Comedy Film Festival 2011
14th April, 2010
We want your input for a comedy film festival that we are planning.
Scheduled for 17-20 March 2011, Forest Row Film Society are in the early stages of putting together a film festival. Keen to counter the (partially untrue) idea that all we show are “serious” films, we are looking at creating an event that will be fun and will make us smile and laugh.
We’re looking for ideas for possible films. They can be from any part of the world, and from any part of cinema history, so can include anything from Buster Keaton to Micmacs and much else besides. We can’t guarantee to be able to source all the films you suggest since obtaining screening licences can be very difficult, but we will certainly consider everything.
Let us know if you want to know more, or fancy getting involved in some way. You can also keep in touch by becoming a fan on our Facebook page, or we can add you to our email list.
So, add your suggestions below, ideally with a note explaining why the film is so good, and why it might be able to attract 150 people to the village hall…
Thank you
14th April, 2010 at 12:23 pm
Silent comedies include House on Trubnaya Street (USSR, 1928), and others that have been screened at the Bristol Slapstick festival, the Niles Essanay Film Silent Film Museum’s festival in California, or past presentations at Pordenone.
Or, more recently:
14th April, 2010 at 1:02 pm
I thinks we should do a night of Slapsticks it is excellent and caters for ALL ages!!! (Friday night slapstick night!!!
I will come back with more but I think all the American comedies of the 40′s are excellent: Lubitsch The Shop around the Corner/ Bringing up Baby and all the Cary Grant movies….
14th April, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Yes, some of the 40s classics would be great. Can’t find the Lubitsch or Bringing up Baby at Filmbank, though may be possible via MPLC.
Also worth having a look through the list of comedies available through Park Circus.
If anyone finds any possible titles in any of these catalogues, please can you also indicate which one you found it in
14th April, 2010 at 7:00 pm
In the silent movies Le Chapeau de Paille d’Italie by René Clair is a great classic, and a modern french comedy La Cage aux Folles or Le Gout des Autres. I am going to have a look at the French film Instx
14th April, 2010 at 8:04 pm
I have a DVD of the René Clair, if anyone wants to watch it. It’s about 80 mins, a bit of a slow build, but quite humorous. Arguably more of a silent comedy that will be appreciated by grown-ups.
Cage aux Folles is good value. However, though I love Agnès Jaoui’s other films, I’m afraid Le Goût des Autres didn’t quite hit the mark for me, though I have a DVD of that too if anyone wants to watch it. Maybe I should watch it again….
14th April, 2010 at 10:58 pm
I just thought about a couple of films – quite a mixture…:
Die Puppe (The Doll), Ernst Lubitsch, 1919 (Silent)
Hobson’s Choice, David Lean, 1954
The Exterminating Angel, Luis Bunuel, 1962
M.A.S.H., Robert Altman, 1970
Harold and Maud, Hal Ashby, 1971
The Devil’s Eye, Ingmar Bergman, 1980
Welcome to the Dollhouse, Todd Solondz, 1995
In China they eat Dogs, Lasse Spang Olsen, 1999 Denmark (heard about, not seen myself)
The Straight Story, David Lynch, 1999
Sitcom (1998) / 8 Women (2002), Francois Ozon
The Station Agent, Thomas Mc Carthy, 2003
Bombon, el Perro, Carlos Sarin, 2004 Argentina (haven’t seen it myself yet)
Volver, Pedro Almodovar, 2006 (??)
Broken Flowers/Night on Earth/Down by Law- Jim Jarmusch
May be someone should start collecting all the proposals in a list?
15th April, 2010 at 9:16 am
Great list. I’m also trying to add links from each film title to the relevant entry in the Movie Review Query Engine, though if anyone else knows enough html to do that themselves that will save some time…
The review of In China they eat Dogs from Monsters at Play sounds interesting. Not everyone’s cup of tea, but possibly a late-nighter.
I like the Jim Jarmusch as well, but what about Stranger than Paradise? Very low key and deadpan, but I remember really loving it when it came out (though I was only 20, so it may look rather different to me now). Worth it for the Screaming Jay Hawkins alone.
15th April, 2010 at 6:34 pm
Sounds great. Keep us in the loop.
16th April, 2010 at 8:53 am
Death at a Funeral British black humour……is good
Station Agent I do not find funny at all I LOVE Jim Jarmusch Stranger than Paradise excellent and also Husbands. I like them all actually wrote a 10 page article on Husbands that was published, if any use for the festival, damn it is in French! I wish I could write as well in English might try…… All the Almodovar movies are funny in some way but many have seen them…..
PS Emailed all my foreign friends for suggestionsx
16th April, 2010 at 8:55 am
The Monster Roberto Begnini
16th April, 2010 at 10:48 am
Also all the Italian comedies of Dino Risi in Italy like I am photogenic and the films of Toto …always funny.
16th April, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Suzanne Hillen suggests the Dutch film by Bert Haanstra: Water
18th April, 2010 at 9:22 pm
My Iranian friend Leila recommends the Iranian film Max !
Apparently a very big success in Iran and hilarious. She has a copy and will give it to me to watch this week. x
21st April, 2010 at 9:54 am
Please show Micmacs as I missed it first time around and love the trailer! Also, any Jaques Tati back catalogue would be great, although Traffic was disappointing.
