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Comedy Genius

Celebrating a world of side-splitting cinema, from slapstick legends to today's anarchic voices.

Fooling about became a fine art through the early decades of cinema, but comedy genius is too often under-recognised.

It’s the gift of perfect timing, an expertly executed sight-gag, a zinging wise-crack, a giddy rush of manic energy. Whether perfectly choreographed, brutally raw, or conjured out of improvisation and collaboration, the best comedy is ultimately disruptive.

It punctures pomposity, and blows a raspberry at social convention: the proto-feminist whiplash of screwball wit, the rambunctious working-class revolt of Carry On, the purposeful anarchy of alternative comedy.

 

Our Subscription collection highlights funny films from around the world, including great comedies from esteemed directors (Ingmar Bergman, Roberto Rossellini, Tsia Ming-liang), and some of the cynical and subversive works produced amid challenging political climates (Daisies, The Cremator, Dogtooth). Altogether we hope it upends perceptions about the English-language dominance of film comedy.

With a collection that ranges from silent slapstick heroes to contemporary satire, BFI Player celebrates the changing face of what – and who – we find funny.

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Delicatessen Delicatessen

Comedy 1990 100 mins Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

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.

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Computer Chess Computer Chess

Comedy 2013 91 mins Director: Andrew Bujalski

Andrew Bujalski’s hilarious and surreal comedy about the birth of computer culture, set in an early 1980s conference where primitive programmers take on chess masters.

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Blithe Spirit Blithe Spirit

Comedy 1945 96 mins Director: David Lean

A séance results in a man’s first wife returning from the dead in Noël Coward’s wonderful comedy.

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The General The General

Comedy 1926 79 mins Silent Director: Buster Keaton and Clyde Bruckman

Buster Keaton's masterpiece is widely and rightly regarded as one of the greatest comedies ever made.

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Steamboat Bill, Jr. Steamboat Bill, Jr.

Comedy 1928 71 mins Director: Charles F. Riesner

Waterway hi jinks abound in this Buster Keaton classic, in which he plays the reluctant heir to his father's paddle steamer business.

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Sherlock Jr. Sherlock Jr.

Comedy 1924 45 mins Director: Buster Keaton

Buster Keaton's superb, sophisticated silent comedy in which he dreams himself into the movie he's watching, in order to win back his girl.

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The Woodsman and the Rain The Woodsman and the Rain

Comedy 2011 128 mins Director: Shûichi Okita

A redneck lumberjack is recruited to work on a rookie producer's inane zombie movie, in this hilarious movie-making satire.

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The Living Wake The Living Wake

Comedy 2007 92 mins Director: Sol Tyron

Accompanied by his faithful assistant Mills (Jesse Eisenberg), self-proclaimed genius K. Roth Binew (Mike O’Connell) decides to go out in style following a terminal prognosis – staging a living wake.

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Dogtooth Dogtooth

Drama 2009 93 mins Director: Yorgos Lanthimos

Yorgos Lanthimos' scary, witty tale of a dysfunctional Greek family is original, ingenious and sadly relevant as a study of parent-child relationships

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Vulgaria Vulgaria

Comedy 2012 93 mins Director: Pang Ho-Cheung

Ho-Cheung Pang's wild, ribald comedy about a Hong Kong movie producer who will do anything to get his projects off the ground.

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For Love's Sake For Love's Sake

Musical 2012 134 mins Director: Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike's awesome riff on Romeo and Juliet, done as a pop musical stuffed with golden oldies from the 60s.

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The Wayward Cloud The Wayward Cloud

Comedy 2004 114 mins Director: Tsai Ming-liang

Ming-Liang Tsai's outrageous blend of sex, comedy, musical and drama is a daring, controversial and hilarious smorgasbord from one of Taiwan's most acclaimed directors.

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Marriage Italian Style Marriage Italian Style

Comedy 1964 97 mins Director: Vittorio De Sica

Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni are irrepressible as a long-married couple in this exquisite and timeless comedy of our all-too-human foibles.

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Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Comedy 1963 118 mins Director: Vittorio De Sica

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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Boccaccio '70 Boccaccio '70

Anthology 1962 204 mins Director: Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti, Vittorio De Sica and Mario Monicelli

Four of the greatest Italian directors – Fellini, Visconti, De Sica and Monicelli – join forces with show-stoppers Sophia Loren, Anita Ekberg and Romy Schneider in a carousel of sex and satire mocking the mores of Italian '60s society.

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Listen Up Philip Listen Up Philip

Drama 2014 109 mins Director: Alex Ross Perry

Jason Schwartzman is a hotshot writer with pathological intimacy problems in this caustic comedy of over-achievement.

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Who Loves the Sun Who Loves the Sun

Comedy 2006 94 mins Director: Matt Bissonnette

Lukas Haas and Adam Scott play two old friends with a tempestuous history in this delightfully witty character comedy.

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Dark Horse Dark Horse

Comedy 2011 86 mins Director: Todd Solondz

Todd Solondz directs Selma Blair and Jordan Gelber in this delightfully dark satire as romance blooms between a toy collector and a depressed woman.

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Daisies Daisies

Comedy 1966 73 mins Director: Věra Chytilová

Two self-confessed hedonists wreak wanton havoc in Věra Chytilová's visually spectacular neo-dadaist farce.

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The Cremator The Cremator

Comedy 1968 96 mins Director: Juraj Herz

This story of a professional cremator whose increasingly deranged impulses are given free reign during Prague's Nazi occupation, is a brilliantly chilling mix of Dr Strangelove and Repulsion.

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Intimate Lighting Intimate Lighting

Drama 1965 71 mins 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.

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La Grande Bouffe La Grande Bouffe

Comedy 1973 130 mins 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.

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Louise - Michel Louise - Michel

Comedy 2008 94 mins Director: Benoît Delépine and Gustave K/vern

French anarcho-surrealist directors de Ververn and Delépine (Aaltra) present this outré odd-couple comedy about a factory worker out for revenge and the inept hitman she bonds with.

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The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque The Tree, the Mayor and the Mediatheque

Drama 1993 111 mins 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.

Rent for £3.50

King of Escape King of Escape

Comedy 2009 90 mins Director: Alain Guiraudie

A film about tractors, aphrodisiacs and forbidden love from Alain Guiraudie, the Cannes award-winning director of Stranger by the Lake.

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Mammuth Mammuth

Comedy 2010 91 mins Director: Benoît Delépine and Gustave K/vern

Legendary actor Gérard Depardieu is at his most uninhibited as an abattoir worker who hits the road with wild abandon.

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Matinee Matinee

Comedy 1993 99 mins Director: Joe Dante

Joe Dante (Gremlins) directs this affectionate homage to 1950s sci-fi cinema, with John Goodman as a cigar-chomping B-movie producer trying to cash in on the Cuban missile crisis.

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Sawako Decides Sawako Decides

Comedy 2010 112 mins 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.

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Mitsuko Delivers Mitsuko Delivers

Comedy 2011 109 mins Director: Yuya Ishii

An eccentric, pregnant young lady returns to her hometown to help her downtrodden old neighbours, in Yûya Ishii 's strange, whimsical comedy.

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How to Use Guys with Secret Tips How to Use Guys with Secret Tips

Comedy 2013 115 mins 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'...

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Spanking the Monkey Spanking the Monkey

Comedy 1994 95 mins Director: David O. Russell

David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) made his feature debut in 1994 with this biting black comedy, which caused a stir with its incestuous subplot and portrayal of adolescent restlessness.

Rent for £3.50

Amour Fou Amour Fou

Period drama 2014 92 mins Director: Jessica Hausner

Jessica Hausner’s long-awaited follow-up to Lourdes is a devilish anti-Rom-Com in which a German poet seeks mates for a suicide pact.

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The Saragossa Manuscript The Saragossa Manuscript

Fantasy 1965 183 mins Director: Wojciech Jerzy Has

During the Napoleonic wars, a soldier discovers a strange manuscript that reveals endless stories-within-stories. Wojciech Has' opus is a major cult film of the 60s, revered by Luis Buñuel, David Lynch and Jerry Garcia.

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Unrelated Unrelated

Drama 2008 96 mins Director: Joanna Hogg

On a Tuscan break a fortysomething woman finds herself drawn to the company of a group of partying teens, including a young Tom Hiddleston.

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A Change in the Weather A Change in the Weather

Drama 2017 98 mins Director: Jon Sanders

Jon Sanders’ delightfully peculiar, Southern France-set rumination on art and marriage finds Anna Mottram’s actor Lydia reconsidering her life with her demanding theatre director husband.

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The Gigolos The Gigolos

Comedy 2007 94 mins Director: Richard Bracewell

A highly original comedy following a pair of professional male escorts and their interactions with their lonely, over-50s 'regulars'.

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Smiles of a Summer Night Smiles of a Summer Night

Comedy 1955 109 mins Director: Ingmar Bergman

Ingmar Bergman’s Cannes prize-winning comedy assembles various couples in a country house in 1900.

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The Machine that Kills Bad People The Machine that Kills Bad People

Comedy 1952 84 mins Director: Roberto Rossellini and Luciano Emmer

Roberto Rossellini's film about a photographer who is given the power to rid the Earth of 'evil-doers'.

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The Master of the House The Master of the House

Drama 1925 107 mins Silent Director: Carl Th. Dreyer

Carl Theodor Dreyer’s richly detailed tragicomedy of domestic manners is by turns funny, intensely emotional and deeply affecting.

Rent for £3.50

Whisky Galore! Whisky Galore!

Comedy 1949 83 mins Director: Alexander Mackendrick

Ealing's thirstiest comedy: "the longest unsponsored advertisement ever to reach cinema screens"?

Rent for £3.50

Fun at St. Fanny's Fun at St. Fanny's

Comedy 1955 80 mins Director: Maurice Elvey

Ronnie Corbett features in this quick-fire vintage classroom caper, featuring enough old jokes to fill a Christmas cracker factory.

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La Règle du jeu La Règle du jeu

Drama 1939 102 mins Director: Jean Renoir

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.

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Good Morning Good Morning

Comedy 1959 94 mins Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu's cheerful comedy about the silliness of everyday chatter.

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Equinox Flower Equinox Flower

Comedy 1958 118 mins Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Ozu's deft comedy takes an ironic look at the decline of paternal authority.

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I Was Born, But... I Was Born, But...

Comedy 1932 87 mins Silent Director: Yasujirō Ozu

Ozu's silent masterpiece follows two brothers as they try to outwit the local bully.

Rent for £3.50

Penny Points to Paradise Penny Points to Paradise

Comedy 1951 72 mins Director: Tony Young

The first screen outing for Goon Show stars Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe in a cheerful comic escapade set in Brighton.

Rent for £2.50

The Slappiest Days of Our Lives The Slappiest Days of Our Lives

Comedy 1953 73 mins

A young Peter Sellers voices this compilation film of silent slapstick footage, featuring Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy.

Rent for £3.50

Let's Go Crazy Let's Go Crazy

Comedy 1951 33 mins Director: Alan J. Cullimore

Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan shine in a series of sketches and multiple roles, in this madcap mixture of music-hall and anarchic comedy.

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The Rink The Rink

Comedy 1916 25 mins Silent Director: Charles Chaplin

Formidable physical comedy is the order of the day in this dynamic Chaplin short, in which he plays a waiter running rings around an angry customer.

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The Immigrant The Immigrant

Comedy 1917 24 mins Silent Director: Charles Chaplin

One of Chaplin’s most famous early shorts finds the Little Tramp aboard a ship bound for America, mistakenly accused of being a pickpocket.

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Behind the Screen Behind the Screen

Comedy 1916 24 mins Silent Director: Charles Chaplin

Chaplin sends up the movie business itself, playing a scene-stealing actor, David, in constant conflict with a tyrannical studio boss called Goliath.

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