Subgenre Sampler

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Fallen Leaves (2023): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Jussi Vatanen, Alma Pöysti; Director Aki Kaurismaki returns with a deadpan romantic crowd–pleaser about two lost souls in Helsinki on a bumpy road to finding each…
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person (2023): Dir. Ariane Louis-Seize
Feat. Sara Montpetit, Félix-Antoine Bénard, Marie Brassard…; A delightfully deadpan French–Canadian comedy about a doleful adolescent vampire who is too compassionate to kill for her special dietary…
La Chimera (2023): Dir. Alice Rohrwacher; Another delight from dir. Alice Rohrwacher that completes a trilogy (after The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro) about Italy's relationship with its…
There's Still Tomorrow (2023): Dir. Paola Cortellesi
Feat. Paola Cortellesi, Valerio Mastandrea, Vinicio Marchioni; An audacious, bittersweet comedy–drama that swept the Italian Oscars and broke domestic box–office records. Directed, co–written…
The Origin of Evil (2022): Dir. Sebastien Marnier
Feat. Laure Calamy; A black comedy thriller from France about riches, bitches and patriarchal pricks, because when it comes to money all bets are off and all knives come…
Two Tickets To Greece (2022): Dir. Marc Fitoussi
Feat. Laure Calamy, Olivia Cote, Kristin Scott Thomas; A sunlit escapist comedy set in Les Cyclades (the original French title) starring Laure Calamy and Olivia Côte as long–estranged childhood…
I'm Your Man (2021): Dir. Maria Schrader
Feat. Dan Stevens; A fabulously entertaining high concept comedy from Germany about a skeptical scientist who agrees to a three week product test of a humanoid robot…
Next Door (2021): Dir. Daniel Bruhl
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, Peter Kurth, Rike Eckermann…; A dark and witty German comedy exploring gentrification and social inequality in Berlin, marking the directorial debut of accomplished actor Daniel…
Worst Person in the World, The (2021): Dir. Joachim Trier
Feat. Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum; Gloriously provocative and richly perceptive comedy drama from talented Norwegian director Joachim Trier (THELMA), which follows an unpredictable,…
A Friendly Tale (Le bonheur des uns) (2020): Dir. Daniel Cohen
Feat. Bérénice Bejo, Vincent Cassel, François Damiens…; A charming four–hander from the director of LE CHEF in which a sparkling cast play two forty–something couples whose professional and…
Another Round (Druk) (2020): Dir. Thomas Vinterberg
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang…; Another cheeky yet bittersweet provocation from Dogme 95 alumni Thomas Vinterberg that won the Oscar for Best International Feature Film. The…
Antoinette in the Cevennes (2020): Dir. Caroline Vignal
Feat. Laure Calamy, Benjamin Lavernhe, Olivia Cote…; A warm hearted French comedy from writer director Caroline Vignal, starring Laure Calamy as a school teacher on a journey of self–discovery in…
Bye Bye Morons (2020): Dir. Albert Dupontel
Feat. Virginie Efira, Albert Dupontel, Nicolas Marie…; A French black comedy about a 43–year–old hairdresser who goes looking for her adopted son after finding out she is terminally ill.…
County, The (2020): Dir. Grimur Hakonarson
Feat. Arndis Hronn Egilsdottir, Sveinn Olafur Gunnarsson; A quintessentially Icelandic serio–comedy from the director of RAMS about one woman’s fight against a monopolistic co–op stifling the…
How to Be a Good Wife (2020): Dir. Martin Provost
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Yolande Moreau, Noemie Lvovsky…; Feather lite French comedy set in 1968, with the predictably scene–stealing Juliette Binoche playing an immaculate and morally upright teacher…
Limbo (2020): Dir. Ben Sharrock
Feat. Amir El-Masry, Vikash Bhai, Ola Orebiyi…; A moving cross–cultural comedy about the refugee experience, set on a remote Scottish island where a promising young Syrian musician is waiting…
Man in the Hat, The (2020): Dir. Stephen Warbeck, John-Paul Davidson
Feat. Ciaran Hinds, Stephen Dillane, Maïwenn …; Road–trip comedy–musical about a man who sets off from Marseilles in a small Fiat 500, with five angry men in a Citroën Dyane…
Never Gonna Snow Again (2020): Dir. Malgorzata Szumowska
Feat. Alec Utgoff, Maja Ostaszewska, Agata Kulesza…; Assured Polish Oscar contender about a Ukrainian immigrant who unexpectedly develops a cult–like following while working as a masseur in a…
Rosa's Wedding (2020): Feat. Candela Pena, Sergi Lopez, Nathalie Poza…; Delightful Spanish comedy about a hard–working seamstress in her mid–40's who decides to turn her life around after spending years…
Rose Maker, The (La fine fleur) (2020): Dir. Pierre Pinaud
Feat. Catherine Frot, Olivia Cote, Rukkmini Ghosh; Gentle French comedy with Catherine Frot (THE MIDWIFE) playing a rose maker on the verge of financial ruin, who hires three hapless misfits with no…
Wedding Speech, The (Le discours) (2020): Dir. Laurent Tirard
Feat. Kyan Khojandi, Sara Giraudeau, Benjamin Lavernhe…; Smart and sophisticated crowd–pleaser from French director Laurent Tirard (NICHOLAS ON HOLIDAY), following an anxiety–ridden man who is…
An Unexpected Love (El amor menos pensado) (2019): Dir. Juan Vera
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Mercedes Morán; Argentinian romantic comedy exploring the lives of a couple who, after 25 years of marriage, decide to explore being single, with hilarious and…
Dogs Don't Wear Pants (Koirat eivät käytä housuja) (2019): Dir. J.-P. Valkeapää
Feat. Krista Kosonen; Finnish erotic drama about a lonely dad who is traumatized by the loss of his wife in a drowning accident, and stumbles into ecstasy via a powerful…
First Love (Hatsukoi) (2019): Dir. Takashi Miike
Feat. Masataka Kubota, Nao Omori, Shota Sometani…; Crime thriller from prolific Japanese auteur director Takashi Miike set over a single night in Tokyo, where a down–on–his luck boxer and…
Heroic Losers (2019): Dir. Sebastian Borensztein
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Luis Brandoni, Chino Darin…; Winning underdog comedy from Argentinian director Sebastian Borensztein (CHINESE TAKEAWAY) based on the novel by Eduardo Sacheri (THE SECRET IN THEIR…
I Feel Good (2019): Dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
Feat. Jean Dujardin, Yolande Moreau; Oscar winner Jean Dujardin (THE ARTIST) stars in this quirky French comedy about a man with a ridiculous get–rich–quick scheme involving…
It Must Be Heaven (2019): Dir. Elia Suleiman
Feat. Elia Suleiman, Tarik Kopty, Kareem Ghneim…; Brilliantly absurdist comedy of errors following a Palestinian filmmaker who leaves his country for the West and the promise of a new and better…
My Days of Glory (Mes jours de gloire) (2019): Dir. Antoine de Bary
Feat. Vincent Lacoste, Emmanuelle Devos, Christopher Lambert; French comedy about a self–absorbed, unemployed twenty–something who shamelessly sponges off his parents after his promising career as a…
Mystery of Henri Pick, The (Le mystère Henri Pick) (2019): Dir. Rémi Bezançon
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Camille Cottin, Alice Isaaz…; Delectable literary–themed French comedy caper based on the book of the same name by David Foenkinos. The titular Henri Pick is a…
Of Love and Lies (2019): Dir. Julien Rappeneau
Feat. François Damiens, Andre Dussollier, Maleaume Paquin; Uplifting French dramedy about a diminutive but spirited 12–year old boy who challenges his lonely disillusioned dad into embracing life again…
Perfumes (2019): Dir. Gregory Magne
Feat. Emmanuelle Devos, Gregory Montel; Anne (Emmanuelle Devos) was once the star of her industry – a perfumer whose ability to produce enticing new fragrances was second to none. She…
Room 212 (Chambre 212, On a Magical Night) (2019): Dir. Christophe Honore
Feat. Chiara Mastroianni, Vincent Lacoste, Camille Cottin…; Playful French rom–com from acclaimed writer–director Christophe Honore (MA MERE, DAN PARIS). Set over the course of one night, where…
Truth, The (2019): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Juliette Binoche, Ethan Hawke…; Dazzling modern family drama from master auteur Kore–eda Hirokazu (SHOPLIFTERS), pairing French screen icons Catherine Deneuve and Juliette…
A Man in a Hurry (Un homme pressé) (2018): Dir. Hervé Mimran
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Leïla Bekhti; French comic–drama based on the life of the former head of Peugeot, Christian Stieff, a high profile businessman who has let his personal life…
My Big Gay Italian Wedding (2018): Dir. Alessandro Genovesi
Feat. Cristiano Caccamo, Salvatore Esposito, Monica Guerritore…; Enjoyable silly comedy adaptation of the off–Broadway play about a gay couple in Berlin who decide to get married in a small village in Italy,…
Normandy Nude (Normandie nue, Naked Normandy) (2018): Dir. Phillippe Le Guay
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Toby Jones, François-Xavier Demaison…; Francois Cluzet leads a sizeable cast of mostly non–actors in this warm–hearted French comedy from the dir. of THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR…
Sink or Swim (Le grand bain) (2018): Dir. Gilles Lellouche
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Guillaume Canet, Benoit Poelvoorde…; A group of 40–something guys, all on the verge of a mid–life crisis, decide to form their local pool's first ever synchronized swimming…
Trouble With You, The (En liberté!) (2018): Dir. Pierre Salvadori
Feat. Adele Haenel, Pio Marmaï, Audrey Tautou; Sparkling, action filled rom–com from director Pierre Salvadori (PRICELESS, WILD TARGET) where a principled detective on the French Riviera is…
Woman at War (2018): Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson
Feat. Halldóra Geirharðsdóttir; A droll yet heroic tale of a fifty–year–old environmental activist who is secretly waging a one–woman–war on the local…
World Is Yours, The (Le monde est à toi) (2018): Dir. Romain Gavras
Feat. Karim Leklou, Isabelle Adjani, Vincent Cassel…; French comedy thriller about a small time drug dealer who attempts to go straight by becoming the official distributor of Mr. Freeze ice pops in…
Aurore (I Got Life!) (2017): Dir. Blandine Lenoir
Feat. Agnes Jaoui, Thibault de Montalembert, Pascale Arbillot; Actress and co–writer Jaoui is the heart and soul of this witty if overly–familiar rom–com as the eponymous 50–year–old…
Back to Burgundy (Ce qui nous lie) (2017): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Pio Marmaï, Ana Girardot, François Civil; Sumptuous French family saga which will be a special treat for oenophiles, as three siblings attempt to save the family vineyard in picturesque…
C'est La Vie (Le sens de la fête) (2017): Dir. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Feat. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Gilles Lellouche, Jean-Paul Rouve…; An archetypically bubbly, if not quite champagne quality, French comedy from the creators of THE INTOUCHABLES in which an irritable veteran wedding…
Dr. Knock (Doctor Knock) (2017): Dir. Lorraine Levy
Feat. Omar Sy; Popular French actor Omar Sy (THE INTOUCHABLES) stars in this feelgood comedy about a former thug turned doctor who moves to a small French town and…
Just To Be Sure (Otez-moi d'un doute) (2017): Dir. Carine Tardieu
Feat. François Damiens, Cecile De France, Andre Wilms; A delightful French comedy–of–errors following a grounded 45–year old widower whose life changes abruptly when he learns that the…
Mr. Stein Goes Online (Un profil pour deux) (2017): Dir. Stéphane Robelin
Feat. Pierre Richard; Old–fashioned French farce where a reclusive widower enters the world of online dating, using the profile photo of his young computer tutor to…
One Cut of the Dead (Kamera wo tomeruna!) (2017): Dir. Shinichiro Ueda
Feat. Takayuki Hamatsu, Yuzuki Akiyama, Harumi Shuhama; Ridiculously fun and gleefully inventive movie–within–a–movie where the crew of a low–budget zombie film are terrorised by…
Other Side of Hope, The (2017): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Sakari Kuosmanen, Sherwan Haji, Ville Virtanen…; This Finnish take on the European migrant crisis – proclaimed to be last directed by auteur Aki Kaurismäki – is a poignant yet typically…
Pop Aye (2017): Dir. Kirsten Tan
Feat. Thaneth Warakulnukroh; Quietly uplifting road trip dramedy following a disillusioned Bangkok architect who embarks on a trek across the idyllic Thai countryside with the…
See You Up There (Au revoir là-haut) (2017): Dir. Albert Dupontel
Feat. Albert Dupontel, Nahuel Pérez Biscayar, Laurent Lafitte…; French film adaptation of the ambitious novel set a few days before the 1918 Armistice, where, among the ruins of WWI, a genius draftsman and a…
Wajib - The Wedding Invitation (Wajib) (2017): Dir. Annemarie Jacir
Feat. Mohamed Bakri; Wryly comedic drama set in Nazareth in the lead–up to Christmas, where a conservative father and his estranged hipster son attempt to reconcile…
After the Storm (Umi yori mo mada fukaku) (2016): Dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Feat. Hiroshi Abe, Kirin Kiki, Yôko Maki; After the death of his father, a morally bankrupt private detective struggles to find child support money and reconnect with his son and…
Like Crazy (La Pazza Gioia) (2016): Dir. Paolo Virzi
Feat. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Micaela Ramazzotti; Gratifying comedy–drama following two women, one a troubled introvert, one an impassioned mythomaniac, who break out of a psychiatric facility…
Lost in Paris (Paris pieds nus) (2016): Dir. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon
Feat. Emmanuelle Riva, Pierre Richard, Dominique Abel…; Another gem from husband–and–wife team, Abel & Gordon, featuring a roster of typically clever sight gags that follows the trail of a…
Mermaid, The (2016): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao)
Feat. Chao Deng, Lin Yun, Zhang Yuqi…; Madcap comic fantasy that marks a return to form for director Chow tells the tale of a beautiful mermaid who falls for the property developer she was…
Olive Tree, The (El olivo) (2016): Dir. Iciar Bollain
Feat. Anna Castillo, Javier Gutiérrez, Pep Ambros; Spanish actor–director Iciar Bollain and Ken Loach's regular screenwriter Paul Laverty join forces for this warm and sometimes humorous road…
Penny Pincher (Radin!) (2016): Dir. Fred Cavaye
Feat. Dany Boon, Laurence Arné, Noémie Schmidt…; Farcical French comedy starring Dany Boon as a gifted violinist and secret "penny pincher" – obsessed with saving money at all costs, he leads…
Perfect Strangers (Perfetti sconosciuti) (2016): Dir. Paolo Genovese
Feat. Giuseppe Battiston, Anna Foglietta, Marco Giallini…; A clever comedy of manners for the iphone–era, this Italian award–winner follows a dinner party debacle that unfolds after seven…
Rosalie Blum (2016): Dir. Julien Rappeneau
Feat. Noemie Lvovsky, Alice Isaaz, Kyan Khojandi; An intriguing and relatable French rom–com that tells the same story of romantic serendipity from three different points of view. Based on a…
Saint Amour (2016): Dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Gerard Depardieu; Warm–hearted road movie following a disheartened cattle breeder who embarks on a wine trail through France with his father (Depardieu) and a…
Slack Bay (Ma Loute) (2016): Dir. Bruno Dumont
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Juliette Binoche, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi; In a Northern French coastal town in 1910, a family of bourgeois eccentrics are holidaying in a picturesque cliff–top villa. But when tourists…
Teacher, The (Ucitelka) (2016): Dir. Jan Hrebejk
Feat. Zuzana Mauréry; Black comedy set in 1983 Bratislava, where a school teacher takes advantage of Communist traditions, manipulating the parents of her students into…
Toni Erdmann (2016): Dir. Maren Ade
Feat. Peter Simonischek, Sandra Huller, Ingrid Bisu; Brilliant, unclassifiable German comedy where a stern, career–focused woman is followed around a series of mundane board meetings and vapid…
Two is a Family (Demain tout commence) (2016): Dir. Hugo Gélin
Feat. Omar Sy, Clemence Poesy; An elegantly crafted, crowd–pleasing comedy–drama in fine French tradition, following a bachelor (Omar Sy, THE INTOUCHABLES) who enjoys a…
Up For Love (Un homme à la hauteur) (2016): Dir. Laurent Tirard
Feat. Jean Dujardin, Virginie Efira; Warm hearted French rom–com about a lawyer who unexpectedly falls for a man with short stature (Jean Dujardin, star of THE ARTIST and the OSS…
Where Am I Going? (Quo vado?) (2016): Dir. Gennaro Nunziante
Feat. Checco Zalone; Currently the highest grossing film in Italian cinema history, this refreshing comedy follows the fate of a comfortable middle–aged slacker…
A Man Called Ove (En man som heter Ove) (2015): Dir. Hannes Holm
Feat. Rolf Lassgard, Bahar Pars, Filip Berg; Endearing Swedish hit about a grumpy 59–year–old widower who was deposed as president of the condominium association, but still presides…
Blind Date (2015): Dir. Clovis Cornillac
Feat. Melanie Bernier, Clovis Cornillac, Philippe Duquesne…; Frothy French comedy follows the escalating conflict between two lonely neighbours whose thin walls give them plenty of opportunity to annoy each…
Brand New Testament, The (2015): Dir. Jaco Van Dormael
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Catherine Deneuve, François Damiens…; Fantastical comedy in which God's teenage daughter gets fed up up with her overbearing father – who never gets off the computer – and…
God Willing (Se Dio Vuole) (2015): Dir. Edoardo Maria Falcone
Feat. Marco Giallini, Alessandro Gassmann, Laura Morante; Hit Italian comedy about a heart surgeon whose staunch atheism is challenged when his family comes under the influence of a charismatic young priest.
