Film

A Pain in the Ass

Name: A Pain in the Ass
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Released: 1973
Cast: Lino Ventura, Jacques Brel, Caroline Cellier, Jean-Pierre Darras, Nino Castelnuovo

Gangster

A 1973 French comedy about a professional hitman whose assassination job in Montpellier is derailed by his neurotic hotel neighbour. Lino Ventura and Jacques Brel create magic from their fundamental incompatibility: the film is a masterclass in comic timing, building absurdity through character collision rather than gags. Genuinely warm beneath its cynicism.

TMDb rating

3.5

If you liked this

Midnight Run1988

Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin play a bounty hunter and accountant forced together across America. The same buddy-comedy engine: two incompatible men, mounting chaos, genuine affection breaking through irritation. Grodin's whining perfectly mirrors Brel's neuroses.

But It's broader and noisier than *A Pain in the Ass*, with less of the European restraint that makes the original so elegant.

Witness for the Prosecution1957

Billy Wilder's masterpiece about a barrister and his nurse uncovering courtroom deception. Like *A Pain in the Ass*, it's a tightly wound 85 minutes where character tension and plotting are inseparable. A legal procedural built on personality.

But It's a courtroom mystery rather than a comedy, so the tone is grave. If you want laughs, you won't find them here.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three1974

A hitman-adjacent procedural where Walter Matthau's subway dispatcher and Robert Shaw's gang leader fence verbally across the system. Tense, funny, built entirely on dialogue and character. Made the year after *A Pain in the Ass* and cut from similar cloth.

But The violence is sudden and brutal when it arrives. The film doesn't flinch, and neither should you.

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three poster

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Mon Oncle1958

Both are French comedies about a misfit in someone else's world. Both find genuine affection beneath incompatibility. Both trust silence and observation over jokes.

Jacques Tati plays Monsieur Hulot navigating his brother-in-law's gleaming, modern house. A silent (mostly) meditation on incompatibility and kindness. Tati's philosophy is *A Pain in the Ass*'s philosophy: chaos is humanness, order is death, and the best people survive both.

But Almost no plot, almost no dialogue. Tati's visual language is precise but patient. It requires you to stop expecting narrative momentum.

After Hours1985

Martin Scorsese's nightmare-comedy about a programmer trapped in downtown Manhattan with increasingly weird strangers. Same DNA: ordinary person hemmed in by chaos, misunderstanding piling on misunderstanding, the night getting worse and funnier simultaneously.

But It's genuinely unsettling beneath the laughs. Scorsese keeps you off-balance on purpose, which some find irritating rather than entertaining.

PlayTime1967

Jacques Tati's geometric comedy-ballet set in a gleaming, soulless Paris. Like *A Pain in the Ass*, it builds humour from people colliding with systems and each other. Tati's wordless genius in a similar European register, same era, same sensibility.

But It's 124 minutes, completely silent except for ambience, and demands active watching. Tati's comedy is observational, never obvious.

The In-Laws1979

Peter Falk and Alan Arkin as an in-law and a dentist spiralling into international espionage. Another two-hander built on personality collision, with that same escalation of ridiculous circumstances from ordinary discomfort.

But It's American and brassy where *A Pain in the Ass* is French and controlled. Arkin shouts where Brel whispers.

The Ladykillers1955

Five bank robbers posing as musicians rent a room from Marjorie Main's landlady. Confinement, forced proximity, a mark who refuses to be victimised—structurally ancestral to *A Pain in the Ass*. Ealing Studios comedy at its sharpest.

But It's older and much broader. The visual gags feel quaint if you're not already charmed by that register.

The Sting1973

Paul Newman and Robert Redford as con artists. Released the same year as *A Pain in the Ass*, it shares the same 1970s American confidence in character-driven plotting. Every scene is about what these men want from each other.

But It's twice as long and far more concerned with plot mechanics. Elegance can read as coldness if you're watching for warmth.

Tootsie1982

Dustin Hoffman and Bill Murray create chaos through misunderstanding and performance. A film about pretence and personality, built on the idea that proximity forces honesty, however reluctant. The same fundamental warmth.

But It's a mainstream studio comedy with broad strokes. If you love *A Pain in the Ass* for its French restraint, this will feel American and obvious.

Stalker1979

Both believe that character and conversation are the whole story. Both reject plot machinery. Both were made in the 1970s by artists in command of their medium, uninterested in hurrying.

Andrei Tarkovsky's philosophical science fiction: two men and a guide journeying through a mysterious zone. Like *A Pain in the Ass*, it's built entirely on interaction and dialogue. One is a comedy, one is transcendent, but both trust that watching people *be* is more valuable than watching them *do*.

But It's 163 minutes. It moves at the pace of water thawing. Patience is not optional. If you need constant momentum, you will suffer.