144 articles
The Bed Sitting Room
The Bed Sitting Room (1969) is Richard Lester's surreal British post-nuclear-war comedy, adapted from Spike Milligan and John Antrobus's play, starring Ralph Richardson and Rita Tushingham, a 1969 Berlin festival film and 1970 UK box-office failure.
The Butcher Boy
The Butcher Boy: 1997 Neil Jordan film, adapted with Patrick McCabe from McCabe's Booker-shortlisted 1992 novel, about Francie Brady, a boy in 1960s Ireland whose family collapses into madness and murder.
The Coffee Table
The Coffee Table (La mesita del comedor) is a 2022 Spanish black-comedy horror film by Caye Casas, starring David Pareja and Estefanía de los Santos, about a couple whose glass coffee table purchase precedes an offscreen family tragedy.
The Death of a Bureaucrat
Death of a Bureaucrat (La muerte de un burócrata) is Tomás Gutiérrez Alea's 1966 Cuban black comedy, produced by ICAIC, about a nephew exhuming his uncle to recover a labor card needed for a pension; Karlovy Vary Special Jury Prize winner.
The Death of Stalin
The Death of Stalin (2017) is Armando Iannucci's satirical black comedy, adapted from Fabien Nury and Thierry Robin's French graphic novel, about the power struggle after Stalin's 1953 death; starring Buscemi, Beale, Tambor; banned in Russia; Metascore 88.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie) is Luis Buñuel's 1972 French-Italian-Spanish surrealist comedy, co-written with Jean-Claude Carrière, in which six bourgeois friends repeatedly fail to share a dinner; it won the 1973 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Double (2013 film)
The Double (2013) is Richard Ayoade's second feature, a British comedy-drama adapting Dostoevsky's novella, starring Jesse Eisenberg as both Simon James and his doppelganger James Simon, with Mia Wasikowska; premiered at TIFF 2013, released 2014.
The End (1978 film)
The End (1978) is an American black comedy directed by and starring Burt Reynolds as a terminally ill man whose suicide attempts keep failing; written by Jerry Belson, with Dom DeLuise and Sally Field, released by United Artists.
The Executioner
The Executioner (El verdugo, 1963) is a Spanish-Italian black comedy by Luis García Berlanga in which undertaker José Luis (Nino Manfredi) marries executioner Amadeo's daughter and inherits the state executioner's post; Venice FIPRESCI winner, Franco-era satire of capital punishment.
The Exterminating Angel
The Exterminating Angel (El ángel exterminador) is Luis Buñuel's 1962 Mexican surrealist satire in which dinner guests cannot leave a mansion salon; Cannes FIPRESCI winner, first NYFF opener, basis of Adès's opera and Sondheim's Here We Are.
The Family Game (家族ゲーム)
The Family Game (家族ゲーム, Kazoku gēmu) is Yoshimitsu Morita's 1983 Japanese black comedy, adapted from Honma Yohei's Subaru Prize novel, in which eccentric tutor Yoshimoto (Matsuda Yusaku) disrupts the exam-obsessed Numata family; it topped the 1983 Kinema Junpo Best Ten.
The Garage (Гараж)
The Garage (Гараж) is a 1979 Mosfilm satirical comedy by Eldar Ryazanov and Emil Braginsky about a garage co-op meeting where members must choose who loses a garage, based on a real Mosfilm co-op meeting; 28.5 million Soviet viewers saw it after its 10 March 1980 premiere.
The Gazebo
The Gazebo (1959) is an MGM black comedy directed by George Marshall, starring Glenn Ford, Debbie Reynolds, and Carl Reiner, adapted from Alec Coppel's 1958 Broadway play about a TV writer burying a blackmailer under a garden gazebo; Oscar-nominated for costume design.
The Great Buddha+
The Great Buddha+ (大佛普拉斯) is Huang Hsin-yao's 2017 Taiwanese black comedy debut, expanded from his short The Buddha. Night guard Pickle and friend Belly Button watch their boss's dashcam and find a murder; five Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan's 91st Oscars entry.