Idol, The (Ya tayr el tayer) (2015): Dir. Hany Abu-Assad
Feat. Tawfeek Barhom, Kais Attalah, Hiba Attalah; Comedy–drama based on the true story of an aspiring Palestinian musician who sets about overcoming the extraordinary goal of competing on the…
Klown Forever (Klovn Forever) (2015): Dir. Mikkel Nørgaard
Feat. Casper Christensen, Frank Hvam, Mia Lyhne; Sequel to the Danish bromance KLOWN which doubles down on the same schtick, with both original comedians returning to play fictionalised versions of…
Marguerite (2015): Dir. Xavier Giannoli
Feat. Catherine Frot, Andre Marcon, Michel Fau…; Touching French version of the story inspired by the life of Florence Foster Jenkins, a socialite who believed she was in possession of a beautiful…
One Wild Moment (2015): Dir. Jean-François Richet
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Francois Cluzet, Alice Isaaz…; Exotic romantic comedy with Cassel and Cluzet as two friends who bring their daughters with them on a beach vacation and find themselves in an…
Second Mother, The (Que Horas Ela Volta?) (2015): Dir. Anna Muylaert
Feat. Regina Case; An intelligent, touching and funny film exploring the complexities of class structure in Brazil. Tensions arise when a wealthy family allows their…
Tehran Taxi (2015): Dir. Jafar Panahi; Ingenious documentary from Iranian director Jafar Panahi who, while banned from making movies by his government, poses as a taxi driver to reflect on…
Truman (2015): Dir. Cesc Gay
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Javier Camara; Spanish cinema stars Ricardo Darin and Javier Camara team up for this sensitive comedy as childhood friends who reunite after many years when one of…
Umrika (2015): Dir. Prashant Nair
Feat. Suraj Sharma, Tony Revolori, Prateik Babbar; Gently satisfying comedy set in a small village in 1970's India where the inhabitants hear tales of life in America ("Umrika") through letters sent…
Zoom (2015): Dir. Paulo Morelli
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Alison Pill, Jason Priestley…; A multi–dimensional interface between a comic book artist, a novelist, and a film director. Each lives in a separate reality but authors a…
A Chance Encounter (Quantum Love) (2014): Dir. Lisa Azuelos
Feat. Sophie Marceau, Francois Cluzet, Lisa Azuelos…; High–concept romantic comedy which blends fantasy with reality as a a married man's encounter with another woman develops into a mutual…
Belier Family, The (2014): Dir. Eric Lartigau
Feat. François Damiens, Karin Viard, Louane Emera…; Heart–warming French comedy about a hearing–impaired couple who's teenage daughter displays a remarkable flair for music.
Folies Bergère (Paris Follies) (2014): Dir. Marc Fitoussi
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Michael Nyqvist…; Isabelle Huppert stars in this lighty comic French tale as a as a farmer’s wife who takes off to Paris on a whim and finds romance in unexpected…
Force Majeure (Turist) (2014): Dir. Ruben Östlund
Feat. Johannes Kuhnke, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Kristofer Hivju…; A barbed and incisive Swedish black comedy of gender politics, centred around a family on a skiing holiday in the French Alps who face a recognizable…
Get Well Soon (2014): Dir. Jean Becker
Feat. Gerard Lanvin, Fred Testot, Jean-Pierre Darroussin; Gentle French comedy about a middle–aged curmudgeon whose enforced stay in hospital forces him to re–evaluate his life.
Love at First Fight (Les Combattants) (2014): Dir. Thomas Cailley
Feat. Adele Haenel, Kevin Azais, Antoine Laurent…; An intensely physical take on the romantic comedy, with an awkward summer romance taking place at a French survivalist camp between a…
Mystery of Happiness, The (2014): Dir. Daniel Burman
Feat. Guillermo Francella, Ines Estevez, Fabián Arenillas…; Light comedy that charts the shock waves that result when an outwardly content businessman abandons his wife and best friend.
Parasyte: Part One (2014): Dir. Takashi Yamazaki
Feat. Shota Sometani, Eri Fukatsu, Ai Hashimoto…; Based on a long running Manga, this horror–comedy offers up Cronenbergian thrills in a world under attack from parasitic worm–like…
Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, A (2014): Dir. Roy Andersson
Feat. Holger Andersson, Nils Westblom; Absurdist comedy that follows two hapless novelty salesman on a picaresque tour of the human condition.
Samba (2014): Dir. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Feat. Omar Sy, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Tahar Rahim…; The creative force behind THE INTOUCHABLES return with this inspirational drama centered on the redeeming relationship between a Senegalese…
Sex, Love and Therapy (The Missionaries) (2014): Dir. Tonie Marshall
Feat. Sophie Marceau, Patrick Bruel, Andre Wilms; Frothy sex comedy with Patrick Bruel as a marriage counsellor and recovering sex addict whose abstinence is tested by the discovery that his new…
100 Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, The (Hundred Year Old Man, the) (2013): Dir. Felix Herngren
Feat. Robert Gustafsson; A spirited Swedish comedy – think a twilight FORREST GUMP – about a plucky 100–year–old man whose addiction to blowing things…
Blind Detective (2013): Dir. Johnnie To
Feat. Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Yuanyuan Gao; Dir. Johnnie To has a bob each way with this entertaining policier, effortlessly combining action, comedy and slapstick romance. Andy Lau plays the…
Brats, The (Les gamins) (2013): Dir. Anthony Marciano
Feat. Alain Chabat, Max Boublil, Sandrine Kiberlain…; Something of a French take on the Judd Apatow school of middle–aged stupor, this finds a dissatisfied married man bromancing his daughter's…
Chinese Puzzle (2013): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Cecile De France…; Cédric Klapisch's cosmopolitan trilogy wraps up with this breezy reunion of the characters first introduced in THE SPANISH APARTMENT, now…
Cupcakes (2013): Dir. Eytan Fox
Feat. Efrat Dor, Dana Ivgy; Six Tel Aviv friends who delight in ridiculing the Eurovision song contest video a parody of themselves performing a make–believe number, only…
French Minister, The (Quai d'Orsay) (2013): Dir. Bertrand Tavernier
Feat. Thierry Lhermitte, Niels Arestrup, Julie Gayet…; A cutting political satire set in the world of French diplomacy, about the relationship between a young speechwriter and the Minister of Foreign…
Gilded Cage, The (2013): Dir. Ruben Alves
Feat. Rita Blanco, Joaquim De Almeida, Roland Giraud; A beloved migrant family who service an exclusive apartment block in Paris decide to return to Portugal, though not if the residents have a say in…
Hunting Elephants (2013): Dir. Reshef Levi
Feat. Sasson Gabai, Moni Moshonov, Patrick Stewart; Three old timers, with the aid of a genius grandson, plot to rob a bank in this enjoyable Israeli heist comedy.
I'm So Excited! (Los amantes pasajeros) (2013): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Javier Camara, Cecilia Roth, Lola Dueñas…; This campy, featherweight sex comedy set almost entirely on an aeroplane is but a mere footnote in the career of living legend, Pedro Almodovar.
Journey to the West (Conquering The Demons) (2013): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao), Chi-kin Kwok
Feat. Shu Qi, Zhang Wen, Bo Huang; Stephen Chow directs this entertaining Monkey legend spoof with imagination and an eye for the ridiculous. Centred on a Buddhist's unpredictable road…
Living is Easy with Eyes Closed (2013): Dir. David Trueba
Feat. Javier Camara, Natalia de Molina, Francesc Colomer…; Award–winning Spanish comedy concerning a Beatles–obsessed school teacher on a quest to meet John Lennon, picking up two teenage runaways…
Noble Family, The (2013): Dir. Gary Alazraki
Feat. Gonzalo Vega, Luis Gerardo Mendez, Karla Souza; The most successful Mexican film of all time is a broad comedy of familial dysfunction. Three privileged adult children must fend for themselves…
Of Horses and Men (2013): Dir. Benedikt Erlingsson
Feat. Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Charlotte Bøving, Kristbjörg Kjeld; A series of comic vignettes of life in a rural Icelandic community, which shows the intertwined lives of humans and horses in sometimes awkward…
Rock the Casbah (2013): Dir. Laïla Marrakchi
Feat. Morjana Alaoui, Nadine Labaki, Lubna Azabal…; Culturally–specific family comedy in which three women reunite in Morocco to mourn in accordance with Muslim tradition following the death of…
Say Yes! (2013): Dir. Leste Chen
Feat. Godfrey Gao, Hailu Qin, Bo Huang; A Mainland spin on popular Japanese television series “101st Proposal”, about an eternally unsuccessful blind dater who finally meets the girl of…
Tour de Force (2013): Dir. Laurent Tuel
Feat. Clovis Cornillac, Bouli Lanners, Elodie Bouchez; French cycling comedy tells the unlikely tale of a forlorn cycling fanatic attempting to win back his wife's affections by entering the Tour de…
Vive la France (2013): Dir. Michael Youn
Feat. Michael Youn, Jose Garcia; This on–the–nose French farce centres on two naive country shepherds who have been ordered by their government to blow up the Eiffel…
Volcano, The (Eyjafjallajökull) (2013): Dir. Alexandre Coffre
Feat. Dany Boon, Valérie Bonneton; When the eruption of an Icelandic volcano diverts their flight plans to Greece, a squabbling ex–couple must hit the road together if they are…
Wetlands (2013): Dir. David Wnendt
Feat. Carla Juri, Christoph Letkowski, Marlen Kruse; Provocative comic tale of an eccentric girl who has strange attitudes towards hygiene and sexuality longs for the reunion of her divorced parents.
Why Don't You Play in Hell? (Jigoku de naze warui) (2013): Dir. Sion Sono
Feat. Kunimura Jun, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi, Fumi Nikaido; Described by its creator as "an action film about the love of 35mm", this frenzied fanboy fiction from Shion Sono bears his trademark excess and…
Wrestling Queens (Les Reines du Ring) (2013): Dir. Jean-Marc Rudnicki
Feat. Marilou Berry, Nathalie Baye, Andre Dussollier…; Broad French sports spoof with Nathalie Baye as an under–appreciated mother who recruits her working class friends to train to be wrestling…
A Gun in Each Hand (2012): Dir. Cesc Gay
Feat. Javier Camara, Ricardo Darín, Jordi Molla…; A talk–em–up as opposed to a shoot–em–up, this lively portmanteau follows the dissatisfied lives of eight middle–aged…
Another Woman's Life (2012): Dir. Sylvie Testud
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Mathieu Kassovitz, Aure Atika…; Juliette Binoche is typically radiant in this otherwise slight variation on the time–leap genre. She plays a well–to–do woman who…
Asterix and Obelix in Britain (God Save Britannia) (2012): Dir. Laurent Tirard
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Edouard Baer, Valérie Lemercier…; Another big–budget, live action outing for the Franco comic duo, here aligning with the British to repel the Julius Caesar's invading Roman…
Camille Rewinds (2012): Dir. Noemie Lvovsky
Feat. Noemie Lvovsky, Yolande Moreau, Denis Podalydes…; A jilted 40–something woman drowns her sorrows to the point of oblivion, sending herself back in time to her sixteenth birthday where she gets…
Dead Sushi (2012): Dir. Noboru Iguchi
Feat. Rina Takeda; An innkeeper proficient in both karate and sushi making must fend off a hoard of flesh–eating California Rolls after one of her guests injects…
Fly Me to the Moon (Un plan parfait) (2012): Dir. Pascal Chaumeil
Feat. Diane Kruger, Dany Boon, Alice Pol; The French churn out another dispensable yet dishy rom–com, this time centred on a woman (Diane Kruger, she of the supermodel looks) who…
Granny's Funeral (2012): Dir. Bruno Podalydes
Feat. Denis Podalydes, Valérie Lemercier; A pharmacist's mid–life crisis is deepened when his grandmother kicks the bucket in this routine French comedy.
Happiness Never Comes Alone (2012): Dir. James Huth
Feat. Gad Elmaleh, Sophie Marceau; French romantic fodder, with Gad Elmaleh as a commitment–phobic playboy who, against his constitution, falls head over heels for a divorced…
Haute Cuisine (2012): Dir. Christian Vincent
Feat. Catherine Frot, Hippolyte Girardot; A heavenly food biopic of the life of Danièle Delpeuch, celebrated private chef to the French president, François Mitterrand.
Hellfjord (TV Series) (2012): Feat. Zahid Ali, Stig Frode Henriksen, Ingrid Bolsø Berdal; Off–beat Scandi original from the writer of DEAD SNOW centres around the misfortunes a policeman who, after an unfortunate incident involving…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2012: Volume One (2012): Comprehensive box–set collection of 16 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2012' spread over 5 discs. Films…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2012: Volume Two (2012): Comprehensive box–set collection of 14 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2012' spread over 5 discs. Films…
Le Chef (Comme un chef) (2012): Dir. Daniel Cohen
Feat. Jean Reno, Michael Youn, Santiago Segura…; Tangy French comedy, with Jean Reno as a pretentious culinary master whose renowned restaurant is threatened by a young chef specializing in…
Le Grand Soir (The Big Night) (2012): Dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Albert Dupontel, Yolande Moreau…; A wrinkling middle–aged punk and his soon–to–be–unemployed middle–class brother attempt to spark a cultural revolution…
Looking for Hortense (2012): Dir. Pascal Bonitzer
Feat. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Kristin Scott Thomas, Isabelle Carré…; This bittersweet comedy of manners finds familiar May–December pleasures in the mid–life journey of an unhappily married professor who…
On Air (Parlez-moi de vous) (2012): Dir. Pierre Pinaud
Feat. Karin Viard, Nicolas Duvauchelle; A solid character vehicle for French mainstay Karin Viard, here playing the sophisticated host of a radio talkback show, whose knack for delivering…
Paris-Manhattan (2012): Dir. Sophie Lellouche
Feat. Alice Taglioni, Patrick Bruel; A Woody Allen–obsessed pharmacist employs the philosophies of her nebbish movie hero in life and in love. Typically, inconsequentially French,…
Populaire (2012): Dir. Régis Roinsard
Feat. Romain Duris, Deborah Francois, Bérénice Bejo; Full of colour and quick–witted style, this French period comedy plays up the vintage appeal of the 1950s through rose tinted glasses. Deborah…
Reality (2012): Dir. Matteo Garrone
Feat. Aniello Arena, Loredana Simioli, Nando Paone; A working class scam artist tries out for 'Big Brother' in this bustling, Fellini–esque satire of unrealised dreams from dir. Matteo Garrone…
Rita (TV Series) (2012-2015): Feat. Mille Dinesen, Lise Baastrup, Carsten Bjørnlund…; Danish comedy series following the life of a defiantly outspoken school teacher and single mother who excels in her teaching but struggles in her…
Vulgaria (2012): Dir. Pang Ho-Cheung
Feat. Chapman To, Dada Chan, Suet Lam; Amusingly scattershot showbiz satire of a struggling film producer who turns to making pornography under the financing of a twisted triad…
What's in a Name? (2012): Dir. Matthie Delaporte, Alexandre de La Patellière
Feat. Patrick Bruel, Valerie Benguigui, Charles Berling; A French "dinner party" comedy par excellence that interrogates the anxiety of impending parenthood and bourgeois politics when a liberal couple find…
A Happy Event (Un Heureux Evenement) (2011): Dir. Rémi Bezançon
Feat. Louise Bourgoin, Pio Marmaï, Josiane Balasko…; Keenly felt depiction of the baby blues as a young couple struggle to come to grips with parenthood.
