Top up your watchlist... 19 foreign-language comedies
Laugh your way around the world with this selection of international comedies – all available to watch with a free 14-day trial on BFI Player. How many have you seen?
Boccaccio ’70 (1962)
Directors: Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica and Mario Monicelli
Four of the greatest Italian directors – Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica and Mario Monicelli – join forces with show-stoppers Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg and Romy Schneider in a carousel of sex and satire mocking the mores of 60s Italian society.
Daisies (1966)
Director: Vera Chytilová
Two self-confessed hedonists wreak wanton havoc in Věra Chytilová’s visually spectacular neo-dadaist farce.
Delicatessen (1991)
Directors: Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro
Jeunet and Caro’s endlessly inventive and wildly enjoyable post-apocalyptic black comedy, about a sinister butcher and the circus clown who becomes his nemesis.
For Love’s Sake (2012)
Director: Takashi Miike
Takashi Miike’s awesome riff on Romeo and Juliet, done as a pop musical stuffed with golden oldies from the 60s.
Good Morning (1959)
Director: Yasujiro Ozu
A Tokyo suburb buzzing with gossip is the backdrop to Yasujiro Ozu’s cheerful comedy, in which two brothers take a vow of silence when their parents refuse to buy them a TV.
How to Use Guys with Secret Tips (2013)
Director: Wonsuk Lee
This hyperkinetic Korean comedy for the #MeToo era follows Bo-na, a dorky girl lacking social skills, self-confidence or any shred of fashion sense. That is until she discovers a secret video manual called ‘How to Use Men’…
Intimate Lighting (1965)
Director: Ivan Passer
This wonderfully subtle comedy of provincial life is the debut film of the great director Ivan Passer (Cutter’s Way) and one of the signature works of the Czech New Wave.
The King of Escape (2009)
Director: Alain Guiraudie
A film about tractors, aphrodisiacs and forbidden love from Alain Guiraudie, the Cannes award-winning director of Stranger by the Lake.
La Règle du jeu (1939)
Director: Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir’s depiction of an intransigent society teetering towards disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s most vital films.
La Grande Bouffe (1973)
Director: Marco Ferreri
Marco Ferreri’s provocative and controversial satire about four friends who retreat to a country mansion with the intention of eating themselves to death.
Mammuth (2010)
Directors: Benoît Delépine and Gustave de Ververn
Legendary actor Gérard Depardieu is at his most uninhibited as an abattoir worker who hits the road with wild abandon.
Sawako Decides (2010)
Director: Yuya Ishii
Sawako tries to save her father’s ailing clam-packing business, but it’s an uphill struggle, in Yuya Ishii’s joyous, nuanced, comic drama.
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)
Director: Ingmar Bergman
Ingmar Bergman’s Cannes prize-winning comedy assembles various couples in a country house in 1900.
The Machine That Kills Bad People (1952)
Director: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini’s film about a photographer who is given the power to rid the Earth of ‘evil-doers’.
The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque (1993)
Director: Eric Rohmer
Eric Rohmer’s needle-sharp satire of a mayor whose plans to build a provincial arts centre are scuppered by a local teacher.
Vulgaria (2012)
Director: Pang Ho-cheung
Pang Ho-cheung’s wild, ribald comedy about a Hong Kong movie producer who will do anything to get his projects off the ground.
The Wayward Cloud (2005)
Director: Tsai Ming-liang
Tsai Ming-Liang’s outrageous blend of sex, comedy, musical and drama is a daring, controversial and hilarious smorgasbord from one of Taiwan’s most acclaimed directors.
The Woodsman and the Rain (2011)
Director: Shûichi Okita
A redneck lumberjack is recruited to work on a rookie producer’s inane zombie movie, in this hilarious movie-making satire.
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)
Director: Vittorio De Sica
The irrepressible Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves) directs this Oscar-winning film of three comic tales of love and sex in three cities.
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