A selection of films, famed for their decision to throw convention out of the window. This list pays homage to the great surrealist films from the history of cinema.
Source: IMDB
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Date: 2014-08-23
From the book by Jennifer Eiss. The list is arranged by chapter. Each chapter starts with a top 10 (in alphabetical order), followed by the "best of the rest" (in alphabetical order).
#1-83: Dramatic Situatons
#84-133: Gripping Tales
#134-165: Lights, Camera…!
#166-228: Visionary Universes
#229-280: Criminal Underworlds
#281-360: Tales of Terror
#361-432: Cult Humor
#433-453: The Wild Wild West
#454-502: Film Lab
Source: https://www.amazon.com/500-Essential-Cult-Movies-Ultimate/dp/1402774869
This is a list based on the show 'The Movies' on CNN and compiled by a user on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/ct3rer/every_single_movie_mentioned_on_cnns_the_movies/
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Laughs is a list of the top 100 funniest movies in American cinema. A wide variety of comedies were nominated for the distinction that included slapstick comedy, action comedy, screwball comedy, romantic comedy, satire, black comedy, musical comedy, comedy of manners and comedy of errors. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 13, 2000.
Source: http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/laughs100.pdf
Based on the book by Jennifer Eiss
In his Guide for the Film Fanatic (1986), Danny Peary provides short reviews for over 1600 “Must See” films.
104 movies missing. Imported from external source.
HollyWood Movies based on Popularity
AFI's 100 Funniest American Movies Of All Time
Regardless of genre, the films on this list possess a total comedic impact that creates an experience greater than the sum of the smiles. These movies provide laughs that echo across time, enriching America's film heritage and inspiring artists and audiences today.
A wide array of funny films — from slapstick comedy to romantic comedy; from satire and black comedy to musical comedy; from comedy of manners to comedy of errors — were nominated for this distinction.
AFI distributed a ballot with 500 nominated films to a jury of 1800 leaders from the film community, including film artists (directors, screenwriters, actors, editors, cinematographers, etc.), critics, historians and film executives. The jurors were asked to consider the following criteria while making their selections:
Source: http://www.afi.com/100Years/laughs.aspx
All the comedies mentioned in the filmography of the book "Film Comedy" by Geoff King, published in 2002.
"From slapstick to satire and subtle innuendo. From the grotesque to the carefully mannered. From madcap anarchy to the darkly deadpan. Film comedy comes in a wide range of forms. For as long as film has existed as an entertainment medium, so has film comedy. ... Comedy was one of the most popular formats in the early years of cinema and has remained so ever since." (from the introduction to the book)
Missing: Edward Penishands (1991)
Source: https://www.amazon.com/Film-Comedy-Geoff-King/dp/1903364353/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402285691&sr=8-1&keywords=film+comedy
I well remember being taken to Blazing Saddles at the age of 10, when I was far too young to understand most of the jokes. At the same time, I could see how important Blazing Saddles was to my parents and their friends. They quoted from it for months—years—afterward.
As much as savoring a particular joke, I realize now, they were trying to reclaim that initial, joyful shock to the system. There’s not a film on the WGA’s 101 Funniest Screenplays that doesn’t produce such an unexpected jolt, if not a sustained quake, and for the same reasons Blazing Saddles did—by transgressing accepted norms.
One question that this list asks, however: Should a great comedy simply be gauged by the laughter it elicits? “Satire is what closes on Saturday night,” George S. Kaufman famously quipped. A number of the comedies on this list went under-appreciated at the box office and by critics; years, if not decades, had to pass before the work began to receive its due. This was as true for Buster Keaton’s The General as it was nearly half a century later for Harold and Maude, and 30 years after that for Office Space.
The oldest movie on the list is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925), while the most recent is Bridesmaids, released in 2011. The latter also has the distinction of being written by two women—Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, working in slapstick, a genre historically dominated by men. Bridesmaids comes in at no. 16, immediately after When Harry Met Sally, written by the legendary Nora Ephron. Comedy screenwriting has long been a playground that women and writers of color have not had enough time in. The work of Richard Pryor on Blazing Saddles, Tina Fey on Mean Girls, Amy Heckerling on Clueless, and Hagar Wilde, co-writer of Bringing Up Baby, makes you wonder what a list would be if the playground had been more inclusive all along.
In the end, the variety of films on the list—as different as Being There is to Airplane! or Duck Soup is to Fargo—indicates how difficult it is to gauge a great comedy by any set of particular criteria. Better to say the best comedy writers and comedians are like astronauts, launching themselves beyond the ozone layer of the tasteful and the expected in order to find the forbidden or the outrageous or the merely uncomfortable. Whether that produces an outrageous comedy like Mrs. Doubtfire or a satire like Dr. Strangelove, the goal is still provocation. And truth.
Written by Paul Brownfield
2015-11-15
500 Essential Cult Movies: The Ultimate Guide By Jennifer Eiss
by listr