Ages of Love (Manual of Love 3) (2011): Dir. Giovanni Veronesi
Feat. Robert De Niro, Monica Bellucci, Riccardo Scamarcio…; Third installment in the fluffy romantic series has benefits from the presence of De Niro as a visiting professor seduced by his neighbour's…
And If We All Lived Together (2011): Dir. Stéphane Robelin
Feat. Guy Bedos, Daniel Brühl, Geraldine Chaplin…; Five 70–something friends resolve to move in together when faced with life in a retirement home, much to the fascination of a ethnology student…
Art of Love, The (2011): Dir. Emmanuel Mouret
Feat. Emmanuel Mouret, Pascale Arbillot, Ariane Ascaride…; The French try their hand at the ensemble romantic comedy with this episodic insight into the dramas, dilemmas, and delights of love between a cast…
Chinese Takeaway (2011): Dir. Sebastian Borensztein
Feat. Ricardo Darín, Muriel Santa Ana, Ignacio Huang…; Wry comedy of clashing cultures centres on an unlikely friendship between a curmudgeonly hardware store–owner and a young immigrant.
Delicacy (2011): Dir. David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos
Feat. Audrey Tautou, François Damiens; Audrey Tautou breezes through yet another whimsical French souffle, here playing a widowed gamine beauty who rediscovers love in the form of a…
Escort in Love (Nessuno mi può giudicare) (2011): Dir. Massimiliano Bruno; Riches–to–rags comedy about a superficial, wealthy Italian woman whose husband dies suddenly and leaves her unexpectedly…
Fairy, The (La Fée) (2011): Dir. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy
Feat. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy; Third feature collaboration for husband–and–wife acting/directing team Abel & Gordon is the story of a hotel clerk searching all over the…
Footnote (2011): Dir. Joseph Cedar
Feat. Shlomo Bar-Aba, Lior Ashkenazi, Micah Lewnsohn; A father and son's complicated relationship is tested over the award of a vaunted academic prize in their shared field of Talmudic studies in this…
Immature, The (2011): Dir. Paolo Genovese
Feat. Raoul Bova, Barbora Bobulova, Ambra Angiolini…; A breezy, feel–good comedy about a group of friends reunited after twenty years, after a formal error forces them to resit their…
Intouchables, The (2011): Dir. Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano
Feat. Francois Cluzet, Omar Sy, Anne Le Ny…; Exemplary feel–good French comedy that details the unlikely friendship between an aristocratic quadriplegic and a young French–African…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2011 (2011): Comprehensive box–set collection of 11 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2011' spread over 5 discs. Film…
Juan of the Dead (2011): Dir. Alejandro Brugués
Feat. Alexis Díaz de Villegas, Jorge Molina; A direct and surprisingly inspired Hispanic take on the SHAUN OF THE DEAD zom–com model that makes nifty use of its unique Cuban locale and…
Le Havre (2011): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Andre Wilms, Kati Outinen, Jean-Pierre Darroussin…; An old–time shoe–shiner befriends a young African refugee in hiding from immigration authorities in this soft–centred comedy from…
Medianeras (Sidewalls) (2011): Dir. Gustavo Taretto
Feat. Javier Drolas, Pilar López de Ayala; Two mournful souls destined for each other conspire to never cross paths despite living directly across from one another in this inventive modern…
Monsieur Lazhar (2011): Dir. Philippe Falardeau
Feat. Mohamed Fellag, Sophie Nelisse, Emilien Neron…; An asylum seeking Algerian attempts to pass himself off as teacher in a Canadian school bereft after the suicide of a popular teacher.
Salt of Life, The (2011): Dir. Gianni Di Gregorio
Feat. Gianni Di Gregorio; Gianni Di Gregorio's delightful follow–up to MID–AUGUST LUNCH, about a house husband at the whim of his wife, daughter, neighbour, and…
Skylab (2011): Dir. Julie Delpy
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Emmanuelle Riva, Eric Elmosnino…; Julie Delpy directs this nostalgic crowd–pleaser, set around a rowdy family gathering in the summer of 1979, whose youngest member believes…
Source, The (La Source des femmes) (2011): Dir. Radu Mihaileanu
Feat. Leïla Bekhti, Hafsia Herzi, Hiam Abbass; A dashing feminist dramedy sprung from the male bias in the Middle East, about a village of women who take up a 'sex strike' after their husbands…
Spark of Life, The (As Luck Would Have It) (2011): Dir. Alex de la Iglesia
Feat. Jose Mota, Salma Hayek, Blanca Portillo…; An aggressive media satire centred around the frenzied bidding war that erupts for a permanently and publicly immobile man's story, with the man…
This Girl is Badass!! (2011): Dir. Mum Jokmok
Feat. JeeJa Yanin; Jija Yanin (CHOCOLATE) stars in this martial arts comedy about a girl whose family life is turned upside–down when she gets mixed up with…
Turn Me On, Goddamit! (2011): Dir. Jannicke Systad Jacobsen
Feat. Helene Bergsholm, Beate Stofring, Malin Bjorhovde; Deadpan sex comedy in a sleepy Norwegian hamlet with a hormone ravaged teen determined to lose her virginity.
What Women Want (2011): Dir. Daming Chen
Feat. Andy Lau, Gong Li, Russell Wong…; Amiable Chinese remake with Andy Lau stepping into Mel Gibson's shoes as a chauvinistic executive who gains the ability to hear what women are really…
Whatsoeverly (Qualunquemente) (2011): Dir. Giulio Manfredonia
Feat. Antonio Albanese, Sergio Rubini; Irrepressibly Italian satirical comedy film starring comedian Antonio Albanese as his famous character Cetto La Qualunque – a corrupt…
Where Do We Go Now? (2011): Dir. Nadine Labaki
Feat. Nadine Labaki; Nadine Labaki (CARAMEL) directs and stars in this heartfelt Lebanese tale of tensions between Christians and Muslims villagers, and the women who…
Women on the 6th Floor, The (2011): Dir. Phillippe Le Guay
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain, Natalia Verbeke…; An immensely entertaining comedy of the classes, about an uptight Parisian couple who welcome a gaggle of Spanish maids into their lives for the…
3 (Three) (2010): Dir. Tom Tykwer
Feat. Sophie Rois, Sebastian Schipper, Devid Striesow; Dir. Tom Tykwer energises this simple love story of a forty–something couple who fall for the same man with the frenetic visual and narrative…
A Family on the Verge (La bellezza del somaro; Love & Slaps) (2010): Dir. Sergio Castellitto
Feat. Sergio Castellitto, Laura Morante, Barbora Bobulova…; A wry updating of GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER has a successful couple nervously awaiting the arrival of their daughter's new boyfriend. Much…
A Somewhat Gentle Man (2010): Dir. Hans Petter Moland
Feat. Stellan Skarsgard, Bjorn Floberg, Gard B. Eidsvold…; A dry, deadpan delight, about a gentle but explosive ex–con (Skarsgard) whose efforts to go straight after a long stint in prison are thwarted…
Abel (2010): Dir. Diego Luna
Feat. Christopher Ruíz-Esparza, Jose Maria Yazpik; Sweet and satisfyingly unpredictable child fantasy about an imaginative young boy who returns from a psychiatric ward to declare himself the father…
Age of Reason, The (With Love... from the Age of Reason) (2010): Dir. Yann Samuell
Feat. Sophie Marceau, Marton Csokas, Michel Duchaussoy; A frazzled career woman at breaking point reconnects with her childhood in this soul–searching romantic comedy. More melodramatic, and less…
Another World (Un altro Mondo) (2010): Dir. Silvio Muccino
Feat. Silvio Muccino, Isabella Ragonese, Michael Rainey Jr…; Glossy dramedy in which a wealthy slacker who after the death of his father finds himself the legal guardian of a half–brother he never new…
Basilicata: Coast to Coast (2010): Dir. Rocco Papaleo
Feat. Alessandro Gassman, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Paolo Briguglia; Energetic musical about a band and a music journalist who decide to cross the region of Basilicata by foot to attend a music festival.
Beautiful Lies (2010): Dir. Pierre Salvadori
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Nathalie Baye, Sami Bouajila; Sweet and scenic Audrey Tautou confection, about a mother and daughter competing for the same secret admirer.
Copacabana (2010): Dir. Marc Fitoussi
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Aure Atika, Lolita Chammah; Free–spirited and perpetually unemployed Isabelle Huppert must get with the program after learning her newly engaged daughter (played by her…
First Beautiful Thing, The (2010): Dir. Paolo Virzi
Feat. Valerio Mastandrea, Micaela Ramazzotti, Stefania Sandrelli; Winsome melodrama with a misanthropic professor returning to his home town to assist his dying mother. Delicately performed but perhaps overly…
Gallants (2010): Dir. Chi-kin Kwok, Clement Sze-Kit Cheng
Feat. Siu-Lung Leung, Kuan Tai Chen; An exuberant homage to the Shaw Brothers films of yesteryear, this kung–fu comedy delights as an old–school actioner, replete with…
Happy Family (2010): Dir. Gabriele Salvatores
Feat. Fabrizzio Bentivoglio, Margherita Buy, Valeria Bilello…; Wafer thin meta–comedy with a struggling author writing himself into the tale of two disparate families who come together when their teenagers…
Happy, Happy (2010): Dir. Anne Sewitsky
Feat. Agnes Kittelsen, Henrik Rafaelsen, Joachim Rafaelsen…; Sharp comedy with a woman trapped in a loveless marriage finding her life taking an exciting turn for the better when an exciting new couple move in…
Heartbreaker (L'arnacoeur) (2010): Dir. Pascal Chaumeil
Feat. Romain Duris, Vanessa Paradis; Romain Duris exploits his handsome charms as a professional heartbreaker hired to ruin relationships – that is, until he strikes upon a woman…
Human Resources Manager, The (2010): Dir. Eran Riklis
Feat. Mark Ivanir; An absurdist odyssey from the director of LEMON TREE, about an Israeli bakery manager who must accompany the body of one of his employees back to…
Jo's Boy (2010): Dir. Philippe Guillard
Feat. Gerard Lanvin, Olivier Marchal, Karina Lombard; Very undemanding French fare set amongst a family of rugby legends whose legacy is under threat by their particularly unsporty progeny.
Klown (2010): Dir. Mikkel Nørgaard
Feat. Frank Hvam, Casper Christensen, Marcuz Jess Petersen; Danish comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen play debauched versions of themselves on a weekend canoe trip away with their long–suffering…
Let the Bullets Fly (2010): Dir. Wen Jiang
Feat. Chow Yun-Fat, Ge You, Wen Jiang…; Cocksure 'noodle' western – best described as a Chinese variation on Kurosawa's YOJIMBO – pits a notorious bandit against the mob boss of…
Little Big Soldier (2010): Dir. Sheng Ding
Feat. Jackie Chan, Lee-Hom Wang; Charismatic anti–war comedy stars Jackie Chan as a lowly foot soldier who strikes it lucky when he captures a wanted enemy General (Wang).…
Loose Cannons (2010): Dir. Ferzan Ozpetek
Feat. Riccardo Scamarcio; An cheerfully overstuffed family comedy of a gay young man who attempts to come out to his ultra traditionalist parents in the south of Italy.
Mammuth (2010): Dir. Gustave Kervern, Benoit Delepine
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Yolande Moreau, Isabelle Adjani…; Slyly subversive comic tale with Gerard Depardieu in fine fettle as a retiree battling to secure his state pension.
Marriage and Other Disasters (Weddings and Other Disasters) (2010): Dir. Nina Di Majo
Feat. Fabio Volo, Margherita Buy, Luciana Littizzetto…; Likeable rom–com with romantically disillusioned woman finds herself organising her sister's wedding. Cue romantic mismatching and shenanigans.
My Afternoons With Margueritte (2010): Dir. Jean Becker
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Gisèle Casadesus; Gerard Depardieu plays an illiterate man who forges an unlikely friendship with a elderly writer in this gentle new film from the dir. of…
My Name is Khan (2010): Dir. Karan Johar
Feat. Shahrukh Khan, Kajol , Christopher B. Duncan; Well–meaning plea for racial tolerance with an Aspergers–afflicted Muslim detained in the U.S. as a terrorist and undertaking a journey…
Names of Love, The (2010): Dir. Michel Leclerc
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Sara Forestier, Zinedine Soualem…; Witty cocktail of sex and politics about an extroverted left–wing activist who sleeps with her political opponents to convert them to her cause.
Nothing to Declare (2010): Dir. Dany Boon
Feat. Dany Boon, Benoit Poelvoorde, Karin Viard…; Actor–director Dany Boon follows up his hit regional comedy WELCOME TO THE STICKS with another lite French farce founded in stubborn parochial…
On Tour (Tournee) (2010): Dir. Mathieu Amalric
Feat. Miranda Colclasure, Mathieu Amalric; A consistently funny and inventive comedy from actor–director Mathieu Amalric, here playing a washed up TV producer who leads a troupe of…
Once a Gangster (2010): Dir. Felix Chong
Feat. Ekin Cheng, Jordan Chan, Alex Fong; Nimble action–comedy with two jaded gangsters urged by their elders to fight for the position of Dragon Head of the Hong Kong Underworld.…
Passion, The (2010): Dir. Carlo Mazzacurati
Feat. Silvio Orlando, Giuseppe Battiston, Kasia Smutniak…; Routine comedy in which a film director reluctantly agrees to set up and direct the Good Friday celebrations in a small Tuscan town.
Perfect Date, The (L'amour, c'est mieux à deux) (2010): Dir. Dominique Farrugia, Arnaud Lemort
Feat. Clovis Cornillac, Virginie Efira, Manu Payet; A derivative French rom–com nonetheless delivered in good spirits, this focuses on the ingrained patterns of two male friends whose wildly…
Potiche (2010): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu, Fabrice Luchini…; Bubbly satire has 60–something Catherine Deneuve transform from trophy wife to a strong–headed businesswoman after her chauvinist husband…
Rare Exports - A Christmas Tale (2010): Dir. Jalmari Helander
Feat. Onni Tommita, Jorma Tommila; A wicked brew of 80s adventure movie and twisted horror comedy, centred on an archaeological discovery which may prove to be the remains of the real…
Romantics Anonymous (2010): Dir. Jean-Pierre Améris
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Isabelle Carré; Two would–be lovers must overcome their timidness via a mutual passion for chocolate in this sweet–toothed romantic comedy.
Room in Rome (Habitación en Roma) (2010): Dir. Julio Medem
Feat. Elena Anaya, Natasha Yarovenko, Enrico Lo Verso…; Erotic chronicle of a brief encounter between two women set almost entirely within the confines of a hotel room. More porno–profundity from…
Simple Simon (2010): Dir. Andreas Öhman
Feat. Bill Skarsgård, Martin Wallström; Sensitive feel–good romantic–comedy of an Asperger's sufferer whose brother sets out to find him a new girlfriend. Eccentric Swedish…
Vincent Wants to Sea (2010): Dir. Ralf Huettner
Feat. Florian David Fitz, Karoline Herfurth, Heino Ferch…; Likeable though lightweight road comedy in which a Tourette's sufferer escapes from a clinic with two others (an obsessive and an anorexic) and…
Welcome to the South (2010): Dir. Luca Miniero
Feat. Claudio Bisio, Aleesandro Siani, Angela Finocchiaro…; Spirited remake of the French hit 'Welcome to the Sticks' has a hapless postal employee dispatched to the Mezzogiorno.
Woman of My Dreams, The (La donna della mia vita) (2010): Dir. Luca Lucini
Feat. Alessandro Gassman, Luca Argentero; Astute romantic comedy about the big and little lies people tell in their search for love, following the fallout of a friendship between two brothers…
1000 Euro Generation (2009): Dir. Massimo Venier
Feat. Alessandro Tiberi, Valentina Lodovini, Carolina Crescentini…; Affable comedy about the life of a young underemployed physicist struggling with romantic entanglements and just managing to eke out a living in…
3 Idiots (2009): Dir. Rajkumar Hirani
Feat. Aamir Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Sharman Joshi; Lively college romp is a fine vehicle for Indian superstar Aamir Khan, here playing one of three larrikin engineering students on campus, whose…
A Matter of Size (2009): Dir. Erez Tadmor, Sharon Maymon
Feat. Itzik Cohen, Dvir Benedek, Alon Dohan…; Sweet comedy about four overweight men fed up with the pressure of losing weight who decide to take their girth where it's appreciated, into the…
All's Well, End's Well (Ga Yau Hei Si 2009 ) (2009): Dir. Vincent Tak-Chiu
Feat. Sandra Ng, Raymond Wong Pak-Ming, Louis Koo; Passable remake of the 1992 rom–com follows the a girl who, frustrated at the stubborn temperament of her older sister, employs a 'Casanova' to…
Baaria (2009): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Raoul Bova, Margareth Made, Francesco Scianna…; Giuseppe Tornatore directs an autobiographical saga covering sixty years of turmoil through the eyes of three generations of a peasant family. Those…
Cezanne Affair, The (2009): Dir. Sergio Rubini
Feat. Sergio Rubini, Riccardo Scamarcio, Valeria Golino…; Sentimental comedy–drama with a son returning home to his dying father who's thwarted artistic ambitions cast a dark shaodw over his childhood.
