144 articles
A Century's End (세기말)
A Century's End (세기말), Fin de Siecle (Segimal), is a 1999 South Korean drama by Song Neung-han in four linked chapters (Moratorium, Immorality, Moral Hazard, Y2K), starring Kim Gap-su, Cha Seung-won, and Lee Jae-eun, depicting late-1999 Seoul life.
A New Leaf
A New Leaf (1971) is Elaine May's directorial debut, a Paramount black comedy based on Jack Ritchie's "The Green Heart," starring Walter Matthau as a broke playboy who marries heiress botanist Henrietta Lowell (May) to murder her; recut from three hours to 102 minutes, it joined the National Film Registry in 2019.
Adam & Paul
Adam & Paul is a 2004 Irish dark comedy, Lenny Abrahamson's debut feature, written by and starring Mark O'Halloran with Tom Murphy, following two Dublin heroin addicts through one day; it won Galway and IFTA awards and became a cult film.
Bad Boy Bubby
Bad Boy Bubby: 1993 Australian-Italian black comedy-drama by Rolf de Heer, starring Nicholas Hope as a man confined 35 years by his abusive mother. Won five Venice prizes, four AFI awards; binaural sound, 32 cinematographers, cult status.
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths (Bardo, falsa crónica de unas cuantas verdades) is a 2022 Mexican comedy-drama by Alejandro González Iñárritu for Netflix, starring Daniel Giménez Cacho as filmmaker Silverio Gama; 159 minutes, shot on 65mm by Darius Khondji, Venice premiere 2022, Metascore 55, one Oscar nomination.
Barking Dogs Never Bite (플란다스의 개)
Barking Dogs Never Bite (플란다스의 개, Flandersui Gae) is Bong Joon-ho's 2000 South Korean debut feature, a dark comedy in which lecturer Yun-ju (Lee Sung-jae) dognaps apartment dogs while office worker Hyun-nam (Bae Doona) investigates the disappearances.
Big Shot's Funeral (大腕)
Big Shot's Funeral (大腕) is Feng Xiaogang's 2001 Chinese comedy in which Ge You stages an ad-sponsored "comedy funeral" for comatose director Donald Sutherland; a China-US co-production that won the Hundred Flowers Award.
Black Cannon Incident (黑炮事件)
The Black Cannon Incident (黑炮事件) is a 1986 Chinese satirical film, Huang Jianxin's debut, adapted from Zhang Xianliang's novella; a lost chess piece triggers suspicion of engineer Zhao Shuxin, starring Liu Zifeng, Golden Rooster Best Actor winner.
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, also called simply Borat, is a 2006 mockumentary comedy by Larry Charles starring Sacha Baron Cohen as fictional Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev; it grossed over $261 million, won a Golden Globe, and was banned in Kazakhstan and Russia.
Buffet Froid
Buffet froid is a 1979 French black comedy by Bertrand Blier, his fifth feature, starring Gérard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, and Jean Carmet as killers in a deserted Paris; it won the 1980 César for Best Screenplay.
Casa de Mi Padre
Casa de Mi Padre is a 2012 American Spanish-language comedy-western starring Will Ferrell as a Mexican rancher, directed by Matt Piedmont as a parody of telenovelas.
Classmates Minus
Classmates Minus (同學麥娜絲) is a 2020 Taiwanese dark comedy by Huang Hsin-yao, adapted from his documentary Hu Lian San Xiao, about four middle-aged high school friends; it won three Golden Horse Awards and streamed on Netflix from February 2021.
Cow (斗牛) (2009 film)
Cow (斗牛, Dou niu) is Guan Hu's 2009 Chinese black-comedy war film starring Huang Bo and Yan Ni, about a Shandong farmer guarding a Dutch dairy cow in 1940; it premiered at Venice's Orizzonti and won Huang Bo the Golden Horse Best Actor award.
Crazy Stone
Crazy Stone (疯狂的石头) is Ning Hao's 2006 Chinese black-comedy caper about thieves and a factory guard fighting over a jade found in Chongqing; a roughly 3 million yuan Andy Lau-backed production that earned about 23 million yuan and won the Golden Horse Best Original Screenplay.
