Subgenre Sampler

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Munnabhai M.B.B.S. (2003): Dir. Rajkumar Hirani
Feat. Sanjay Dutt, Sunil Dutt; An unusually comedic Bollywood musical, sees a smalltime gangster staging an elaborate deception to prove to his straight–laced father that, in…
Drole de Felix (The Adventures of Felix aka Funny Felix) (2001): Dir. Jacques Martineau, Olivier Ducastel
Feat. Sami Bouajila; Seeking to meet his father for the first time, HIV–positive Sami Bouajila journeys across France from Dieppe to Marseille in a tour of…
Everybody Famous (2001): Dir. Dominique Deruddere
Feat. Josse De Pauw, Eva van der Gucht, Werner De Smedt…; A hit in the Netherlands and at festivals, this half–sweet, half–cringe–inducingly sour satire, sees truly mediocre singer Eva Van…
Love On a Diet (2001): Dir. Johnnie To
Feat. Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng; The dir. of HEROIC TRIO, takes a serious change of tack with a weight–problem comedy. Looking to re–ignite her former romance with…
Shower (Xizhao) (2000): Dir. Zhang Yang
Feat. Pu Cunxin, Zhu Xu; A popular success with international audiences, this Chinese comedy is centred around a modern–day bathhouse in Beijing without a…
Carriers Are Waiting, The (Les Convoyeurs Attendent) (1999): Dir. Benoit Maraige
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Morgane Simon, Bouli Laners; When journalist Benoit Poelvoorde decides his family MUST win top prize in local competition (which involves training his reluctant son to break the…
Mifune (1999): Dir. Soren Kragh-Jacobson
Feat. Iben Hjejle, Anders W Berthelsen, Jesper Asholt…; The third Dogma 95 film is in many ways as traditional a European romantic comedy as you could come across, a breezy and smart take on a yuppie…
Venus Beauty Institute (Venus Beauty) (1999): Dir. Tonie Marshall
Feat. Nathalie Baye, Audrey Tautou; A modest beauty salon is the setting for this wry ensemble piece about the vagaries of womanhood, with an engagingly eccentric collection of clients…
Junk Mail (1997): Dir. Pal Sletaune
Feat. Robert Skjaerstad, Andrine Saether, Per Egil Aske; A sex–obsessed, surly postman tampers with the mail, stalks pretty girls and steals erotic letters from his delivery sack, one of which leads…
On Connait la Chanson (Same Old Song) (1997): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Pierre Arditi, Sabine Azema, Jean-Pierre Bacri…; A winner of seven Cesar awards, this light–hearted homage to Dennis Potter applies his musical–cinematic ideas to the…
Would I Lie to You? (1997): Dir. Thomas Gilou
Feat. Richard Anconina, Vincent Elbaz, Bruno Solo; In a Jewish rag–trade district of Paris, an affable street kid maintains the ruse of being Jewish to financial, social and romantic advantage.…
Celestial Clockwork (1996): Dir. Fina Torres
Feat. Ariadna Gil, Arielle Dombasle; Cinderella–type comedy that has a gifted Venezualan opera singer vaulting for stardom in an eccentric Parisian setting. Consistently sunny in…
Forbidden City Cop (1996): Dir. Vincent Tak-Chiu
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao); Hysterical and kinda crazy semi–sequel to the smash hit comedy FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE, splices James Bond with A CHINESE GHOST STORY, following…
Guantanamera (1996): Dir. Tomas Gutierrez Alea, Juan Carlos Tabio
Feat. Carlos Cruz, Mirta Ibarra, Jorge Perugorria…; A quirky mix of low–speed road movie and romantic comedy following the unsteady progress of a funeral procession across the length of Cuba…
Summer in La Goulette (1996): Dir. Ferid Boughedir
Feat. Sonia Mankai, Ava Cohen-Jonathan, Sarah Pariente…; Three families of disparate cultures enjoy harmony in Tunisian paradise, until three of their beautiful daughters flirt with losing their virginity,…
High Risk (1995): Dir. Wong Jing
Feat. Jet Li, Jacky Cheung; A Hong Kong actioner worth singling out from the glut, Jet Li is charisma–on–legs as an unflappable stunt double/bodyguard who is forced…
Kamikaze Taxi (1995): Dir. Masato Harada