Change of Plans (Le code a changé) (2009): Dir. Daniele Thompson
Feat. Dany Boon, Karin Viard, Emmanuelle Seigner…; Stacked Gallic dramedy stars Karin Viard and Dany Boon as a swanky French couple who invite six equally wealthy Parisians to dinner – their evening…
Coco (2009): Dir. Gad Elmaleh
Feat. Gad Elmaleh, Gerard Depardieu; The hapless soul of many a French Farce, comedian Gad Elmaleh stars and directs in this feature–length adaptation of one of his popular…
East West East (2009): Dir. Gjergj Xhuvani
Feat. Ervin Bejleri, Helidon Fino, Gentiano Hazizi; An amateur cycling team from Albania heads to France to take part in a tournament only to discover on the way that revolution has broken out back…
French Kissers, The (Les Beaux Gosses) (2009): Dir. Riad Sattouf
Feat. Vincent Lacoste, Anthony Sonigo, Alice Trémolière…; Gallic hormonal comedy about two unkempt, sex–obsessed adolescents and their wavering exploits with the school's most popular girl. Is quite…
Hedgehog, The (Le hérisson) (2009): Dir. Mona Achache
Feat. Josiane Balasko, Togo Igawa, Garance Le Guillermic…; Charming, melancholy comedy in which a precocious, jaded 11–year–old from a well–to–do family decides to commit suicide on…
I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) (2009): Dir. Xavier Dolan
Feat. Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clément…; An angst ridden teen grapples with growing up gay and his neurotic, overbearing mother in this feisty first feature from young French Canadian…
Kung Fu Chefs (Gong fu chu shen) (2009): Dir. Wing Kin Yip
Feat. Sammo Hung, Vanness Wu, Cherrie Ying; This gastronomic spin on the martial arts movie lacks the invention or absurdist comedy of GOD OF COOKERY, however still delivers plenty of chopsocky…
Life Coach, The (Le Coach) (2009): Dir. Olivier Doran
Feat. Jean-Paul Rouve, Richard Berry, Annie Marivin…; Affable comedy with a business coach, up to his eyeballs in debt, taking on a most difficult assignment help an irredeemable miquetoast close an…
Look For A Star (Yau lung hei fung) (2009): Dir. Wai-keung Lau
Feat. Shu Qi, Andy Lau; Andy Lau plays an eligible bachelor who can't seem to keep a wife in this captivating rom–com. Despite a convoluted third act, old romantics…
Many Kisses Later (Ex) (2009): Dir. Fausto Brizzi
Feat. Claudia Gerini, Flavio Insinna, Silvio Orlando; Breezy rom–com –a smash hit in Italy– follows six couples from Chistmas to Valetine's Day and their various entanglements.…
Matter of Heart, A (Questione di cuore) (2009): Dir. Francesca Archibugi
Feat. Antonio Albanese, Kim Rossi Stuart, Micaela Ramazzotti…; Two men recovering from heart attacks strike up an unlikely friendship in this enjoyably sentimental farce, with much of the humour derived from…
Me Too (Yo, Tambien) (2009): Dir. Antonio Naharro, Alvaro Pastor
Feat. Lola Dueñas, Isabel Garcia Lorca, Antonio Naharro; Affecting tale of a bittersweet friendship between an office worker with Down syndrome and his restless, free–spirited colleague.
Me, Them & Lara (2009): Dir. Carlo Verdone
Feat. Carlo Verdone, Laura Chiatti, Anna Bonaiuto…; Screwy comedy captures the messy familial predicaments a priest encounters upon his return from Africa, his father's new love, his brother's drug…
Micmacs (2009): Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Feat. Dany Boon, Andre Dussollier, Jean-Pierre Marielle…; The dir. of AMELIE and CITY OF LOST CHILDREN stays true to form(ula) with his visual chutzpah lavished upon another idealised scenario that this time…
OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009): Dir. Michel Hazanavicius
Feat. Jean Dujardin; Bumbling intelligence officer and shameless chauvinist, Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath, returns for Brazilian adventures in this bright and breezy spy…
Over the Hill Band, The (Meisjes) (2009): Dir. Geoffrey Enthoven
Feat. Marilou Mermans, Jan Van Looveren; A modest old age delight centred on recently widowed mother who resolves to kick start her middle–aged son's music career by recruiting the…
Please Please Me! (Fais-moi plaisir!) (2009): Dir. Emmanuel Mouret
Feat. Emmanuel Mouret, Judith Godreche, Deborah Francois; Boudoir laughs a–plenty in this sexy farce from the 'French Woody Allen' as a goofy inventor's date with the President's daughter descends into…
Puzzle (Rompecabezas) (2009): Dir. Natalia Smirnoff
Feat. María Onetto, Arturo Goetz, Gabriel Goity; Low–key charmer with a bored housewife discovering her freakish aptitude for puzzles and partnering with a rich bachelor for an international…
Soul Kitchen (2009): Dir. Fatih Akin
Feat. Adam Bousdoukos, Pheline Roggan, Moritz Bleibtreu…; Light but hearty food comedy from the dir. of THE EDGE OF HEAVEN, about a soulful Greek immigrant who sets about relaunching his failed restaurant…
Tracing Shadow (Zhui ying) (2009): Dir. Marco Mak, Francis Ng
Feat. Jaycee Chan, Hao Dang, Francis Ng; This batty Ming Dynasty comedy is a worthy throwback to Hong Kong’s campy martial arts movies of the early 90s, with an extravagant blend of…
Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl (2009): Dir. Yoshihiro Nishimura, Naoyuki Tomomatsu
Feat. Yukie Nakama, Eri Otoguro; Another enjoyable stock effort from the makers of TOKYO GORE POLICE et. al, this combines home–brewed splatter, ropey special effects, and…
Asterix at the Olympic Games (Astérix Aux Jeux Olympiques) (2008): Dir. Frederic Forestier, Thomas Langmann
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Clovis Cornillac, Benoit Poelvoorde…; Fairly loose adaptation of the original comic follows the oddball duo as they try to win the Olympic Games in order to set their friend up with a…
Country Wedding (Sveitabrúðkaup) (2008): Dir. Valdís Óskarsdóttir
Feat. Björn Hlynur Haraldsson, Nanna Kristín Magnúsdóttir; Two busloads of wedding guests get lost on their way to the church in this lively Icelandic comedy, improvised and shot on the fly. Farcical and…
Early Bird Catches the Worm, The (2008): Dir. Francesco Patierno
Feat. Elio Germano, Laura Chiatti, Martina Stella; Leaden portrait of the rise and fall of popular Italian disc jockey Marco Baldini who's gambling addiction leads him tom make some decidedly rash…
First Day of the Rest of Your Life, The (Le Premier Jour du Reste de ta Vie) (2008): Dir. Rémi Bezançon
Feat. Jacques Gamblin, Zabou Breitman, Deborah Francois…; Five days in the life of an average, functional family form the basis of this universally appealing French comedy spanning the decade of the…
Good, the Bad, the Weird, The (2008): Dir. Ji-woon Kim
Feat. Kang-ho Song, Byung-hun Lee, Woo-sung Jung; The high–end stylist behind Korean box office hits A BITTERSWEET LIFE and A TALE OF TWO SISTERS, dir. Kim Ji–woon flavours this eastern…
Her Whole Life Ahead (Tutta La Vita Davanti) (2008): Dir. Paolo Virzi
Feat. Isabella Ragonese, Micaela Ramazzotti, Giulia Salerno…; A brilliant recent graduate struggles to find work. After falling into a babysitting job, she is introduced by the child's mother to the world of the…
LOL (2008): Dir. Lisa Azuelos
Feat. Christa Theret, Sophie Marceau; Sassy French comedy stars Sophie Marceau as the loving, long–suffering mother of a rebellious teen lass.
Louise - Michel (2008): Dir. Benoit Delepine, Gustave Kervern
Feat. Yolande Moreau, Bouli Lanners, Benoit Poelvoorde…; A black comedy treasure about a newly redundant factory worker who hires a dodgy hit man to take out her rich employers. The trouble starts when the…
Me Two (La Personne Aux Deux Personnes) (2008): Dir. Bruno Lavaine, Nicolas Charlet
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Alain Chabat; This French farce sets up a straight–laced, friendless accountant for possession by the spirit of an 80s one–hit–wonder, with…
Mid-August Lunch (2008): Dir. Gianni Di Gregorio
Feat. Gianni Di Gregorio, Valeria De Franciscis, Marina Cacciotti; A comedy of manners and good taste in form and content, this soulful comedy sets up a middle–aged man forced to play host to a gaggle of…
My Friends My Loves (Mes amis, mes amours) (2008): Dir. Lorraine Levy
Feat. Vincent Lindon, Pascal Elbé, Virginie Ledoyen; A buddy movie for middle–aged divorcees, this lightweight odd–coupling follows two Parisian single dads who decide to raise their…
Pain in the Ass, A (L'emmerdeur) (2008): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Richard Berry, Patrick Timsit, Pascal Elbé…; Fast–paced black comedy arises out of an unlikely friendship between a hitman and a depressive who find themselves sharing hotels. Based on…
Peaceful Times (Friedliche Zeiten) (2008): Dir. Neele Leana Vollmar
Feat. Katharina M. Schubert, Oliver Stokowski, Nina Monka; A sweet, if slender trip back to 1960s West Germany, where a mother's mental health issues are remembered from the naive, but loving perspective of…
Rosario + Vampire (TV Series) (Rozario To Banpaia) (2008): Tskune accidentally gets on a bus to a school of monsters.
Rudo and Cursi (Rudo y Cursi) (2008): Dir. Carlos Cuarón
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna; The charismatic stars and co–writer of Y TU MAMA TAMBIEN reunite in this biting satire about two brothers from rural stock who have an intense…
Rumba (2008): Dir. Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel
Feat. Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon, Bruno Romy; Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel co–wrote, directed and star in this delightful film about a pair of rumba–loving weirdos whose lives…
Silent Wedding (2008): Dir. Horatio Malaele
Feat. Meda Andreea Victor, Alexandru Potocean, Valentin Teodosiu; Gentle comedy of a bride and groom whose wedding is interrupted by the death of Stalin, and the period of one weeks mourning effective immediately.…
Sorry If I Want to Marry You (2008): Dir. Federico Moccia
Feat. Raoul Bova, Michela Quattrociocche, Francesco Apolloni; Supremely frothy comedy about with a man's increasing insecurity about his relationship leads him to propose marriage setting off a comic chain of…
Speak To Me of Love (Parlami d'amore ) (2008): Dir. Silvio Muccino
Feat. Silvio Muccino, Carolina Crescentini, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón…; Sasha is a boy in his twenties, deeply loving the beautiful Benedetta, who doesn't seem to recognize his existence. Nicole is a French woman in her…
Tears for Sale (Charleston and Vendetta) (2008): Dir. Uros Stojanovic
Feat. Katarina Radivojevic, Sonja Kolacaric; The sombre title belies what is in fact a joyously bawdy Balkan fairytale that blends fantastical folklore, striking burlesque visuals and ample…
Welcome to the Sticks (Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis) (2008): Dir. Dany Boon
Feat. Kad Merad, Dany Boon, Zoé Félix…; Actor Dany Boon, best known for MY BEST FRIEND, co–wrote and directed this similar comedy about a post–office manager who is, er, posted…
Wild Grass (Les Herbes Folles) (2008): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Andre Dussollier, Sabine Azema, Emmanuelle Devos…; A masterful light–footed comedy of the surreal from veteran French dir. Alain Resnais, centered on a missing wallet responsible for triggering…
Wushu - The Young Generation (2008): Dir. Antony Szeto
Feat. Sammo Hung, Fengchao Liu, Wenjie Wang; Under the auspices of genre legends Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan (in producing role), this standard–issue kung fu flick introduces a bevy a…
Band's Visit, The (Bikur Ha-Tizmoret) (2007): Dir. Eran Kolirin; Sweet and sensitive Israeli comedy following an Egyptian police band who get way laid in a small Israeli town and unexpectedly break down cultural…
Chacun Son Cinema (To Each His Own Cinema) (2007): Dir. Theo Angelopoulos, Olivier Assayas, Bille August; 35 auteurs convey the meaning of cinema in less than three minutes each, in this epic commission to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film…
Dinner Guest, The (L'Invité) (2007): Dir. Laurent Bouhnik
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Valérie Lemercier, Thierry Lhermitte; The side order of French fries to THE DINNER GAME’s comedic cassoulet, this overly contrived yet lightly amusing farce serves up a…
Empties (Vratné lahve) (2007): Dir. Jan Sverak
Feat. Zdenek Sverak, Tatiana Vilhelmova, Daniela Kolarova; This cheeky Czech favourite comically indulges the disobedience of its retirement–aged protagonist, who, after losing his teaching position and…
Get Together Dinner, The (La Ceno per Farli Conoscere) (2007): Dir. Pupi Avati
Feat. Vanessa Incontrada, Diego Abatanthono, Violante Placido…; Diverting comedy about three stepsisters playing cupid for their father, a jaded TV star whose career has seen better days. As lacerating as it is…
Hellphone (2007): Dir. James Huth
Feat. Jean-Baptiste Maunier; Smitten with the school babe, a spotty teenager acquires an all–important cellphone, only to discover the handset is possessed and capable of…
Kung Fu Dunk (Gong fu guan lan) (2007): Dir. Yen-ping Chu
Feat. Charlene Choi, Jay Chou, Eric Tsang…; Inane sporting comedy about a skilled martial artist recruited to play basketball at the local university in return for help in finding his birth…
Lessons in Chocolate (Lezioni di Cioccolato) (2007): Dir. Claudio Cupellini
Feat. Luca Argentero, Violante Placido, Neri Marcore…; A building contractor on the verge of closing his biggest deal to date finds his future jeopardized when an illegally hired worker is injured on the…
Maiko Haaaan!!! (2007): Dir. Nobuo Mizuta
Feat. Sadao Abe, Shin'ichi Tsutsumi; An oddball slice of Japanese farce following an obsessed fan of geisha who competes with a fellow fan to win the affections of the girls at a geisha…
Metro (2007): Dir. Anurag Basu
Feat. Shilpa Shetty, Irfan Khan; Talk–of–the–town Shilpa Shetty (of Big Brother and Richard Gere controversy) plays a dissatisfied housewife in this collective of…
Mind the Gap (Se upp för dårarna) (2007): Dir. Helena Bergstrom; Feelgood coming–of–age comedy drama focused on two twenty–somethings from different backgrounds who form a solid friendship when…
Moliere (2007): Dir. Laurent Tirard
Feat. Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini, Laura Morante…; Jaunty period rom–com in the spirit of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE speculates on the creative catalysts for the comic masterpieces of famed French…
Night Bus (Notturno Bus) (2007): Dir. Davide Marengo
Feat. Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Valerio Mastandrea; Fast paced comedy/thriller follows the misadventures of a petty thief, who gets more than she bargained for when she comes into possession of a…
O'Horten (2007): Dir. Bent Hamer
Feat. Baard Owe, Ghita Norby; The director of KITCHEN STORIES follows up with another comic delicacy about a 67–year–old engineer and his oddly challenging quest to…
Om Shanti Om (2007): Dir. Farah Khan
Feat. Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone; From the dir. of MAIN HOON NA, this super–lush, mega–lavish Bollywood spectacular tells the story of a love that overcomes death (through…
Persepolis (2007): Dir. Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud; Exceptional black–and–white animated feature for adults based on the autobiographical graphic novel by Marjane Satrapi, who grew up in…
Shall We Kiss? (Un baiser s'il vous plaît) (2007): Dir. Emmanuel Mouret