Thanks
25th April, 2010 at 5:10 pm
A wonderful 25-min. short animation film by the young polish director Izabela Plucinska (winner of the shortfilm section of the Berlinale in 2006 with “jam session”): “Esterhazy”. The Polish Film Festival in London showed it together with Bartek Konopkas “Rabbit a la Berlin” (50min.). Both stories about rabbits and the downfall of the Berlin Wall.
http://www.tricycle.co.uk/current-programme-pages/cinema-program/cinema/rabbit-a-la-berlinesterhazy-double-bill-plus-qa/
26th April, 2010 at 11:58 am
Great suggestions. Cathie, can you find out any more about the Dutch and Iranian films, please, since I can’t find them on IMDB.
The committee went to the ICO screening days a week ago and two possibilities are:
and there was also the short film The Finger Trap.
26th April, 2010 at 10:29 pm
Muriel’s Wedding
Strictly Ballroom
two Australian films recommended by my Australian friend! I am watching the Iranian films…x
1st May, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Suggested last night: La Grande Vadrouille, the most successful French film of the 60s. WW2-set caper, inspring countless other wartime comedies since. Elements of Allo, Allo as well
7th May, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Also Armando Iannucci’s In the Loop, political satire on run up to Iraq war. Reviewed in Independent and Time Out.
And, the new Chris Morris feature, Four Lions; some of the committee saw this in preview recently and didn’t like it, but it has had some great reviews and, though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, does look very funny.
8th May, 2010 at 9:30 pm
I really like the trailer, Brad!
A japanese friend, Tomo, suggested a couple of japanese comedies. But I only could find two on the net and I havn’t seen any of them:
shiko-funjatta(sumo), 1992 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105388/
megane(glasses), 2007 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1016307/
Sabine suggested the Italian/French comedy series Don Camillo & Peppone (a priest-Fernandel-against a mayor in a small Italian village)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043918/
I saw them all in my childhood – funny, simple, italian!
20th May, 2010 at 1:15 pm
Suggested to me last night, one of the classic bits of 80s Hollywood, Airplane:
2nd June, 2010 at 5:20 pm
How about Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole in How to Steal a Million?
6th June, 2010 at 12:17 pm
The festival will start on St Patrick’s Day, so we could kick off with an Irish film. Waking Ned (released in US as Waking Ned Divine) was suggested to me last night. Sounds a charming comedy from 1998. See reviews from Roger Ebert and the NY Times.
7th June, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Of course I realise I may be looking back in a somewhat rose-tinted way but I have quite fond memories of Hal Roach’s ‘Our Gang’ 1930s short comedies which were shown on TV during the 50s. Not sure if they’re available – possibly from Warner Bros.?? Has anyone else seen them?
11th June, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Hi Patrick. I’ve not seen any myself, but I know Fred mentioned them at the AGM. The piece on Wikipedia about the series is a useful introduction, not only about the production history, but also about the rights and DVD availability. There also appears to be quite a few of varying quality on Youtube. Clearly, there’s rather a large number of them to choose from, but maybe you and Fred could do a bit of research to find out which are the best, and which can easily be obtained on DVD (there are several available on Amazon, though they all appear to be in NTSC format, which is fine for the village hall equipment, but may not be for you).
11th June, 2010 at 8:56 pm
And, the essential film that we MUST show is The Life of Brian.
This was banned in Plymouth when I was growing up, so we really have to screen it.
11th June, 2010 at 10:31 pm
There’s also a useful list of French comedies on the Films de France site. Can anyone recommend any of them?
18th June, 2010 at 4:37 pm
Some suggestions from over on our Facebook site:
Brazil
Monkey Business (Marilyn Monroe and Cary Grant rather than the Marx Brothers) I don’t know it but the reviews I’ve seen are great, so I’ll check it out
The Seven Year Itch
6th September, 2010 at 2:59 pm
Rather belatedly, some suggestions from the meeting on 8th July:
27th September, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Italian excellent comedy Divorce by pietro Germi and La Chevre French comedy by F Veber
27th September, 2010 at 1:12 pm
Monkey Business etc have been seen so much not good I agree with Cluny Brown! Excellent. Life of brian good as well we must have one of the Monty Pythons.
12th October, 2010 at 7:59 am
“The French Kissers,” with Alice Trémolière, left, and Vincent Lacoste, isn’t just another teen comedy. It’s “just so original and so surprising,
Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/06/18/2828232/sacramento-french-film-festival.html#ixzz127pjtGzb
Can we get this new Franch film a comedy about teenagers wh had a lot of Praise.
17th October, 2010 at 11:06 am
More suggestions from the meeting on 14 October:
Britannia Hospital: Lindsay Anderson’s satire on 80s Britain
Clueless
The General: Buster Keaton’s masterpiece
School for Scoundrels: Robert Hamer’s last film
The Odd Couple: Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau
Raising Arizona: Superb Coen Brothers
The Firemen’s Ball: Milos Forman
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Withnail and I: A possible late nighter?
A Fish Called Wanda
Barton Fink
Dumb and Dumber
Kingpin
Shaun of the Dead
A Charlie Chaplin
A Harry Langdon
18th October, 2010 at 10:53 am
And another suggestion: Groundhog Day
18th October, 2010 at 10:59 am
Today, the Guardian has listed its top 25 comedy films. Now, there’s no silents and nothing in another language, still, this is the list: