Comedy

  • Krzysztof Zanussi – Serce na dloni aka And A Warm Heart (2008)

    2001-2010ComedyDramaKrzysztof ZanussiPoland

    Quote:
    In this moral fable from Poland, Konstanty (Bohdan Stupka) is a wealthy and amoral man who has made his fortune running a chain of supermarkets and has both the bank account and the lack of conscience to do anything he wants. One of Konstanty’s many employees is Stefan (Marek Kudelko), a kind and generous young man who runs a cash register at one of his markets. Stefan loses his job when a manager discovers he’s been undercharging groceries for senior citizens who can’t afford them; adding insult to injury, a few hours later Stefan loses both his girlfriend (Marta Zmuda-Trzebiatowska) and his flat. Falling into a deep depression, Stefan tries to kill himself, and is taken to the emergency room around the same time Konstanty is admitted to the hospital following a sudden heart attack.Read More »

  • Emir Kusturica – Sjecas Li Se, Dolly Bell ? aka Do you remember, Dolly Bell ? (1981)

    1981-1990ComedyDramaEmir KusturicaYugoslavia

    SYNOPSIS: (from the Artificial Eye release)
    As Hollywood movies begin to find their way into the country, sixteen year-old Dino becomes seduced by the glamour of the gangster films that flash before his eyes at the local cinema. Determining to follow a life of crime himself, Dino falls in with a band of petty crooks until a liaison with local prostitute Dolly Bell turns his world upside down in a way not even the movies could have prepared him for.Read More »

  • Stanislaw Bareja – Brunet wieczorowa pora AKA Brunet Will Call (1976)

    1971-1980ComedyPolandStanislaw Bareja

    Quote:
    Modest editor, has shipped his wife and kids for the weekend, and is trying to relax in his house at the outskirts of Warsaw. His quiet evening is only disturbed by the accidental forecast made by a Gypsy woman, that at evening time he will murder a mysterious brunet.Read More »

  • Stanislaw Bareja – Poszukiwany, poszukiwana AKA Man – Woman Wanted (1973)

    1971-1980ComedyPolandStanislaw Bareja

    Quote:
    Stanisław, a worker at an art museum in Warsaw, is accused of stealing a painting from the store room. His boss gives Stanisław a 24-hour deadline to return it, or face a jail sentence. Since he does not possess the painting, he decides to go into hiding – by dressing up as a woman, Maria. He gets a job as housemaid – despite knowing little about cleaning a house – but a succession of amorous husbands, difficult children, and eccentric bosses drives him from one job to the next. The film, a nudge at Polish society in communist times, is a tragic-comedic reminder of what it was like to live in those times.Read More »

  • George W. Hill – Min and Bill (1930)

    1921-1930ComedyDramaGeorge W. HillUSA

    Plot: Min owns the waterfront hotel where Bill, the captain of a fishing boat, lives. Also living and working in the hotel is Nancy, whom Min took in some years ago as an abandoned girl. Now that Nancy is older, the truant officer and the police think that she should be moved to a different environment, and Min is torn between her attachment to Nancy and her concern that the waterfront may not be the best place for a young woman. Matters are brought to a head by the sudden re-appearance of Belle, Nancy’s disreputable mother. Written by Snow LeopardRead More »

  • Greg Watkins & Caveh Zahedi – A Little Stiff (1991)

    1991-2000Caveh ZahediComedyDramaGreg WatkinsUSA

    Minimal in budget as well as in style, form, and content – the entire production is said to have cost a mere $10,000 – this black-and-white 16 millimeter tragicomedy was shot by two UCLA film students chiefly on and around their own campus. Both filmmakers play themselves in the movie, as do all the other characters; the slender plot is a literal restaging of events that actually happened, with everyone re-creating his or her original role. A single subject – Zahedi’s unrequited love for, or infatuation with, Erin McKim over the space of what appears to be two or three months – is the focus of practically every scene and shot.Read More »

  • Richard A. Colla – Fuzz (1972)

    1971-1980ActionComedyRichard A. CollaUSA

    Detective Eileen McHenry (Raquel Welch) has just been given her new assignment and she is about to find out that there is never a dull day in the 87th Precinct. How could there be when the precinct’s top detectives are played by Burt Reynolds, Tom Skerritt, and Jack Weston? Or when Boston’s top criminal mastermind is played by Yul Brynner? There is always something happening in the 8th Precinct. Someone is stealing stuff from the precinct house. Someone else is attacking the city’s homeless. Even worse, Brynner is assassinating public officials and will not stop until he is paid a hefty ransom!Read More »

  • Leonid Gaidai – Kavkazskaya plennitsa AKA Kidnapping, Caucasian Style (1966)

    1961-1970ComedyCrimeLeonid GaidaiUSSR

    Leonid Gaidai’s irreverent comedy updates a Leo Tolstoy story for modern Soviet times, in the Caucasus region. Shurik, a naive Russian student mired in his own clumsy Soviet culture, sets off to the Caucasus to write down the folk culture of this region: its traditions, legends, sayings, and toasts.Read More »

  • Martin Fric – Zivot je pes AKA A Dog’s Life (1933)

    1931-1940ClassicsComedyCzech RepublicMartin Fric

    Young music composer Viktor Honzl in vain looks for work. He is prevented from committing suicide by a technician of the gasworks who shortly beforehand has disconnected his gas due to past due bills. In the disguise of an older, serious, musical scholar Viktor obtains work in a music publishing house. So he may court Eva, publisher Durdys’s daughter, who he likes quite a bit, he recommends to the owner that he also employ his nephew. Understandably, this is he himself, in his every-day form. For Viktor, however, this becomes an extremely complicated situation as he switches in the place of business from the clothes of the uncle and then back again from the clothes of Viktor the nephew.Read More »

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