Feat. Virginie Ledoyen, Emmanuel Mouret, Julie Gayet; Delicate French comedy focused on two strangers who share a romantic evening but stop short of a kiss on her opinion that there is no such thing 'as…
Suso's Tower (La Torre de Suso) (2007): Dir. Tom Fernández
Feat. Javier Camara, Gonzalo de Castro, César Vea; Forced to return to his native Spain following the death of a friend, a hard–living man decides to fulfill his dead mate’s dream of…
Tonight, I'll Sleep At Yours (Ce Soir, Je Dors Chez Toi) (2007): Dir. Olivier Baroux
Feat. Jean-Paul Rouve, Mélanie Doutey, Kad Merad; Feather–light French comedy scripted around a stubborn commitment–phobe who goes to desperate extremes to retain both his freedom and…
Twice Upon a Time (Désaccord parfait) (2007): Dir. Antoine de Caunes
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Charlotte Rampling, Isabelle Nanty…; Agreeable Pan–Euro comedy recounting what happens when a former showbiz couple – a director and his actress muse – reunite thirty years…
Two Days in Paris (2 Days in Paris) (2007): Dir. Julie Delpy
Feat. Julie Delpy, Adam Goldberg; Delightful, self–starring directorial debut from Julie Delpy about an angsty Franco–American couple who drop in to visit her very…
Bad Faith (Mauvaise foi) (2006): Dir. Roschdy Zem
Feat. Cecile De France, Roschdy Zem; Likeable cross–cultural fare contemporizes the oft–told GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER predicament by throwing Judaism and Islam into the…
Boss Of It All, The (Direktøren for det hele) (2006): Dir. Lars Von Trier
Feat. Jens Albinus, Iben Hjejle, Benedikt Erlingsson…; Crude, but refreshing change of pace from perennial troublemaker Lars von Trier sees the Danish renegade chance his arm at a corporate–styled…
Bothersome Man, The (2006): Dir. Jens Lien
Feat. Trond Fausa Aurvaag; A black comedy with a typically Scandinavian sense of absurdity and style, in which an amnesiac finds himself in an unfamiliar city with a new job,…
Caiman, The (Il Camino) (2006): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Nanni Moretti, Margherita Buy, Jasmine Trinca…; Unflinching Italian film–within–a–film concerning a producer attempting to make a film about former Italian prime minister Silvio…
Conversations with My Gardener (Dialogue avec mon jardinier) (2006): Dir. Jean Becker
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Fanny Cottencon; Leisurely mateship comedy about a jilted artist (Auteuil) who retreats to his remote country home, forging a mid–life bond with a local…
Dynamite Warrior (2006): Dir. Chalem Wongpim
Feat. Dan Chupong, Leo Putt; As if to accommodate an escalating reputation for martial arts outrageousness, Thailand’s stunt extraordinaires risk life and limb in their most…
Family Law (Derecho de familia) (2006): Dir. Daniel Burman
Feat. Daniel Hendler, Arturo Goetz, Eloy Burman…; Fatherhood and career jitters converge in this wry comedy of family matters. Promising young dir. Burman displays a dry wit in looking at three…
Gucha (Guca!; Distant Trumpet) (2006): Dir. Dusan Milic
Feat. Marko Markovic, Mladen Nelevic; A catchy successor to Emir Kusturica's gypsy theatrics, this ingenious, musically–infused jive on Serbian ethnic tensions frames a…
Hey Good Looking! (Comme t'y es belle!) (2006): Dir. Lisa Azuelos
Feat. Aure Atika; Frank French chick flick centred around a SEX AND THE CITYish cast of four gal pals who share with each other the trials of finding (and keeping) the…
I Do: Or How to Get Married and Stay Single (Prete-moi ta main) (2006): Dir. Eric Lartigau
Feat. Alain Chabat, Charlotte Gainsbourg; Under pressure from his nearest and dearest to wed, committed bachelor Alain Chabat solicits the gorgeous Charlotte Gainsbourg to become his faux…
I Served the King of England (2006): Dir. Jiri Menzel
Feat. Julia Jentsch, Oldrich Kaiser, Ivan Barnev; Whimsical yet biting Czech farce centres on the exploits of an endearingly opportunistic waiter, whose thrifty wiles propel him into all manner of…
Kiss Me Baby (Baciami Piccina) (2006): Dir. Roberto Cimapnelli
Feat. Neri Marcore, Vincenzo Salemme, Elena Russo; Elegant blend of love–story, witty road movie and historical drama tells the story of a couple on their honeymoon at the most unlikely of times…
Land, The (La Terra, Our Land) (2006): Dir. Sergio Rubini
Feat. Paolo Briguglia, Emilio Solfrizzi, Sergio Rubini; Compulsive Italian dramedy depicting a man who returns to the home of his childhood to tie up the sale of the family estate, but is instead…
My Best Enemy (Il Mio miglior nemico) (2006): Dir. Carlo Verdone
Feat. Carlo Verdone, Silvio Muccino; Capricious Italian comedy concerning a bitter rivalry between a father and his daughter's new lover – who also happens to be the son of a woman…
My Best Friend (2006): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon; Daniel Auteuil lends his lovable persona to this textbook French comedy as a frosty antique dealer who has 10 days to disprove his work colleagues'…
No Mercy For The Rude (2006): Dir. Cheol-hie Park
Feat. Ha-kyun Shin; A mute hitman limits his contract killings to ‘rude’ individuals, saving up for a voice–restoring operation in this unconventional riff on…
Offside (2006): Dir. Jafar Panahi; Filmed using non–professionals, in and around the unfolding events of an actual World Cup qualifier, Jafar Panahi expertly weaves a…
OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies (2006): Dir. Michel Hazanavicius
Feat. Jean Dujardin; Dusting off a little–known French spy spoof from the 1960's, this remake upgrades rather than updates the franchise, combining the Bond school…
Priceless (2006): Dir. Pierre Salvadori
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Gad Elmaleh; Ultra–glamorous French romantic comedy, in which one can gorge on (or gawp at) Riviera culture at its most opulent – the clothes, the…
Reprise (2006): Dir. Joachim Trier
Feat. Anders Danielsen Lie, Espen Klouman-Høiner, Viktoria Winge…; Touching, keenly perceptive Norwegian film fest favourite centres on two twenty–something writers whose vastly divergent personalities and…
Robin-B-Hood (Bo bui gai wak) (2006): Dir. Benny Chan
Feat. Jackie Chan, Louis Koo, Michael Hui…; Chan hams it up in this big–budget action caper as a compulsive gambler who inadvertently ends up with a kidnapped baby as a means to pay off…
Science of Sleep, The (2006): Dir. Michel Gondry
Feat. Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Emma de Caunes…; A delightfully self–conscious, self–indulged fantasy for cine–wizard Michel Gondry, the director's follow–up to ETERNAL…
Sheitan (2006): Dir. Kim Chapiron
Feat. Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci, Roxane Mesquida; A gaggle of young hedonists on a bender expend their energies at a disco and are invited by pouting barmaid Mesquida (A MA SOUER) to her remote…
Tiger and the Snow, The (2006): Dir. Roberto Benigni
Feat. Roberto Benigni, Jean Reno, Nicoletta Braschi…; Italian jester Roberto Benigni unites comedy and tragedy within the throws of the Iraq war, playing a poet who follows his true love (real life…
Valet, The (La Doublure) (2006): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Gad Elmaleh, Daniel Auteuil, Alice Taglioni…; Another inspired comic concoction from Francis Veber (dir. of most everything French and funny), that this time follows a meek parking valet who…
Adam's Apples (2005): Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Ulrich Thomsen, Paprika Steen…; Roguishly sardonic Danish black comedy about a sanguine country vicar (CASINO ROYALE’s Mikkelsen) who encounters resistance from a neo–Nazi…
Dark Horse (Voksne mennesker) (2005): Dir. Dagur Kari
Feat. Jakob Cedergren, Nicolas Bro; Charmingly offbeat slacker comedy from the director of NOI THE ALBINO, following a Copenhagen graffiti artist who spends his days dodging parking…
Ferpect Crime (Crimen Ferpecto) (2005): Dir. Alex de la Iglesia
Feat. Guillermo Toledo, Monica Cervera; A spunky Spanish black comedy set almost entirely in a department store, where an obnoxious playboy salesman is blackmailed by a…
Fever, The (Febbre, La) (2005): Dir. Alessandro D'Alatri
Feat. Arnoldo Foa, Fabio Volo; Multi–layered Italian comedy following a thirty–something drifter living at home with mummy dearest who is given the life–altering…
Garam Masala (2005): Dir. Priyadarshan
Feat. Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal; Frantically screwball Indian romcom juggles a plotline concerning the numerous female entanglements of a playboy photographer (Kumar) and his former…
Go For Zucker! (Alles auf Zucker!) (2005): Dir. Dani Levy
Feat. Henry Hubchen; Oxymoronic ‘German–Jewish’ comedy that looks at the literal and metaphorical reconciliation of two estranged brothers; one an East German…
How Much Do You Love Me? (Combien tu m'aimes?) (2005): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Monica Bellucci, Gerard Depardieu, Jean-Pierre Darroussin…; Akin to THE VALET’s improbable live–in relationship, but offering entirely different results, this peculiar comedy–romance stars Monica…
Italian Film Festival Collection, The - 2007 (2005-2006): Comprehensive box–set collection of 11 of the best Italian films featured at the 'Italian Film Festival 2007' spread over 6 discs. Films…
King and the Clown, The (2005): Dir. Jun-ik Lee
Feat. Woo-seong Kam; Subversive yet broadly–appealing Korean comedy with a gay streak that turns the Chosun Dynasty on its head with its story of two bawdy court…
Koi Aap Sa (2005): Dir. Partho Mitra
Feat. Aftab Shivdasani; Fruity Bollywood number with Aftab Shivdasani as a hunky football captain torn between his spunky girlfriend and coltish childhood sweetheart.
Linda Linda Linda (2005): Dir. Nobuhiro Yamashita
Feat. Doona Bae, Aki Maeda, Yu Kashii…; Guided by a rousing rock anthem, three high school seniors – and one gawky Korean exchange student – strive to have three Japanese punk classics…
Manual of Love, The (Manuale d'amore) (2005): Dir. Giovanni Veronesi
Feat. Jasmine Trinca, Sergio Rubini, Silvio Muccino; Four couples experience the agony and ecstasy of modern love in this appealing romance of intertwining relationships. An agreeable, attractive…
One Stays, One Leaves (L' un reste, l'autre part) (2005): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Nathalie Baye…; Witty French comedy with an undercurrent of angst in which two philandering middle–aged husbands do their utmost to juggle fresh–faced…
Princess Raccoon (Operetta tanuki goten) (2005): Dir. Seijun Suzuki
Feat. Zhang Ziyi, Joe Odagiri; Wacky musical rumpus stars Zhang Ziyi as a 'raccoon dog' who falls in love with a prince banished to her enchanted forest. A fanciful swansong for…
Russian Dolls (Les Poupées russes) (2005): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Romain Duris, Cecile De France…; A sequel of substance to the pan–Euro comedy THE SPANISH APARTMENT, which will again strike an entertaining chord with the young globetrotting,…
Takeshis' (2005): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Kayoko Kishimoto, Ren Osugi…; Returning to his comedic roots, dir. Takeshi Kitano springs layer upon layer of self–reference and in this conceptually ambitious, though…
To Die in San Hilario (2005): Dir. Laura Mana
Feat. Lluís Homar; A light, whimsical tale of redemption, in which an aging gangster on the run seeks refuge in a sleepy backwater, only to be mistaken for a wealthy…
Tokyo Zombie (2005): Dir. Sakichi Sato
Feat. Sho Aikawa, Tadanobu Asano, Arata Furuta…; An enormous garbage dump in Tokyo begins to spawl hoards of the walking dead, prompting two dumb–and–dumber garage workers to unleash…
Agatha and The Storm (Agata e la tempesta) (2004): Dir. Silvio Soldini
Feat. Licia Maglietta, Giuseppe Battiston, Emilio Solfrizzi; Loosely woven tale of a middle–aged bookshop owner, who becomes embroiled in a surreal swirl of romance and family secrets of infidelity, her…
As it is in Heaven (Så som i himmelen) (2004): Dir. Kay Pollak
Feat. Michael Nyqvist; A feelgood arthouse hit about a renowned classical music conductor who rediscovers his roots in the far north of Sweden. Acquiring a rundown…
Bombon (El Perro) (2004): Dir. Carlos Sorin
Feat. Juan Villegas; A middle–aged man (Villegas), struggling to maintain his meager lifestyle working as a mechanic in remote Patagonia, and selling knives on the…
Bride and Prejudice (2004): Dir. Gurinder Chadha
Feat. Martin Henderson, Naveen Andrews, Aishwarya Rai; Bollywood meets Hollywood in this rather original Jane Austen adaptation, with ex–pat Kiwi Henderson playing a blueblood American who falls…
Conversations with Mother (Conversaciones con mamá) (2004): Dir. Santiago Carlos Oves
Feat. China Zorrilla, Eduardo Blanco; Chaotic, poignant and amusing, this Argentinian drama has a newly redundant man try and persuade his 80–year old mother to sell her apartment…
Duck Season (2004): Dir. Fernando Eimbcke
Feat. Enrique Arreola, Diego Cataño, Danny Miranda…; Two videogame–mad teens find their lazy Sunday hijacked by a nosey neighbour and stubborn pizza delivery man in this breezy, flavoursome…
Enter the Phoenix (2004): Dir. Stephen Fung
Feat. Daniel Wu, Karen Mok, Nicholas Tse…; The disowned gay son of a dying triad leader must inherit control of an organised crime family in this typically scattershot Hong Kong comedy…
Familia Rodante (Rolling Family) (2004): Dir. Pablo Trapero
Feat. Graciana Chironi, Bernardo Forteza; Argentinian comedy from the director of EL BONAERENSE, following a large family who embark on an epic road trip from Buenos Aires to a village in…
Hulchul (2004): Dir. Priyadarshan
Feat. Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, Sunil Shetty…; Snowballing tale of comic conspiracy between two families, one, mostly comprised of males who have sworn off "the women" and the other, more balanced…
Intimate Strangers (Confidences trop intimes) (2004): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Sandrine Bonnaire, Fabrice Luchini, Anne Brochet; Another stylish excursion into suspensful romanticism for dir. Leconte (MONSIEUR HIRE), here premised on a woman's mistaken assumption that she is…
King of Bollywood (2004): Dir. Piyush Jha
Feat. Kavita Kapoor, Sophie Dahl, Om Puri; A tongue–in–cheek satire of the Bollywood movie industry, in which a star (Puri) with notions of his own timeless importance becomes…
Kung Fu Hustle (2004): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao)
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao), Wah Yuen; Hong Kong superstar Stephen Chow trumps all previous efforts (and that's saying something) with this dynamic, bust–a–gut funny…
Life is a Miracle (Zivot je cudo) (2004): Dir. Emir Kusturica
Feat. Slavko Stimac, Natasa Solak; Another feverish, frenetic and heartfelt vision from Balkan dir. Emir Kusturica (UNDERGOUND), attempting here to fathom and unknot the bloody Bosnian…
Look At Me (Comme une Image) (2004): Dir. Agnes Jaoui
Feat. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Agnes Jaoui; Another diverting comedy of manners from the husband–wife creative team behind THE TASTE OF OTHERS, set among the fragile egos of the literary…
Marriages! (2004): Dir. Valerie Guignabodet
Feat. Mathilde Seigner, Jean Dujardin, Miou-Miou; A messy, if diverting marriage farce brings together three generations of couples at a picturesque wedding in southern France.