Feat. Koji Yakusho, Kazuya Takahashi, Reiko Kataoka; An apprentice gangster fouls up his first major assignment and flees Tokyo in a taxi, the driver of which turns out to be a unlikely confident with a…
Sixty Million Dollar Man (1995): Dir. Yip Wai-Man
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao); Spoiled brat 'accident' victim Stephen Chow becomes a not–so–super hero when he is pieced back together Steve Austin–style for a…
Bodyguard from Beijing (1994): Dir. Yuen Kwai
Feat. Jet Li; Jet Li is "The Bodyguard" in this delightful parody of the Kevin Costner/Whitney Houston smash. A gourmet chop suey of action, humour and simmering…
City Hunter (1994): Dir. Wong Jing
Feat. Jackie Chan, Chingmy Yau, Joey Wong; Jackie Chan is the popular Japanese comic book character Ryu Saeba: part detective, part mercenary, all womanizer – is contracted to return the…
God of Gamblers Return (1994): Dir. Wong Jing
Feat. Chow Yun-Fat; Chow Yun–Fat returns as a charming poker player who enjoys the quiet life until a challenger kills his wife and begins to target his friends. …
Grosse Fatigue (1994): Dir. Michel Blanc
Feat. Michel Blanc, Carole Bouquet, Philippe Noiret…; Popular comedian Michel Blanc gently bites the hand that feeds him in this irreverent farce in which the entire cast, including himself and the…
Treasure Hunt (1994): Dir. Ricky Lau
Feat. Chow Yun-Fat; CIA operative Chow Yun–Fat falls in love while on secret assignment at mainland Shaolin monastery. Bubble–headed romance with some action…
Accidental Golfer, The (1992): Dir. Lasse Aberg
Feat. Lasse Aberg, Jon Skolmen, Mats Bergman; A redundant factory worker becomes the object of an expensive golfing wager between a millionaire and his mistress. Big Scandanavian hit comes dubbed…
Discrete, La (1992): Dir. Christian Vincent
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Judith Henry, Maurice Garrel…; Things don't go to plan for a philandering writer who refuses to commit emotionally. A literary yet accessible essay on sexual game–playing,…
House of Angels (1992): Dir. Colin Nutley
Feat. Helena Bergstrom, Rikard Wolff, Sven Wollter; Two Harley–riding city slickers descend on a country village and obliviously stir up a hornet's nest among the townfolk. Old–fashioned,…
La Crise (1992): Dir. Coline Serreau
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Patrick Timsit, Zabou; Another smart comedy of crises from the comedienne director of THREE MEN AND A CRADLE and ROMUALD ET JULIETTE. A high–powered corporate…
La Vie De Boheme (1992): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Matti Pellonpaa, Evelyne Didi, Andre Wilms; An achingly deadpan treatment of the book that served as the basis for Puccini's opera. Ironically romantic portrait of deadbeat, impoverished…
Schtonk! (1992): Dir. Helmut Dietl; Following the broad outlines of the 1983 'Hitler diaries' case, in which a forgery of the Fuhrer's scatological jottings was 'discovered', this…
Vita Cane (Life's a Bitch aka Vita da Cane) (1992): Dir. Carlo Liconti; An Italian hairdresser plays loverboy with a bevy of clients, but things snowhall hilariously when, to everyone's dismay, he falls in strictly…
Wild Target (1992): Dir. Pierre Salvadori
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Guillaume Depardieu; Jean Rochefort is a fastidious hitman whose mania for control, both at home and on assignment, is dangerously weakened when he apprentices Gerard…
Great Day On the Beach (1991): Dir. Stellan Olssen
Feat. Erik Clausen, Nina Gunke, Benjamin Rothenborg; A family day at a seaside resort enlightens a six–year–old boy with grand illusions of his extrovert father. A comic, perceptive view of…
How to Be a Woman and Not Die in the Attempt (1991): Dir. Ana Belen
Feat. Carmen Maura, Antonio Resines; Carmen Maura, the morning–star of many an early Almodovar film, enlivens this slight–ish, breezy comedy of domestic meltdown, having to…
Ripoux Contre Ripoux (1991): Dir. Claude Zidi
Feat. Philippe Noiret, Thierry Lhermitte, Guy Marchand; Sequel to LES RIPOUX reunites the odd couple of petty corrupt cops for another comic round of mischevious errors.