Crimes of the Heart
Crimes of the Heart is Beth Henley's 1979 dramatic comedy about the Magrath sisters in Hazlehurst, Mississippi; it won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, ran 535 Broadway performances, and became a 1986 Bruce Beresford film with Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, and Sissy Spacek.
Crows and Sparrows (乌鸦与麻雀)
Crows and Sparrows (乌鸦与麻雀, Crow and Sparrow) is a 1949 Kunlun Film Company satirical comedy directed by Zheng Junli, written by Chen Baichen and others, starring Zhao Dan, about Shanghai tenants resisting the KMT official who seized their house; awarded first prize in 1957 after Zhou Enlai's intervention.
Death by Hanging (絞死刑)
Death by Hanging (絞死刑, Koshikei) is Nagisa Oshima's 1968 Japanese black-and-white satire in which a zainichi Korean man, based on the 1958 Komatsugawa case, survives his execution; a Brechtian ATG New Wave film on capital punishment and anti-Korean discrimination.
Delicatessen (1991 film)
Delicatessen (1991) is a French black comedy and the feature debut of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, set in post-apocalyptic France where a butcher sells human meat to his tenants; it won four César Awards in 1992.
Der Knochenmann
Der Knochenmann (The Bone Man) is a 2009 Austrian black-comedy crime thriller by Wolfgang Murnberger, the third Wolf Haas Brenner adaptation, starring Josef Hader as a debt collector investigating a Styrian fried-chicken inn.
Design of Death
Design of Death (杀生, Sha sheng) is a 2012 Chinese dark comedy-mystery by Guan Hu, starring Huang Bo, Simon Yam, and Alec Su, about a doctor investigating a villager's staged death in Longevity Town; it won two 2012 Golden Horse Awards.
Divided We Fall
Divided We Fall (Musíme si pomáhat) is a 2000 Czech war tragicomedy by Jan Hřebejk and Petr Jarchovský in which a childless couple hides a Jewish escapee under Nazi occupation; it won five Czech Lions and earned a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination.
Divorce Italian Style
Divorzio all'italiana (Divorce Italian Style), 1961 Pietro Germi black comedy with Marcello Mastroianni; a Sicilian baron plots an honor killing since divorce was illegal; Oscar-winning screenplay, Cannes 1962.
Divorcing Jack
Divorcing Jack: 1998 black comedy thriller directed by David Caffrey, adapted by Colin Bateman from his own novel, starring David Thewlis as Belfast columnist Dan Starkey in a near-future independent Northern Ireland.
Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World
Nu aștepta prea mult de la sfârșitul lumii (Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World), Radu Jude's 2023 Romanian satire starring Ilinca Manolache and Nina Hoss; Locarno Special Jury Prize winner and Romania's 2024 Oscar submission.
Eating Raoul
Eating Raoul is Paul Bartel's 1982 American black comedy, also called a cult dark comedy, in which Paul and Mary Bland kill swingers with a skillet to fund a restaurant, with Robert Beltran as Raoul.
El Crimen Perfecto
El Crimen Perfecto, released as Crimen ferpecto and internationally as Ferpect Crime, is a 2004 Spanish-Italian black comedy directed by Álex de la Iglesia about department-store salesmen.
El Infierno
El Infierno (Hell) is a 2010 Mexican black-comedy satire by Luis Estrada about a deported migrant, El Benny, who joins the drug trade; it won the 2011 Ariel de Oro and was Mexico's second most-watched domestic film of 2010.
El Verdugo
El Verdugo (The Executioner) is a 1963 Spanish-Italian black comedy by Luis García Berlanga, scripted with Rafael Azcona and Ennio Flaiano, in which an undertaker marries an executioner's daughter and inherits the garrote job to keep a state apartment; it won FIPRESCI at Venice 1963.
Ensayo de un Crimen
Ensayo de un crimen, also known as La vida criminal de Archibaldo de la Cruz, is a 1944 Mexican crime novel by Rodolfo Usigli and Luis Buñuel's 1955 film adaptation about a wealthy man who believes he is fated to commit the perfect murder.
Entre Tinieblas
Entre Tinieblas (Dark Habits) is Pedro Almodóvar's 1983 Spanish comedy-drama, his third feature, about bolero singer Yolanda Bell hiding in a convent of drug-using nuns; premiered at Venice, released 3 October 1983.