Matando Cabos (2004): Dir. Alejandro Lozano
Feat. Tony Dalton, Ana Claudia Talancon, Pedro Jr. Armendariz; Energetic Mexican 'farce of errors' in which two teenagers kidnap a coldly ruthless businessman, not realising he is also a coveted prize for a…
Me And My Sister (Les Soeurs Fachees) (2004): Dir. Alexandra Leclere
Feat. Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Frot; A deceptively simple French comedy, which has a bubbly and gauche rural–dwelling woman (Frot) visiting her arrogant and successful sister…
Narco: Secret Adventures of Gustav Klopp (2004): Dir. Tristan Aurouet
Feat. Guillaume Canet, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Benoit Poolevarde…; A narcoleptic comic–book writer finds illusion and reality blurring between his fantastical imagination, a succession of dead–end day…
People (2004): Dir. Fabien Onteniente
Feat. Rupert Everett, Jose Garcia, Ornella Muti; Raucous French comedy starring one Rupert Everett as the Parisian Jet Set's party organiser, who finds himself departing to Ibiza in order to retain…
Rice Rhapsody (Hainan ji fan) (2004): Dir. Kenneth Bi
Feat. Sylvia Chang, Mélanie Laurent, Maggie Q; Light, good–natured familial farce about a sturdy single mother who, fearing a drought of grandchildren, plots to ‘straighten’ the…
Story of My Life, The (Mensonges et trahisons et plus si affinités) (2004): Dir. Laurent Tirard
Feat. Edouard Baer, Marie-Josee Croze, Clovis Cornillac…; A ghostwriter’s charmed life is thrown into tailspin when he’s assigned the autobiography of a notoriously egotistical soccer star. Further…
Survive Style 5+ (2004): Dir. Gen Sekiguchi
Feat. Tadanobu Asano, Hiroshi Abe, Vinnie Jones…; Hitmen, hypnotists, murdered spouses, and a trio of oddball thieves converge in this delirious, unclassifiable comedy–mystery–drama by…
Unconscious (Inconscientes) (2004): Dir. Joaquin Oristrell; Boisterous 'Freudian farce' set amidst the extravagent architecture of Barcelona in 1913, where a disturbed psychiatrist suddenly adandons his…
Whisky (2004): Dir. Juan Pablo Rebella, Pablo Stoll
Feat. Jorge Bolani, Mirella Pascual, Andres Pazos; From the vintage of Aki Kaurismaki and Jim Jarmusch, this low–key marriage charade stands as the driest comedy in years, accounting for a…
3 is a Crowd (I'm Staying) (2003): Dir. Diane Kurys
Feat. Sophie Marceau, Vincent Perez, Charles Berling; Farcical French romantic comedy about a wife, fed up with her stubborn husband's cycling obsession, who invites another man to move in. Unfortunately…
Bon Voyage (2003): Dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Feat. Isabelle Adjani, Gerard Depardieu, Virginie Ledoyen…; A plushly–mounted, grander–than–life romantic farce from director of "Cyrano De Bergerac". It's June 1940, when a group of…
Chalte Chalte (2003): Dir. Aziz Mirza
Feat. Shahrukh Khan; Glossy Bollywood comic–romance that runs a typical gamut of emotions about a chalk–and–cheese yet glamourous couple, who against…
Goodbye Lenin! (2003): Dir. Wolfgang Becker
Feat. Daniel Bruhl, Katrin Sass, Chulpan Khamatova; This comedy of concealment set around the fall of the Berlin Wall was a justifiable success around the world, with a bittersweet mood of political…
Green Butchers, The (De grønne slagtere ) (2003): Dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
Feat. Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas; Grim comedy focused on two down–and–out butchers who discover they can make a killing out of their customer's oblivious cannibalistic…
James' Journey to Jerusalem (Massa'ot James Be'eretz Hakodesh) (2003): Dir. Ra'anan Alexandrowicz
Feat. Siyabonga Melongisi Shibe; A witty yet significant portrait of contemporary Israel that takes the form of a deceptively straightforward fable, charting the progress of a young…
Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come) (2003): Dir. Nikhil Advani
Feat. Shahrukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta; Sporting a string of hit songs and featuring a troika of India's most popular stars, this giddy swirl of romantic comedy, musical, family melodrama…
Kiss Me First (Prima dammi un bacio) (2003): Dir. Ambrogio Lo Giudice
Feat. Stefania Rocca, Marco Cocci; Endearing Italian comedy following the fate of two separated lovers whose lives cannot help but intersect. The events of WW2 inevitably drive these…
Kitchen Stories (Salmer fra kjøkkenet) (2003): Dir. Bent Hamer
Feat. Tomas Norstrom, Joachim Calmeyer, Reine Brynolfsson…; A slyly humourous offering from Scandanavia, examining the efforts of the (real–life) Swedish Home Research Institute to improve lives of…
Kuch Naa Kaho (2003): Dir. Rohan Sippy
Feat. Aishwarya Rai, Abhishek Bachchan; Effective, if predictable, this contemporary comedy of arranged marriage concerns an eligible bachelor (Bachban) who becomes the personal project of…
Love Me If You Dare (Jeux d'enfants) (2003): Dir. Yann Samuell
Feat. Marion Cotillard, Guillaume Canet; Two French kids develop an intense relationship through escalating games of "dare" that bond and haunt them through a turbulent teenage and…
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…
Noi Albinoi (Noi the Albino) (2003): Dir. Dagur Kari
Feat. Tomas Lemarquis, Pröstur Leó Gunnarsson; Distinctive drama about a 'gifted' 17–year–old who rebels against the limits of life in a remote Icelandic town. Brimming with…
Other Side of the Bed, The (2003): Dir. Emilio Martinez Lazaro
Feat. Paz Vega, Natalia Verbeke, Ernesto Alterio…; Frisky Spanish sex comedy involving the criss–crossing love affairs across a group of "friends" and acquaintances. Cast with 'Guess Jeans'…
Schultze Gets the Blues (2003): Dir. Michael Schorr
Feat. Horst Krause, Harald Warmbrunn; A recently retired worker (Krause) in a dismal German mining town, discovers an unexpected passion for playing Zydeco rhythms on the piano accordion,…
Seducing Doctor Lewis (La Grande séduction) (2003): Dir. Jean-François Pouliot
Feat. Raymond Bouchard, David Boutin; Amiable and crafty, this Québécois comedy has a small fishing village trying to gently persuade a visiting young doctor to take up permanent…
Tais Toi! (Ruby and Quentin) (2003): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Jean Reno, Andre Dussollier…; Another reliable entertainment from the writer–director of THE CLOSET and THE DINNER GAME, this screwball crime comedy boasts a central comic…
800 Balas (800 Bullets) (2002): Dir. Alex de la Iglesia
Feat. Carmen Maura, Sancho Gracia; Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia (DAY OF THE BEAST) brings his wild energy to this story of a stuntman in Almeria whose career is floundering in…
Asterix and Obelix - Mission Cleopatra (2002): Dir. Alain Chabat
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Alain Chabat, Monica Bellucci…; The core cast of 1999's disastrous ASTERIX AND OBELIX TAKE ON CAESAR return for a far more successful adaptation of one of those classic…
Bollywood Hollywood (2002): Dir. Deepa Mehta
Feat. Rahul Khanna, Lisa Ray; The dir. of the 'elements trilogy' (FIRE, EARTH, WATER) conceived this less artful, but rather clever insider's take on the Bollywood musical…
Chinese Odyssey 2002 (2002): Dir. Jeff Lau
Feat. Tony Leung (Chiu-wai), Faye Wong, Chen Chang…; Silly only in appearance, this in–joke laden spoof of Hong Kong cinema stapes – Chinese opera, gender–bending romances, and…
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not (A la Folie pas du Tout) (2002): Dir. Laetitia Colombani
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Samuel Le Bihan; A slyly–structured tale of adultery which uses the ambiguous qualities of actress Audrey Tautou (AMELIE) to deliver some thrilling…
Housekeeper, The (Une Femme de Menage) (2002): Dir. Claude Berri
Feat. Jean-Pierre Bacri, Emilie Dequenne, Catherine Breillat; Charming "French souffle" about a forlorn divorcee who hires a housekeeper to clean up his slovenly act. However, it turns out she's never done a…
Jet Lag (2002): Dir. Daniele Thompson
Feat. Juliette Binoche, Jean Reno, Sergi Lopez; Euro–comedy with supermodel Binoche and insomniac Reno forced into each's others' company by an airline strike and soon, opposites begin to…
L'Homme du Train (Man on the Train) (2002): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Johnny Hallyday; An elegantly amusing role–switching tale that's equal parts social comedy, existential drama and subtle thriller, tinged with melancholy…
Man Without a Past, The (2002): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen; Another understated, double–take comedy from Finnish dir. Kaurismaki, making perhaps his most cleverly balanced work yet. An itinerant…
Monday Morning (Lundi Matin) (2002): Dir. Otar Iosseliani
Feat. Jacques Bidou; A whimsical comic journey for a French factory worker, who uproots from his village and family in search of philosophical and liquid refreshment in…
Monsieur Batignole (2002): Dir. Gerard Jugnot
Feat. Gerard Jugnot; An ironic comedy set in WW2 Paris, in which the titular butcher helps himself to an apartment vacated by a Jewish family who have been rounded up by…
Mostly Martha (Bella Martha) (2002): Dir. Sandra Nettelbeck
Feat. Martina Gedeck, Sergio Castellitto; Light and satisfying dish, concerning the frissions in a Hamburg restaurant between a chef, her eight year old neice and a talented…
Ping Pong (2002): Dir. Fumisiko Sori
Feat. Yôsuke Kubozuka, Arata; A madcap, yet gently humourous Japanese sports tale, set around two table tennis hotshots (Kubozuka and Arata) preparing for a ferocious battle at a…
Respiro (Grazia's Island) (2002): Dir. Emanuele Crialese
Feat. Valeria Golino; Highly charged and mostly insightful depiction of a free–spirited woman whose near–psychotic episodes have a profound effect on her small…
Spanish Apartment, The (L'Auberge Espagnole) (2002): Dir. Cedric Klapisch
Feat. Romain Duris, Audrey Tautou, Judith Godreche…; Summery comedy set in a Barcelona apartment, where six international exchange students variously mingle, cavort and fall messily in love. Although…
Summer Things (Embrassez qui vous voudrez) (2002): Dir. Michel Blanc
Feat. Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Dutronc, Carole Bouquet…; Rom–com with an ensemble cast led by Charlotte Rampling as an unhappily married woman who is off to stay at a seaside resort, where she…
8 Women (8 Femmes) (2001): Dir. Francois Ozon
Feat. Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart…; In the classic whodunnit mould, this whimsical French "thriller" starts with a man’s dead body in a snowbound Alpine manse in the 1950s, and eight…
Amelie (2001): Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz; A charming romantic comedy stamped with the purely cinematic style of dir. Jean–Pierre Juenet, who here remixes intricate set pieces, editing…
Autumn Spring (Babí léto) (2001): Dir. Vladimír Michálek
Feat. Vlastimil Brodsky; Spry Czech comedy of elderly bad manners, concerns an aging prankster (Brodsky) who spends his retirement impersonating people in league with a…
Closet, The (Le Placard) (2001): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Gerard Depardieu, Thierry Lhermitte…; More comic gold from the king of French farce, Francis Veber, who understands the value of a good premise, great actors, and simple, unpretentious…
Crying... Silicon Tears (Klama) (2001): Dir. Thanassis Papathanassiou; One of the biggest hits of recent Greek cinema, this is a lavish parody of 1960s Greek movie melodramas, mixing musical, comedy and suspense into a…
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…
Ghislain Lambert's Bicycle (2001): Dir. Philippe Harel
Feat. Benoit Poelvoorde, Jose Garcia; Less sports drama than celebration of the endearingly average, this comical biopic charts the 30–year career of big–hearted, but…
God is Great, I'm Not (Dieu est grand, je suis toute petite) (2001): Dir. Pascale Bailly
Feat. Audrey Tautou, Edouard Baer, Julie Depardieu; Slim Audrey Tautou vehicle has the AMELIE–ingénue unable to settle on a religion, eventually converting to Judaism in order to win over a…
Happy Times (Xingfu Shiguang) (2001): Dir. Zhang Yimou
Feat. Dong Jie, Zhao Benshan; Putting a gentle Asian spin on the "French farce" model, dir. Zhang Yimou takes a light–hearted detour with this comedy about a retired…
Italian For Beginners (2001): Dir. Lone Scherfig
Feat. Anders W Berthelsen; A likeable ensemble comedy in which six vulnerable characters orbit a drab Copenhagen suburb, each seeking some form of solace, romance or…
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…
Minor Mishaps (2001): Dir. Annette K. Olesen
Feat. Jorgen Kiil, Maria Wurgler Rich, Jannie Faurschou; Emerging from the lighter end of the Dogme 95 movement, this drama reunites a father and three children after the death of their mother in a car…
My Wife is an Actress (Ma Femme est une Actrice) (2001): Dir. Yvan Attal
Feat. Charlotte Gainsbourg, Yvan Attal, Terence Stamp; Obviously modelled on his own life, first time writer/director Yvan Attal tailors a project for his real–life wife, Charlotte Gainsbourg, who…
Pauline and Paulette (Pauline et Paulette) (2001): Dir. Lieven Debrauwer
Feat. Dora van der Groen, Ann Petersen; An amusing, poignant tale of two elderly sisters and their unique relationship, portrayed by two grand old dames of Belgian theatre. After her…
Shaolin Soccer (2001): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao)
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao), Richard Ng, Vicki Zhao; With an astounding mix of Eastern fantasy, CGI effects and the game of soccer, Hong Kong’s one–man comedy machine Stephen Chow kicks one out…
Tanguy (2001): Dir. Etienne Chatiliez
Feat. Sabine Azema, Andre Dussollier, Laurent Chouchan; A crowd–pleasing French comedy set around the efforts of a middle–aged couple to surreptitiously get their 28–year–old son to…
Va Savoir (Who Knows) (2001): Dir. Jacques Rivette
Feat. Jeanne Balibar, Sergio Castellitto, Jacques Bonnaffe…; Skilful romantic farce interweaves the lives of six characters connected to an Italian theatre troupe on tour in Paris (doing Pirandello’s ‘As…
Would I Lie to You Again? (2001): Dir. Thomas Gilou
Feat. Richard Anconina, Jose Garcia, Bruno Solo…; Boys–will–be–boys comedy revisits the ‘Jewish’ entrepreneurs of WOULD I LIE TO YOU?, now in need to an all–new…
Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too!) (2001): Dir. Alfonso Cuaron
Feat. Maribel Verdu, Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna; Acclaimed universally (and here in NZ beset with censorship wrangles), this Mexican joyride, taken by two teenage boys and an older woman, is indeed…
101 Reykjavik (2000): Dir. Baltasar Kormakur
Feat. Baltasar Kormakur, Victoria Abril; An endearingly skewed yet unexpectedly poignant sex comedy moored in the 30–below temperatures of the Icelandic winter, about a…
Barking Dogs Never Bite (Flandersui gae) (2000): Dir. Joon-ho Bong
Feat. Doona Bae; An accomplished black comedy from Korea, which follows an unemployed lecturer's annoyance with the barking of neighbourhood dogs through to its…
Malena (2000): Dir. Giuseppe Tornatore
Feat. Monica Bellucci; The dir. of CINEMA PARADISO throws an amber–lit glow around a man’s memory of a boyhood infatuation in his hometown in WWII Sicily.…
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…
Taste of Others, The (Le Gout des Autres) (2000): Dir. Agnes Jaoui
Feat. Anne Alvaro, Alain Chabat, Jean-Pierre Bacri…; A subtle French comedy of manners, that strews an array of matched, mismatched and all quite droll characters into a satisfying treat for the comic…
Tears of the Black Tiger (Fah Talai Jone) (2000): Dir. Wisit Sasanatieng; A blast of wild inspiration from the New Thai Cinema, this restages a Hollywood Western within a luridly kitschy setting using back–projection,…
The Best Man's Wedding (Jalla! Jalla!) (2000): Dir. Josef Fares; A racy comic swirl through the family, romantic, sexual and general personal dilemmas of two Swedish best friends. While one must suffer the…
Attack the Gas Station (1999): Dir. Sang-Jin Kim
Feat. Sung-jae Lee, Oh-seong Yu, Seong-jin Kang…; Four disaffected youths take hostage an entire gas station in this subversive, blackly–comic masterpiece from Korea. Gleefully tearing apart…
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…
Cup, The (1999): Dir. Khyentse Norbu
Feat. Orgyen Tobgyal, Neten Chokling, Jamyang Lodro; This charming, slyly comic tale of soccer–mad young monks obsessed with viewing the World Cup has found broad worldwide appreciation with its…
Human Resources (1999): Dir. Laurent Cantet
Feat. Jalil Lespert; Astute French drama from director Laurent Cantet (THE CLASS) set in a white collar human resources department in Normandy, about the conflicts that…
Kikujiro (Kikujiro no Natsu) (1999): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano; An uncharacteristically easy–going, episodic road movie from one–man movie machine, Beat Takeshi, whose impassive screen persona snugly…
King of Comedy (Choi kek ji wong) (1999): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao)
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao), Karen Mok; Hong Kong’s king–of–parody Stephen Chow ironically casts himself as a luckless movie extra who fumbles his way to leading man status…
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…
An Autumn Tale (1998): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Marie Riviere, Beatrice Romand, Alain Libolt; Completing his suite of films based on the four seasons, dir. Rohmer provides another mellow, seemingly unplotted comedy, in which Rhone valley…
Dinner Game, The (1998): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Thierry Lhermitte, Jacques Villeret; Gourmet–grade French farce from the maestro of the genre – well–packaged, delivered without haste, indeed delicious, if a slightly…
Late August, Early September (Fin août, début septembre) (1998): Dir. Olivier Assayas
Feat. Mathieu Amalric, Virginie Ledoyen, Francois Cluzet…; Overlooked French drama from prolific and distinctive auteur Olivier Assayas (IRMA VEP, PERSONAL SHOPPER) following a group of friends and lovers as…
Life Is Beautiful (La vita e bella) (1998): Dir. Roberto Benigni
Feat. Roberto Benigni; Winner of both Best Foreign Film and Best Actor Oscars (a first for an actor speaking a foreign tongue) as well as the top prize at Cannes, Roberto…
For Roseanna (Roseanna's Grave) (1997): Dir. Paul Weiland
Feat. Mercedes Ruehl, Jean Reno; Terminally–ill Mercedes Ruehl's dying wish is to be buried in the local cemetary, but the plots are filling up fast, thus sending off her…
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…
Le Bonheur Est Dans Le Pre (Happiness Is in the Field) (1997): Dir. Etienne Chatiliez
Feat. Michel Serrault, Carmen Maura; The director of TATIE DANIELLE puts a sly new twist on that most reliable of French film conceits – the 'imposter' genre. Grouchy…
Ma Vie En Rose (1997): Dir. Alain Berliner