The Guard (2011 film)
The Guard (2011) is an Irish black comedy-thriller, John Michael McDonagh's directorial debut, starring Brendan Gleeson as Garda sergeant Gerry Boyle and Don Cheadle as FBI agent Wendell Everett; it set the Irish box office record for an independent Irish film.
The Heavenly Kings (四大天王)
The Heavenly Kings (四大天王) is Daniel Wu's 2006 Hong Kong mockumentary debut about the fake boy band Alive, whose staged single-leak prank angered the press; it won Wu the 26th Hong Kong Film Award for Best New Director.
The Hospital
The Hospital is a 1971 American black comedy satire directed by Arthur Hiller, written by Paddy Chayefsky, starring George C. Scott and Diana Rigg; it won the 1972 Oscar for Best Screenplay and the Golden Berlin Bear.
The House of Yes
The House of Yes is a 1997 Miramax black comedy, Mark Waters's directorial debut adapted from Wendy MacLeod's 1990 play, starring Parker Posey as the Kennedy-obsessed Jackie-O in an incestuous twin relationship at Thanksgiving; Sundance Grand Jury Prize nominee.
The Idiots
The Idiots (Idioterne) is Lars von Trier's 1998 Danish Dogme 95 comedy-drama about a commune pretending to be intellectually disabled to find their 'inner idiots', premiered at Cannes 1998.
The Last Circus
The Last Circus (Balada triste de trompeta) is Álex de la Iglesia's 2010 Spanish-French dark comedy-horror film about rival clowns fighting over an acrobat in Franco-era Spain; it won Venice Silver Lions for director and screenplay.
The Magician (1958 film)
The Magician (Ansiktet, "The Face") is Ingmar Bergman's 1958 Swedish black-and-white comedy-drama about mesmerist Dr. Vogler (Max von Sydow) and his troupe tested by skeptical officials in 1846 Stockholm; it won the 1959 Venice jury special prize.
The Missing Gun (寻枪)
The Missing Gun (寻枪) is Lu Chuan's 2002 feature debut, adapted from Fan Yiping's 《寻枪记》, starring Jiang Wen as policeman Ma Shan, who hunts his lost pistol with three bullets in a Guizhou-dialect neo-noir shown at Venice.
The Motive
The Motive (El autor) is a 2017 Spanish-Mexican dark comedy thriller by Manuel Martín Cuenca, adapted from Javier Cercas's novel El móvil, starring Javier Gutiérrez as a failed writer who manipulates his Seville neighbors; FIPRESCI at TIFF 2017 and two Goyas.
The Mouse That Roared
The Mouse That Roared: 1959 satirical comedy directed by Jack Arnold, adapted from Leonard Wibberley's 1955 novel, starring Peter Sellers in three roles as tiny Grand Fenwick declares war on the US to lose, accidentally wins, and captures the Q-Bomb.
The Movie Emperor
The Movie Emperor (红毯先生, formerly Red Carpet) is a 2024 Chinese comedy-drama by Ning Hao starring Andy Lau as a Hong Kong star chasing an award by playing a farmer; premiered at TIFF 2023, released in China February 10, 2024.
The Naked Truth
The Naked Truth (1957), aka Your Past Is Showing, is a British black comedy directed by Mario Zampi, written by Michael Pertwee, starring Terry-Thomas, Peter Sellers, Peggy Mount, Shirley Eaton, and Dennis Price as a blackmailer.
The National Health
The National Health, or Nurse Norton's Affair, is a 1973 Jack Gold film adapted by Peter Nichols from his 1969 National Theatre play, satirizing the NHS by contrasting a rundown London hospital with the soap opera Nurse Norton's Affair, starring Lynn Redgrave and Jim Dale.
The Party (2017 film)
The Party is Sally Potter's 2017 British black-and-white comedy-drama, 71 minutes, in which Janet's promotion dinner party collapses after Bill's announcement; premiered in competition at Berlin 2017.
The Phantom of Liberty
The Phantom of Liberty (Le Fantôme de la liberté) is a 1974 surrealist comedy directed by Luis Buñuel, built as loosely connected episodes without a protagonist.
The Ref
The Ref is a 1994 American black comedy directed by Ted Demme, starring Denis Leary as a burglar who takes a quarreling couple hostage on Christmas Eve.