Volere Volare (1991): Dir. Maurizio Nichetti
Feat. Maurizio Nichetti; From the director of THE ICICLE THIEF comes another enjoyable comic fantasy inter–relating real and fictional worlds. Nichetti himself plays a…
Chinese Ghost Story 2 (1990): Dir. Ching Siu Tung
Feat. Leslie Cheung, Joey Wong, Jacky Cheung; The original cast return for another surreal, big–budget fantasy that delivers as much as the first one, with more of a comedic slant. This…
Elementary School, The (1990): Dir. Jan Sverak
Feat. Jan Triska, Zdenek Sverak, Libuse Safrankova; Sly comedy in which a class of badly behaved Czech schoolboys drive away their timid teacher and learn to love her uniformed, baton–weilding…
Everybody's Fine (Stanno Tutti Bene) (1990): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni; Marcello Mastroianni plays a fiercely proud but distanced father who embarks unwittingly on a voyage of discovery when he sets out on a surprise…
God of Gamblers (1990): Dir. Wong Jing
Feat. Chow Yun-Fat; Chow Yun–Fat plays a gambling king who is de–throned by amnesia, then embraced by a petty hustler who discovers he can trigger his memory…
A World Without Pity (Un Monde Sans Pitie) (1989): Dir. Eric Rochant
Feat. Hippolyte Girardot, Mireille Perrier, Yvan Attal; A young Parisian slacker falls in love with an ambitious, bright student but finds the tables turning on his egocentric existence. Rochant's debut…
Icicle Thief, The (1989): Dir. Maurizio Nichetti
Feat. Maurizio Nichetti; Italy's answer to Woody Allen directs and stars in this zany love story–cum–media satire using the film–within–a–film…
Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down (Atame!) (1989): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Antonio Banderas, Victoria Abril; A mental patient kidnaps his sexy B–movie idol in the hope that she will fall in love with him. Teasingly politically unsound, Almodovar…
As Thick As Thieves (1988): Dir. Claude Zidi
Feat. Christophe Malavoy, Claire Nebout, Francois Cluzet; A practical joke goes awry for a group of successful business men who mislead an aspiring friend into thinking he's struck it rich. Hilarious…
La Lectrice (1988): Dir. Michel Deville
Feat. Miou-Miou, Christian Ruche, Maria Casares; Miou–Miou plays a hired 'reader' who leads us through a series of exchanges with various disabled personalities. A sensual treat for those…
A Taxing Woman (1987): Dir. Juzo Itami
Feat. Nobuko Miyamoto; A nicely offbeat look at the potentially boring subject of tax evasion. Nobuko Miyamoto plays our star tax collector who meets her match in a hotshot…
Life Is a Long Quiet River (1987): Dir. Etienne Chatiliez
Feat. Benoit Magimel, Helene Vincent, Andre Wilms…; Wry, off–beat comedy with a resonant message about two families of different classes who discover that their twelve–year–old…
Law of Desire (1986): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Antonio Banderas, Carmen Maura; Sexual acrobatics and absurd humour abound as it explores the increasingly complex sex–life of a gay film director. Fun screwball romp.