Feat. George Du Fresne, Michele Laroque, Jean-Philippe Ecoffey…; Confusion envelops an idyllic French suburban household when their youngest son starts believing he is a little girl. Solemn regard for themes of…
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…
Shall We Dance? (Shall We Dansu?) (1997): Dir. Masayuki Suo
Feat. Koji Yakusho, Tamiyo Kusakari; Happiness eludes a successful Japanese salaryman, so he plucks up the courage to attend dance lessons. Hugely popular home and international hit got…
Three Men and a Leg (1997): Dir. Aldo , Giovanni , Giacomo
Feat. Aldo , Giovanni , Giacomo; Slapstick magic from favourite Italian comic trio, Aldo, Giovanni and Giacomo, this frantic yet first rate farce was naturally a box–office…
Western (1997): Dir. Manuel Poirier
Feat. Sergi Lopez, Sacha Bourdo; Soulfully transposing the conventions of the Western to the forlorn landscapes of modern–day Brittany, this road movie owes equal allegiance to…
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.…
Autumn Sun (Sol de otoño) (1996): Dir. Eduardo Mignogna
Feat. Frederico Luppi, Norma Aleandro; Argentine drama following a Jewish woman who pretends to be in a relationship with a Jewish man from Uruguay (Frederico Luppi, CRONOS) to appease her…
Beaumarchais (1996): Dir. Edouard Molinaro
Feat. Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain; Wigs and quippery at the ready, this is 18th century French history conceived in vivacious strokes of social satire and perfumed with a savoury wit,…
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…
French Twist (Gazon Maudit) (1996): Dir. Josiane Balasko
Feat. Victoria Abril, Josiane Balasko; Radiant Spanish star Victoria Abril plays a betrayed wife teased into an affair with a butch lesbian (director Balasko). Many permutations of a very…
God of Cookery, The (1996): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao)
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao); Stephen Chow cooks up a comic storm as a mercilessly ego–centric chef who, in great narrative tradition, is forced to truly earn his title…
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…
Il Ciclone (1996): Dir. Leonardo Pieraccioni
Feat. Leonardo Pieraccioni, Lorena Forteza, Barbara Enrichi; Ribald comedy that holds the local box–office record in Italy, posits a bored accountant in Tuscany whose life hits the fan when a bus filled…
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (1996): Dir. Sadjan Dragojevic
Feat. Dragan Bjelorgrlic, Nikola Kojo; Seen in flashback from a ward in triage, the Bosnian war is portrayed in a riveting counter–play of nihilism and theatre, as a band of Serbian…
Ridicule (1996): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Charles Berling, Jean Rochefort, Fanny Ardant…; Delightful Cesar–winning comedy set in the Court of Louis XVI in 1700s France where the King grants favours to those endowed with only the…
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,…
Chinese Torture Chamber Story (1995): Dir. Bosco Lam; Salacious sex farce in the mould of SEX AND ZEN and EROTIC GHOST STORY, that wilfully pushes the boundaries of good taste, with a measure of…
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…
Rendezvous in Paris (1995): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Clara Bellar, Mathias Mégard, Antoine Basler; A delicately poised triptych framed around three lighthearted tales of philandering men and women. Minor, though quintessential Rohmer dalliance…
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…
Belle Epoque (1994): Dir. Fernando Trueba
Feat. Penelope Cruz, Jorge Sanz; Oscar–winning comedy set in thirties Spain will have you grinning from ear to ear as its young army deserter finds the ultimate sanctuary at…
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…
Cold Fever (1994): Dir. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson
Feat. Masatoshi Nagase, Lili Taylor, Fisher Stevens…; Stylish one–off depicts a Japanese businessman's pilgrimage to Iceland, to where his holidaying parents died. Taking its cues from the…
Drunken Master II (Legend of Drunken Master) (1994): Dir. Lau Kar Leung
Feat. Jackie Chan; Jackie Chan gets comic mileage with the dubious idea that he can only tap into his martial art prowess while pissed as a newt. Jackie continues to…
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994): Dir. Ang Lee
Feat. Sihung Lung, Yu-Wen Wang, Chien-lien Wu; Those that attended Ang Lee's WEDDING BANQUET will want to sample his tasty and sensual comedy about the perennial delights of life – sex and…
From Beijing with Love (1994): Dir. Stephen Chow (Chiao)
Feat. Stephen Chow (Chiao), Anita Yuen; Exceedingly funny James Bond spoof, perhaps the finest Hong Kong export since Jackie Chan. Assigned to retrieve a national treasure from corrupt…
Future Cops (1994): Dir. Wong Jing
Feat. Andy Lau, Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok; Good dumb fun is the pure agenda of this kitsch, kinetic fantasy–comedy based on the popular ‘Streetfighter’ arcade game. On the trail…
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…
Jamon Jamon (1993): Dir. Bigas Luna
Feat. Stefania Sandrelli, Anna Galiena, Juan Diego…; Brazen mix of absurd humour, outrageous melodrama and body fluid, though with all the excitement to be had during the puffing and panting, the climax…
Kika (1993): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Veronica Forque, Peter Coyote, Victoria Abril; A make–up artist juggles the dubious attentions of a porn stud, a philandering crime writer, and a trash TV journo. The perils of media…
Les Visiteurs (Visitors, The) (1993): Dir. Jean-Marie Poire
Feat. Jean Reno, Christian Clavier; Beleaguered, not to mention slobbish, medieval knights Jean Reno and Christian Clavier are plonked down is present–day Paris to duel over…
Sonatine (1993): Dir. Takeshi Kitano
Feat. Takeshi Kitano, Ayo Kokumai, Tetsu Watanabe; Those familiar with 'Beat' Takeshi's films will know what to expect from this latest elegy to gangster violence. His personal demons manifest in…
Sumo Do, Sumo Don't (1993): Dir. Masayuki Suo
Feat. Masahiro Motoki, Misa Shimizu, Naoto Takenaka; Unabashed low–brow comedy about a gang of misfits who tussle it out in a Tokyo University wrestling ring, which also serves as the circle in…
Tango (1993): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Thierry Lhermitte, Philippe Noiret, Richard Bohringer; Left by his wife, Thierry Lhermitte hits the road to track her down with the help of his misogynist uncle, Phillippe Noiret. Hitman Richard Bohringer…
Untold Story, The (1993): Dir. Herman Yau
Feat. Danny Lee, Anthony Wong; Outrageous gross–out thriller that may put you off Chinese food for life – based on the "Eight Immortals Restaurant murders" that took…
Wedding Banquet, The (1993): Dir. Ang Lee
Feat. Dion Birney, Jeanne Kuo Chang, Winston Chao…; A simple white lie gets way out of hand for a gay Chinese–New Yorker when his excited parents fly in from Taiwan to celebrate his 'straight'…
Window to Paris (1993): Dir. Yuri Mamin
Feat. Agnes Soral; A constantly inventive comic fantasy about a group of luckless Russkies who find they can enter gay Paris from a window in their appalling St.…
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…
Dear Diary (Caro Diario) (1992): Dir. Nanni Moretti
Feat. Nanni Moretti; Often hilarious and inspiring film travelogue follows the endearing Nanni Moretti's personal experiences over 18 months. Over three chapters, he…
Delicatessen (1992): Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Marc Caro
Feat. Marie-Laure Dougnac, Dominique Pinon, Karin Viard…; Two former Ad–men splash down with an audacious, darkly comic masterpiece set in a vegetarianist, post–apocalyptic future. Consumed with…
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,…
Johnny Stecchino (1992): Dir. Roberto Benigni
Feat. Roberto Benigni; Celebrated comedian Roberto Benigni, also co–writes and directs this tale of a meek bus–driver mistaken for a notorious gangster. The…
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…
Police Story 3 (Supercop) (1992): Dir. Stanley Tong
Feat. Jackie Chan, Michelle Yeoh; Jackie Chan returns as death–defying maverick cop Ka Kui, while Michelle Yeoh offers some savvy sidekick. From the director of Jackie's first…
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…
Hairdresser's Husband, The (1991): Dir. Patrice Leconte
Feat. Jean Rochefort, Anna Galiena; Everything you may love or loathe about French movies is taken to an (intentional?) extreme in this whimsical venture into the one–track mind…
High Heels (1991): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Victoria Abril; Victoria Abril finds herself accused of murder while trying to fill the 'high heels' of her glamourous celebrity mum. At once ludicrous and enjoyable.
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.
Tatie Danielle (1991): Dir. Etienne Chatiliez
Feat. Tsilla Chelton, Catherine Jacob, Isabelle Nanty…; Brilliantly absurd black comedy about an elderly widow who does her best to make life miserable for her relatives. Tsilla Chelton is irresistible as…
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…
Match Factory Girl, The (1990): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Kati Outinen, Elina Salo; Aki Kaurismaki concludes his "Proletariat Trilogy" with this bleakly ironic fable following the drab fortunes of a factory–worker (Kati…
Nasty Girl, The (1990): Dir. Michael Verhoeven
Feat. Lena Stolze, Hans-Reinhard Muller, Monika Baumgartner; Poignant comedy about an essay prize–winning scholar who creates community havoc when she decides to write about her home town during the Third…
Skinny Tiger Fatty Dragon (Shou hu fei long) (1990): Dir. Liu Chia Liang
Feat. Sammo Hung, Liu Chia Liang, Carrie Ng; Amusing action spoof starring the incomparable Samo Hung as one of a pair of bumbling cops who go on the hunt for drug traffickers in Hong Kong, but…
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…
I Want To Go Home (1989): Dir. Alain Resnais
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Linda Lavin, Laura Benson; Satirical French comedy focused on a washed–up American comic artist who reluctantly visits France for an exhibition, only to run into his…
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…
Leningrad Cowboys Go America (Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses, Total Balalaika Show) (1989): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Jim Jarmusch; Laconic, often funny road movie follows an awful Soviet rock group with outlandish hairstyles across backwater USA. Director is Europe's answer to…
Romuald et Juliette (1989): Dir. Coline Serreau
Feat. Daniel Auteuil, Firmine Richard, Pierre Vernier; French comedy at its very best contrasts the lives of a yoghurt company director and a black mother–of–five cleaning lady who through…
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…
Trop Belle Pour Toi (Too Beautiful For You) (1989): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Josiane Balasko, Carole Bouquet; Car salesman Gerard Depardieu has a beautiful wife, but becomes infatuated with his plain yet passionate receptionist. Insightful, melancholy comedy.
Ariel (1988): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Turo Pajala, Susanna Haavisto, Matti Pellonpaa; A redundant miner takes his newly acquired Thunderbird to Helsinki in search of financial and emotional security, but is hampered with rotten luck. A…
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…
Dragons Forever (1988): Dir. Sammo Hung, Corey Yuen
Feat. Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Biao Yuen; Final martial–arts rumble for the 'three brothers' team of Chan, Hung and Biao (see PROJECT–A), here playing three spokes in a nefarious…
Kingsajz (Kingsize) (1988): Locked inside an abandoned library basement, tiny dwarfs work hard to maintain their all–male dwarf commune. When a scientist synthesizes…
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…
Police Story 2 (1988): Dir. Jackie Chan
Feat. Jackie Chan, Maggie Cheung; Jackie Chan directs this follow–up to his landmark hit, playing a demoted detective who must use his wiles to track down bomb–scare…
Women On the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Carmen Maura; Speedy sparkling slapstick from Almodovar, in which pregnant Carmen Maura is dumped by her boyfriend, harassed by his suicidal ex–wife and…
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…
Boyfriends and Girlfriends (My Girlfriend's Boyfriend) (1987): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Emmanuelle Chaulet, Sophie Renoir; Through a series of deceptions and misunderstandings, four Parisians come to discover their true feelings for each other. Entrancing tale of…
Intervista (1987): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Sergio Rubini; An easy–going ode to dir. Fellini's early career at Cinecitta Studios, this takes the form of a mock interview–flashback, with the…
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.
Les Fugitifs (1986): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Pierre Richard, Gerard Depardieu; The inept Pierre Richard teams up with the innocent Gerard Depardieu in a madcap criminal escape after a botched bank–job. The situation…
Matador (1986): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Assumpta Serna, Antonio Banderas, Nacho Martinez; Almodovar breaks a few more screen taboos with this erotic black comedy about a bull–fighter and a smart female lawyer who share a morbid…
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…
Millionaire's Express (Foo gwai lit che) (1986): Dir. Sammo Hung
Feat. Sammo Hung, Biao Yuen, Rosamund Kwan; Camp and hysterical genre mash–up, has Samo Hung as a bumbling brothel–owner who entraps a group of millionaire's in his hometown (by…
Peking Opera Blues (1986): Dir. Tsui Hark
Feat. Brigitte Lin, Cherie Chung, Sally Yeh; One of prolific Hong Kong director/producer Tsui Hark's most celebrated films is a genre–blending romp set around the Peking Opera in 1913. A…
Shadows in Paradise (Varjoja paratiisissa) (1986): Dir. Aki Kaurismaki
Feat. Matti Pellonpaa, Kati Outinen, Sakari Kuosmanen; The first film in Kaurismäki's Proletariat Trilogy follows a lonely garbage collector who finds romance with a check–out clerk (Kaurismäki…
Tampopo (1986): Dir. Juzo Itami
Feat. Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ken Watanabe…; A crazy, satirical comedy in which heroine Tampopo and her cronies strive to create the perfect noodle. A wonderful movie full of hilarious madness…
Mr. Vampire (1985): Dir. Ricky Lau
Feat. Ching-Ying Lam, Siu-hou Chin, Ricky Hui…; Influential kung–fu ghostbusting flick is a distinctively Eastern slant on the 'vampire' genre – less like caped Counts, more like…
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…
Police Story (1985): Dir. Jackie Chan
Feat. Jackie Chan, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung; The incomparable Jackie Chan – a mix of Bruce Lee and Buster Keaton – is in prime form here, weaving his brand of sly Asian humour into a series…
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…
When Father Was Away on Business (1985): Dir. Emir Kusturica
Feat. Moreno de Bartolli, Miki Manojlovic, Mira Furlan; A delightful dramedy of social upheaval, set during Yugoslavia’s Tito–Stalin conflict of the 1950s. Kusturica filters the tribulations of…
Comperes, Les (1984): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Pierre Richard, Gerard Depardieu; Pierre Richard and Gerard Depardieu star in this screwball film as two strangers enlisted to help a mutual ex–lover, both thinking they are the…
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…
Wheels on Meals (1984): Dir. Sammo Hung
Feat. Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung, Biao Yuen; The kung–fu trio of Chan, Hung and Biao travel, to Spain for this rambunctious minor classic, in a tale about food–vendors helping out a…
Dark Habits (1983): Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Feat. Cristina Pascual; Red–light denizen on the run, Cristina Pascual holes up in a bizarre, wildly improbable Convent of the Humble Redeemers, frequented by…
Finally Sunday (Vivement Dimanche!) (1983): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Fanny Ardant, Jean-Louis Trintignant; A businessman in trouble with the police over the murder of his wife's lover finds solace in his secretary who decides to investigate the case…
A Good Marriage (Le Beau Marriage) (1982): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Beatrice Romand, Andre Dussollier, Féodor Atkine; An art history student is growing tired of being the mistress of a married painter, then meets a handsome and wealthy younger man whom she vows to…
Impossible Kid, The (1982): Dir. Eddie Nicart
Feat. Weng Weng, Romy Diaz, Nina Sara; Chop–socky sequel with world's smallest spy again coming up another baddie intent to destroy the world. Comical dialogue, and more ball busting…
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 –…
Le Bal (1982): Dir. Ettore Scola; A unique ‘concept ballet’, where a revolving cast of dancers wordlessly act out the 20th century history of France in a ballroom. As…
Aviator's Wife, The (La femme de l'aviateur) (1981): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Philippe Marlaud, Marie Riviere; A young student is devastated when he finds that his girlfriend is cheating on him. In order to find out why she did it, he decides to spy on her and…
For Your Height Only (1981): Dir. Eddie Nicart
Feat. Weng Weng, Yehlen Catral, Carmi Martin…; Schlocky riff on the 007 franchise with pint sized ass–kicker Weng Weng as the world's smallest super spy, Agent 00, doing battle with mad…
La Chevre (1981): Dir. Francis Veber
Feat. Pierre Richard, Gerard Depardieu; Irrepressible comic duo Richard and Depardieu are paired for the first time; here, the chronically unlucky daughter of a businessman goes missing in…
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…
Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians, The (Tajemstvi hradu v Karpatech) (1981): Dir. Oldrich Lipsky
Feat. Michal Docolomansky, Rudolf Hrusinsky, Vlastimil Brodsky…; Cult oddity based on the Jules Verne novel The Carpathian Castle, a sci–fi horror story about a campy count who haunts a house overlooking a…
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…
Amour en fuite, L' (Love on the Run) (1979): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud, Marie-France Pisier; The fifth and final entry in dir. Truffaut's loosely autobiographical 'Anoine Doinel' series. Here, the footloose hero reaches his 30s and a new…
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…
La Cage Aux Folles (1979): Dir. Edouard Molinaro
Feat. Ugo Tognazzi, Michel Serrault, Michel Galabru; A gay couple masquerade as husband and wife for the sake of their son's marriage prospects. Screwball drag comedy was a phenomenal hit worldwide.
