Lists lists lists! Death! Controversy! Cheap shots! A blogathon that so far only Edward Copeland seems to have remembered! (But that gives me some time to work on something myself...) What's to be done? Why not another list?
The Guardian's list of 50 Favourite Comedies (gotta have the spelling right) came out a couple weeks ago, and didn't seem to get the play their 1000 films to see before you die did. I guess that list was comic enough that the next one was superfluous. Anyway - Joseph B. saw it, and posted a list of his favorite comedies, and I, rashly, sort of promised I'd do the same. Well - I suppose two weeks of procrastination is a small thing in the larger scheme of things: so here it is...
Now - I say up front: ranking comedies makes very little sense to me. I don't know what I mean. It doesn't quite mean, films that made me laugh the most - there's more to a good comedy than laughing - there are grinning comedies, smiling comedies, smirking comedies, comedies that make you laugh but you don't want to let people know - so no, not that. And it's not the Best Films that can be called, Comedies. That isn't it either. Though it's involved. It's - both, and a few other things too, when you get down to it. Whatever it is - here goes. These should be considered in order, though after #1, the order is approximate and gets wobblier the further down the list you go. It's a lot more English than my usual listmaking - but comedy requires the real words, all the tones and overtones of the words - and the culture - and... so... Stephen Chiao suffers more than Jacky Chan or Tati... and, in the end, there are a lot of laughs in a lot of films not included, but sometimes you gotta name names...
Duck Soup
The General
His Girl Friday
A Night at the Opera
Bringing Up Baby
Doctor Strangelove...
Some Like it Hot
Twentieth Century
Our Hospitality
Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail
Playtime
Horsefeathers
Blessed Event
I Was Born But...
Trouble in Paradise
The Awful Truth
Lady Eve
Sherlock Jr.
Gold Rush
Bride of Frankenstein
The Producers
Life of Brian
Palm Beach Story
A Hard Days Night
This is Spinal Tap
Top Hat
O Brother Where Art Thou
Platinum Blonde
Seven Chances
Golddiggers of 1933
Good Morning
The Gay Divorcee
Project A Part II
Love Me Tonight
The Freshman (Harold Lloyd, not Matthew Broderick, though that's a very underrated comedy itself)
Bombshell
Celine and Julie Go Boating
It Happened One Night
Modern Times
Young Frankenstein
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
Girl Shy
Safety Last
Beat the Devil
Evil Dead II
Weekend
Jour de Fete
Rushmore
The Shop Around the Corner
City Lights
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2 comments:
I had a feeling this would happen with the Huston blog-a-thon. TheSophomoreCritic e-mailed me a couple weeks ago wanting to know how to promote it because he'd be out of the country until Aug. 5. I suggested leaving a post at the top about the blog-a-thon and that he'd be gone, but he couldn't or didn't do it. Last night, I got an e-mail asking me to add to my post his e-mail address so people could send links, which I did. Still no Huston post on his site though. What can you do?
Very eclectic list, Sam. I have to commend someone who includes a Rivette, a Godard AND a Mel Brooks film in the same list.
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