Max Mon Amour (1986): Dir. Nagisa Oshima
Feat. Charlotte Rampling; Charlotte Rampling does her stuff... with a chimpanzee called Max? A very dry comedy with some decidedly dicey morality about Man and his closest…
My Sweet Little Village (1985): Dir. Jiri Menzel
Feat. Janos Ban, Marian Labuda, Rudolf Hrusinsky; This good–natured charmer examines the comic, sad, quirky and downright ordinary affairs of village life, highlighted by the exploits of a pair…
One Woman or Two (1985): Dir. Daniel Vigne
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Sigourney Weaver; Screwball comedy has Gerard Depardieu as an archeologist who must choose between the two women in his life – Sigourney Weaver and a…
Three Men and a Cradle (1985): Dir. Coline Serreau
Feat. Roland Giraud, Michel Boujenah, Andre Dussollier; Hugely successful comedy that spawned the U.S. remake about three domesticated bachelors who grapple with the needs of an infant and an unsolicited…
Voyeur (Abel) (1985): Dir. Alex Van Warmerdam
Feat. Alex Van Warmerdam, Henri Garcin, Olga Zuiderhoek; So many windows, so little time! An oddball sex farce in which the director himself plays a binocular–happy mummy's boy who falls in love with…
Funeral, The (1984): Dir. Juzo Itami
Feat. Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto; A Buddhist funeral service for a brothel owner makes an ideal vehicle for both fiendish black comedy and social satire. An assured debut from the…
Ladies On the Rocks (1984): Dir. Christian Thomsen
Feat. Gotha Anderson, Bruno Bjorn, Peter Boesen; Two women cabaret performers win the hearts of provincial audiences with their raucous brand of feminist humour. Ironically, their increasing…
My New Partner (Les Ripoux) (1984): Dir. Claude Zidi
Feat. Philippe Noiret, Thierry Lhermitte; The genial Phillipe Noiret plays a slobbish corrupt cop saddled with a straight–laced partner in this hilarious caper comedy. It's a delight…
What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Carmen Maura; Carmen Maura plays a delirious feminist housewife in this early black–comic farce from Almodovar, here working at his freshest and most…
Labyrinth of Passion (1982): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Antonio Banderas, Cecilia Roth, Luis Ciges…; A nympho pop singer and her bisexual buddy cruise the decadent nightlife of Madrid, encountering Almodovar's usual slate of deviants –…
Montenegro (1981): Dir. Dusan Makavejev
Feat. Susan Anspach, Erland Josephson, Marianna Jacobi; A bored housewife gets caught up in Slavic sex and violence and discovers that she quite likes it. Unpredictable and weird, things become wickedly…
La Cage Aux Folles 2 (1980): Dir. Edouard Molinaro
Feat. Michel Serrault, Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Galabru; Cast and crew reunite for this enjoyable sequel to one of the most successful French comedies of all time. This time our two heroes find themselves…
Buffet Froid (Cold Cuts) (1979): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, Jean Carmet…; When his lost switchblade turns up as a murder weapon, petty crim Gerard Depardieu goes on the lam in a nightmarish Paris, several disreputable…
Despair (1977): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Dirk Bogarde; Fassbinder's blackly comic adaptation of Nabakov's novel about delusion, depression and decline of the human spirit. Dirk Bogarde plays a Russian…
Cousin Cousine (1975): Dir. Jean-Charles Tacchella
Feat. Marie-Christine Barrault, Victor Lanoux, Marie-France Pisier…; Warm, witty and immensely successful comedy in which cousins by marriage take their relationship way beyond the…
Celine & Julie Go Boating (Celine et Julie vont en bateau) (1974): Dir. Jacques Rivette
Feat. Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier; Rivette assaults the narrative form for his epic–lengthed, dream–like, near indescribable tale of two girls whose lives and imaginations…
Love and Anarchy (1973): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato, Eros Pagni; Cult director Lina Wertmuller's political parable about the would–be assassin of Mussolini who falls in love with a prostitute at his…
Alfredo Alfredo (1971): Dir. Peitro Germi
Feat. Dustin Hoffman; Even Dustin Hoffman is dubbed in this low–rent sex farce that only the Italians seem to find funny. Time has procured it novelty value.
Borsalino (1970): Dir. Jacques Deray
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Michel Bouquet; Delightful seriocomic film of two likeable hoods who become gangland chieftains in 1930s Marseilles. Music by Claude Bolling.
Ladies of the Night (Plus vieux métier du monde, Le) (1967): Dir. Jean-Luc Godard, Philippe de Broca, Claude Autant-Lara
Feat. Anna Karina, Elsa Martinelli, Jeanne Moreau…; A six–segment portmanteau comedy which traces the history of prostitution from its Stone Age version (being the 'oldest profession') through to…
Plucking the Daisy (Mademoiselle Striptease) (1956): Dir. Roger Vadim
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Roger Vadim; One of the Brigitte Bardot/Roger Vadim light comedies that relies on Bardot's charms rather more than the simple story of a smalltown woman who is…
Jacques Tati Shorts (1936): Dir. Jacques Tati; Three rare short comedies for those that can't get enough of the French funnyman. Watch your Left! (1936), School for Postmen (1947), and Evening…
Le Crime De Monsieur Lange (1935): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Rene Lefevre, Florelle , Jules Berry; One of the dir.’s early classics. Rene Leferve rises to newsprint fame as the author of the serial “Arizona Jim” after his boss, a…

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Subgenre Sampler