisputed king: the great Lam Ching Ying! Kou (Lam Ching Ying) is a quietly charismatic Taoist priest with one goal in life: to take out the undead with his cool Taoist shenanigans. Kou is called into action when an undead fellow (Yuen Wah) refuses to stay dead thanks to burial in a site with bad feng shui. He becomes a hopping terror begging for Kou’s exorcism, but Kou must also deal with his two students Ricky Hui and Chin Siu-Ho. One is haunted by a pretty ghost (Pauline Wong Siu Fung), and the other is infected for possible conversion into a hopping vampire! But when the undead vampire targets Kou’s granddaughter (Moon Lee), all bets are off! Sticky rice, paper amulets, and the fabulous sword of coins are the chosen weapons in Mr. Vampire, and Lam Ching Ying has the skills and the smarts to wield them! Featuring action sequences from the great Sammo Hung, Mr. Vampire is an entertaining action-horror-comedy that still charms and amazes years after its release.Read More »

  • Rick Schmidt – Morgan’s Cake (1989)

    1981-1990ComedyCultRick SchmidtUSA

    Morgan is about to turn 18, he lives in a small room with his father, his girlfriend may be pregnant, his mother is indifferent, and he doesn’t want to register for the the draft. His dad shares a story of how he avoided military service in the late 1960’s.Read More »

  • Robert Downey Sr. – No More Excuses (1968)

    1961-1970ArthouseComedyRobert Downey Sr.USA

    Quote:
    Following the 1966 underground success of CHAFED ELBOWS, and before his (comparatively) mainstream trio of PUTNEY SWOPE, POUND and GREASER’S PALACE, director Robert Downey [a prince] and ELBOWS-editor Robert Soukis concocted this 46-minute cinematic goulash, which finally emerged from decades of obscurity thanks to The Criterion Collection, with a newly-restored print struck from the film’s only remaining 16mm copy.Read More »

  • Luis García Berlanga – Plácido (1961)

    1961-1970ClassicsComedyLuis García BerlangaSpainSpanish cinema under Franco

    Synopsis:
    In a small spanish town, a group of old ladies decide to celebrate Christmas Eve with a “Sit a poor man at your table” dinner: each wealthy household of the town will have a homeless person dining with them that night. The celebrations also include a parade, and in it we find Plácido, the humble owner of a three-wheeler, whose family is forced to live in a public lavatory because of the lack of money to pay the rent, and who has to pay the second bill of his vehicle before midnight or else he will loseRead More »

  • Sven Methling – Pigen og pressefotografen AKA The Girl and the Press Photographer (1963)

    1961-1970ComedyDenmarkSven Methling

    A male photographer and a female reporter meet at the newspaper they work for in Copenhagen and become friends. She helps him get an apartment with a marriage of convenience – or so he thinks.Read More »

  • Thure Bahne – On lautalla pienoinen kahvila AKA Ferryboat Romance (1952)

    1951-1960ComedyFinlandMusicalThure Bahne

    Synopsis:
    Ferryboat Romance was the feature film directing debut of renowned Finnish actor Thure Bahne, who had been a mainstay in Finnish cinema since the 1930s. The film has the stunning journalist Sanni (Tuija Halonen) visiting the countryside to write about the timber industry. Looking for a room she is immediately thrust into the merry community of loggers, always up for a song, but one of them, Hurma-Jussi, is a little too persistent. Luckily, she is saved from Hurma-Jussi’s claws by the handsome lumberjack Eräs (William Markus). Sanni learns about the community by working as an assistant to cook Marleena (played by Finnish icon Siiri Angerkoski), who is pursued by the jolly oaf Metku (character actor Kalle Viherpuu). Persistently rejected by Sanni, Hurma-Jussi turns to drastic measures and kidnaps her, but he has underestimated her friends in the small logging community. The film is beautifully shot and not only wonderfully portrays the romance between a young couple, but even more so the love between the older Marleena and Metku.Read More »

  • Marguerite Abouet & Clément Oubrerie – Aya de Yopougon AKA Aya of Yop City (2013)

    2011-2020AnimationClément OubrerieComedyFranceMarguerite Abouet

    Plot:Based on Marguerite Abouet’s popular graphic novel series about her life in 1970s post-colonial Cote d’Ivoire, this animated film chronicles the story of 19-year-old Aya and her friends Adjoua and Bintou, who live in the working-class neighborhood of Abidjian (renamed Yop City). While Aya would like to become a doctor one day, her friends are more interested in nightclubbing at the local maquis and hunting for a husband. A comedy filled with diverse voices and characters, Aya of Yop City is a portrait of modern urban Africa. (from bam.org)Read More »

  • Peter Welz – Burning Life (1994)

    1991-2000ComedyCrimeGermanyPeter Welz

    IMDB review by: Claudio Carvalho from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
    In the unified Germany, the aspirant of singer Anna (Maria Schrader) drives her old Russian car to a small town trying to get the job of singer in a bar. Meanwhile, the twenty years old Lisa (Anna Thalbach), who is disturbed with the suicide of her father, arrives in the same town. They meet each other by chance in a bank, where they begin a successful career of bank thieves. A nasty detective from the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in charge of the investigation starts a touch chase trying to catch them and destroy the empathy of the population for them.Read More »

  • Manole Marcus – Actorul si salbaticii AKA The Actor and the Savages (1975)

    1971-1980ComedyDramaManole MarcusRomania

    Defying threats coming from leaders of the fascist Iron Guard movement, music-hall comedian and theatre manager Costica Caratase (whos character is based on legendary real-life actor and theatre director Constantin Tanas) prepares his new show – a satirical musical comedy that pokes fun at The Iron Guard and Nazi Germany. A day before the premiere, Caratase is kidnapped, his assistant, Ionel Friedman murdered…Read More »

Back to top button