Drunken Master (1978): Dir. Yuen Woo Ping
Feat. Jackie Chan; The martial arts comedy that put Jackie Chan on the map tells the tale of a disobedient son learning the art of Drunken Fist Kung Fu in order to stop…
Get Out Your Handkerchiefs (Preparez Vos Mouchoirs) (1978): Dir. Bertrand Blier
Feat. Gerard Depardieu, Carole Laure, Patrick Dewaere; Naive, frustrated husband Gerard Depardieu embarks on an unconventional quest to find his listless wife some happiness, firstly by 'lending' her to a…
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…
Man Who Loved Women, The (1977): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Charles Denner, Leslie Caron, Brigitte Fossey…; Charles Denner plays a dedicated skirt–chaser, who falls in love with women so constantly he is brought to the point of…
Stroszek (1976): Dir. Werner Herzog
Feat. Bruno S., Eva Mattes; Powerful tragi–comedy follows a simple–minded Bruno S to America with a prostitute trying to escape her unsavoury past. The film's…
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…
Seven Beauties (1975): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Shirley Stoler; Wimpish Casanova Giancarlo Giannini is cast wherever the winds of WWII fling him: eventually into a German concentration camp run by Shirley Stoler…
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…
Martha (1974): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Margit Carstensen, Karlheinz Bohm; Addressing his favourite subject, emotional cruelty, Dir. Fassbinder skillfully works a vein of pitch–black comedy in depicting Margit…
Phantom of Liberty, The (1974): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy, Monica Vitti; The great surrealist's penultimate film uses a Chinese–box structure to weave a dream–like tableau of set pieces that waver from to the…
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…
Slightly Pregnant Man, A (1973): Dir. Jacques Demy
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve; Minor, though broadly enjoyable Demy farce partners Mastroianni and Deneuve as expecting husband and wife. The twist? He's pregnant! Gender politics…
Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe / Return of the Tall Blond Man (1973): Dir. Yves Robert
Feat. Pierre Richard, Bernard Blier, Jean Rochefort; A secret service chief arranges for his assistant to investigate an innocent person chosen at random in order to prove him inept. A little dated…
A Gorgeous Girl Like Me (Une Belle Fille Comme Moi) (1972): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Bernadette Lafont, Andre Dussollier; Twisted French black comedy of a licentious, manipulative murderess recounting her sordid past to a green criminology student. Dripping in silly…
Cesar & Rosalie (1972): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Yves Montand, Romy Schneider, Sami Frey…; French romantic drama with Yves Montand and Sami Frey playing contrasting romantic rivals to divorced single mum Romy Schneider. Montand is a coarse…
Discreet Charm of the Bourgeiosie (1972): Dir. Luis Bunuel
Feat. Fernando Rey, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran…; Best Foreign Film Oscar–winner in which six guests convene for a meal they never actually get to eat! Bunuel veers between reality and illusion…
Lo Scopone Scientifico (1972): Dir. Luigi Comencini
Feat. Bette Davis, Alberto Sordi, Silvana Mangano…; Little–known Italian comedy stars Bette Davis as a wealthy, Nora Desmond–esque countess who entices those less fortunate to gamble with…
Seduction of Mimi, The (1972): Dir. Lina Wertmuller
Feat. Giancarlo Giannini, Mariangela Melato; Satirical comedy taking plenty of shots at Italianisms, about a poor labourer who is forced to leave his family in Sicily to take an illegal factory…
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.
Beware Of A Holy Whore (Warnung vor einer heiligen Nutte, The Little Chaos, The City Tramp) (1971): Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Feat. Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Hanna Schygulla; Dubbed Fassbinder's most autobiographical work, this ambiguous comedy investigates relations between a clan of artists attempting to make a film in…
Trafic (Traffic) (1971): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Mr. Hulot's final clownish outing sees him invent a revolutionary motor car which proves to be problematic en route to Amsterdam.
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.
Claire's Knee (1970): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Jean-Claude Brialy; The director's fifth moral tale gained him major international recognition. A curiously droll tale of a middle–aged man's obsession with the…
Domicile Conjugal (Bed and Board) (1970): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Jean-Pierre Leaud; Serio–comic misadventures of Truffaut's alter–ego, Antoine Doinel, an immature father–to–be who is unsettled in matrimonial…
Things of Life, The (Les Choses De La Vie) (1970): Dir. Claude Sautet
Feat. Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Jean Bouise; Golden Palm nominated French comedy focusing on the life of a fatally injured man who upon seeing his life flash before his eyes realizes he must…
Ma Nuit Chez Maud (My Night at Maud's / My Night with Maud) (1969): Dir. Eric Rohmer
Feat. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francoise Fabian, Marie-Christine Barrault; Rohmer's fourth moral tale again presents the idea of a man's romantic dilemma with more than one woman in his life. The wordy philosophising is…
Red Lion (Akage) (1969): Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
Feat. Toshiro Mifune, Shiwa Iwashita; A fine samurai comedy from dir. Okamoto (KILL!), has a luckless soldier (Toshiro Mifune) don a brilliant red hairpiece (thus impersonating a…
Slogan (1969): Dir. Pierre Grimblat
Feat. Jane Birkin, Serge Gainsbourg; Vivacious French romance about a reckless advertising director who throws caution to the wind and abandons his preggers wife to embark on a worldwide…
Bouncing Beauty, The (The Little Bather) (1968): Dir. Robert Dhéry
Feat. Louis de Funès, Franco Fabrizi; A zany and plotless comic gem from France's top comedian, Louis de Funès, distinctive for its hilarious visual gags. Funès plays a maniacal CEO of…
Kill! (Kiru) (1968): Dir. Kihachi Okamoto
Feat. Tatsuya Nakadai; A sharp and blackly comic tale set in 1830s Japan around two bedraggled swordsman – one a former samurai (Nakadai), the other a farmer aspiring…
Mandabi (The Money Order) (1968): Dir. Ousmane Sembene; The first significant film to be made in an African language (Wolof), directed by the 'father of African cinema', Ousmane Sembène. The title…
Firemen's Ball, The (1967): Dir. Milos Forman
Feat. Jan Vostrcil, Josef Sebanek, Josef Valnoha; Early film from the director of AMADEUS and CUCKOO'S NEST is an engaging, off–beat collection of comic vignettes, including a clumsy beauty…
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…
Les Grandes Vacances (The Big Vacation) (1967): Dir. Jean Girault
Feat. Louis de Funès, Ferdy Mayne; French comedy great Louis de Funès plays dictatorial headmaster to his two wayward sons, who rock the boat when sent to England as exchange students.
Playtime (1967): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Tati's satirical vision of modern city life and brutalist architecture is his magnum opus. His alter–ego Mr. Hulot goes about his third…
Thief of Paris, The (Le Voleur) (1967): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Jean-Paul Belmondo, Genevieve Bujold, Marie Dubois; Enjoyable comedy with Belmondo as a young man cheated of his inheritance who in turn develops a taste for thieving. Set in Paris at the turn of the…
Don't Look Now We're Being Shot At (La Grande Vadrouille) (1966): Dir. Gerard Oury
Feat. Andre Bourvil, Gerard Oury, Louis de Funès; Side–splitting war caper turns a downed British bomber over Paris into a hilarious escape from German clutches. One of France’s highest…
Fists in the Pocket (1965): Dir. Marco Bellochio
Feat. Lou Castel, Paola Pitagora, Marino Mase; A ferocious intensity pervades this bitter yet utterly startling tale of a family afflicted with epilepsy, blindness and frustration, unafforded the…
Paris vu par (Six in Paris) (1965): Dir. Eric Rohmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol; Passionate, parochial anthology of New Wave shorts from six of France's best: Godard, Chabrol and Rohmer headline a concoction of Parisian sketches…
Shop on High Street, The (The Shop on Main Street) (1965): Dir. Jan Kadar; A key film of the Czech film renaissance of the 1960s, that explores 'everyday fascism' through the story of a Jewish shopkeeper who mistakes her…
Sucker, The (Le Corniaud) (1965): Dir. Gerard Oury
Feat. Andre Bourvil, Gerard Oury, Louis de Funès; Quintessential French farce finds the affable Bourvil tricked into driving a Cadillac to Bordeaux containing thousands of dollars of jewelry and…
Marriage Italian Style (Matrimonio All'italiana) (1964): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Sophia Loren; This hilarious marriage farce features Sophia Loren as a long–suffering unwedded woman: on her deathbed, she convinces the commitment–shy…
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963): Dir. Vittorio De Sica
Feat. Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni; A compendium of three stories starring Sophia Loren in her luscious prime in three very different roles. Together with Marcello Mastroianni, it…
Boccaccio '70 (1962): Dir. Vittorio De Sica, Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini
Feat. Anita Ekberg, Romy Schneider, Marisa Solinas…; Naughty for the time, this all–star portmanteau film is loosely based on updated versions of the bawdy stories of 14th century writer Giovanni…
Divorce Italian Style (1962): Dir. Pietro Germi
Feat. Marcello Mastroianni, Stefania Sandrelli; Italy’s archaic marital laws – where divorce was still illegal in the sixties – are the star in this devious satire of an unhappy…
Pierre Etaix: Restored Complete Film Works (1961-1971): Feat. Pierre Étaix; A long–overdue collection of film works from French comedy master Pierre Etaix, the delightfully witty clown, comedian and filmmaker whose…
Shoot the Pianist (Shoot the Piano Player) (1960): Dir. Francois Truffaut
Feat. Charles Aznavour, Marie Dubois, Nicole Berger…; Part homage to Hollywood film noir, part love story and part and parcel of the new wave, a down–on–his–luck pianist is drawn into…
Zazie Dans Le Metro (Zazie in the Underground) (1960): Dir. Louis Malle
Feat. Catherine Demongeot, Philippe Noiret; Anarchistic comedy drops the impudent 11yr old Zazie into the care of Uncle Phillipe Noiret and the whirlygig chaos of modern Paris. Adapted from…
Good Morning (Ohayo) (1959): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Shimazu Masahiko, Koji Shidara, Chishu Ryu…; Ozu’s most accessible and scathing film amuses with its deceptively light–hearted tale of two boys’ vow of silence after being refused a…
Giants and Toys (1958): Dir. Yasuzo Masumura
Feat. Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hitomi Nozoe; Japanese satirical comedy about an advertising war between three candy production companies, and a teenage girl who becomes a celebrity after one of…
Mon Oncle (1958): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Monsieur Hulot returns in another gag–laden adventure. His whimsical ways endear him to his nephew, but leave the boy's trendy parents cold.…
Une Parisienne (1957): Dir. Michel Boisrond
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Charles Boyer; Dated yet enjoyably fluffy Bardot comedy, with the sex kitten playing the mischief–making daughter of the French Premier who seduces a cabinet…
Elena and Her Men (Paris Does Strange Things) (1956): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais, Mel Ferrer; Ingrid Bergman plays a Polish princess torn between marrying for love, or wealth, in this slinky, sweet–natured comic romance. Mel Ferrer, Jean…
Her Bridal Night (Mariée est trop belle, La) (1956): Dir. Pierre Gaspard-Huit
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Micheline Presle, Louis Jourdan; Light comedy dating from Brigette Bardot's early years in which she plays a country girl who gets 'discovered' by the Parisian fashion industry and…
Naughty Girl (Cette Sacree Gamine) (1956): Dir. Michel Boisrond
Feat. Brigitte Bardot, Francoise Fabian; A con–artist father leaves his devious minx of a daughter in the hands of a performer who discovers the girl is bent on disrupting his life the…
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…
French Can Can (French Cancan, Only the French Can) (1955): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Jean Gabin, Michel Piccoli, Dora Doll…; Jean Renoir returned to France after 15 years absence to make this vibrant tribute to the Parisian world of his father, the Impressionist painter…
Grandes Manoeuvres, Les (1955): Dir. Rene Clair
Feat. Michele Morgan, Gerard Philipe, Brigitte Bardot; Sophisticated French fare is a battle of the sexes between a notorious womanizer, and the divorcee he’s convinced he’ll be able to seduce and…
Smiles of a Summer Night (Sommarnattens Leende) (1955): Dir. Ingmar Bergman
Feat. Ulla Jacobsson, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson…; An enjoyable, ultimately serious comedy of deception set among the Swedish gentry of the early 20th century who are engaged in a poetic dance of…
Dov'e La Liberta...? (Where Is Freedom?) (1954): Dir. Roberto Rossellini
Feat. Toto, Vera Molnar, Nita Dover; Legendary Italian comic Toto plays a barber who cannot abide the hypocritical society he is thrust into after spending two decades in prison, and…
Peek-a-Boo (Ah! Les belles bacchantes) (1954): Dir. Jean Loubignac
Feat. Louis de Funès, Robert Dhéry; Peppy parody of musical revues, with Louis de Funès's small–town copper finding himself inadvertently cast in an all–singing,…
Mr. Hulot's Holiday (Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot) (1953): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati, Nathalie Pascaud; Jacques Tati fine–tunes the virtues of JOUR DE FETE to create his most eponymous character. The first of four Hulot features follows the…
Flavour Of Green Tea Over Rice, The (Ochazuke no aji) (1952): Dir. Yasujiro Ozu
Feat. Shin Saburi, Michiyo Kogure, Kōji Tsuruta; Dir. Ozu once again explores the subtleties of Japanese family life, this time drawing our attention to the struggles of those in arranged marriages…
French Comedy Greats: Louis De Funès ( Monsieur Leguignon, Lampistel; Peek-a-Boo; The Bouncing Beauty; The Big Vacation.) (1952-1968): Feat. Louis de Funès; Four films starring legendary French funnyman Louis de Funès.
Golden Coach (Le Carrosse d'or) (1952): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Anna Magnani, Odoardo Spadaro, Nada Fiorelli; Dir. Renoir's classic comedy focuses on a group of commedia dell'arte actors in the eighteenth Century and the much–desired central figure of…
Monsieur Leguignon, lampistel (1952): Dir. Maurice Labro
Feat. Yves Deniaud, Louis de Funès; Spirited and screwball–esque, this 'workers' comedy concerns a down–on–his–luck railway labourer who discovers treasure…
White Sheik, The (Sceicco bianco, Lo) (1952): Dir. Federico Fellini
Feat. Alberto Sordi, Leopoldo Trieste, Giulietta Masina; Fellini’s against–the–grain feature debut coaxes the marital problems of a newlywed couple into a light, playful comedy that wasn’t…
Jacques Tati Boxset (Jour De Fete, Mon Oncle, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Playtime, Trafic, Parade) (1948-1967): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; A newly remastered collection of films from the legendary French comedian. Includes Tati's six features, seven rare shorts, and the 2009 documentary…
Jour De Fete (1947): Dir. Jacques Tati
Feat. Jacques Tati; Jacques Tati established himself as a major new comic as a postman who attempts to modernise his mail service. Such precise visual humour had not…
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…
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932): Dir. Jean Renoir
Feat. Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hania; Renoir's joyfully anarchic attack on the bourgeoisie in which vagrant Michel Simon wreaks emotional havoc in the orderly household that have offered…
Le Million (1931): Dir. Rene Clair
Feat. Annabella, Rene Lefevre, Louis Allibert; An early French musical, so delightful it was to inspire the likes of the Marx Brothers and Charlie Chaplin and even the American Musical as a…
Marius (1931): Dir. Alexander Korda
Feat. Raimu, Pierre Fresnay, Orane Demazis…; Based on the play by revered French writer Marcel Pagnol, this is the first film in the Marseille Trilogy featuring the characters of Marius (Pierre…

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