Film
The Closet
A French farce about a man on the verge of being fired who spreads a rumor that he's gay, hoping his employer won't risk a discrimination lawsuit. It's brisk, anarchic physical comedy with real heart underneath—a film that uses absurdity to expose how people perform identity and how fear makes cowards of us all.
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Amélie2001
Whimsical French comedy with the same lightness of touch and genuine warmth. Audrey Tautou's charm carries you through a series of interconnected good deeds in Paris, mixing magical whimsy with very human moments of loneliness and connection.
But The quirkiness can feel calculated, and some find the relentless cuteness exhausting rather than endearing after two hours.
Singin' in the Rain1952
The gold standard of joyful comedy filmmaking. Pure physical comedy, brilliant choreography, and a plot that moves like wind-up clockwork. Genuinely funny, genuinely romantic, genuinely performed.
But It's a musical, so if song-and-dance numbers feel like obstacles rather than destinations, this won't unlock for you.
Three Colors: White1994
Kieślowski's acid-comedy take on France and Poland, with Zbigniew Zamachowski as a man returning to post-communist Warsaw with nothing but humiliation and spite. It's funnier than it sounds, and darker than a pure comedy should be.
But It's European art cinema doing comedy, so patience with mood and silence over punchlines is essential. Not broad.
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The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
M. Butterfly1993
Both hinge on a protagonist whose identity strategy backfires, and both refuse easy judgment—they're interested in why people construct false selves and what they gain from it, not in mocking them.
David Cronenberg adapts Hwang's play about a French diplomat in love with a Beijing opera singer who may not be who he thinks. It's formally audacious, erotically charged, and uses the revelation of identity as genuine tragedy rather than punchline. Irons and Song are extraordinary.
But It's slow-burn drama about gender and performance that demands you sit with discomfort. Not a comedy, and the sexuality is explicit and complex in ways some find difficult.
More like this (7)
The Sting1973
Intricate, propulsive con-artist comedy where two grifters set up an elaborate scheme. Redford and Newman spark brilliantly off each other, and the plot's clockwork is genuinely satisfying when it clicks into place.
But Some of the '70s styling is campy by accident now, and if the con's too Byzantine you'll stop caring who's conning whom.
Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011
A modern ensemble romantic comedy that actually earns its sentiment. Gosling and Carell are wonderful together, the screenplay bounces between tones without losing control, and it's the rare recent film that feels both smart and genuinely moving.
But The happy-ending machine is very obvious if you're not in the mood to be charmed, and some plot strands feel assembled rather than discovered.
Ghostbusters1984
Fast, quotable, perfectly cast. It's a supernatural action-comedy that understands that the best jokes come from character collision and absurdity played straight. Aykroyd and Murray are a masterclass in comedic timing.
But The special effects date it visibly, and if you don't find the ensemble dynamic immediately likable, the whole thing thins out.
Paddington 22017
A film about an immigrant bear that is genuinely about belonging, kindness, and how a community is made. Funny for children and adults differently; impeccably made and suffused with real generosity of spirit.
But It's children's entertainment, so if you need edge or cynicism to feel entertained, its wholesomeness will feel saccharine.
After Hours1985
Scorsese's only real comedy: a man has the worst night of his life in downtown Manhattan. It's kinetic, strange, genuinely suspenseful, and funny in ways that come from escalation and behavior rather than jokes.
But It's deliberately alienating and nightmarish—the humor is uncomfortable and the tone shifts jarringly. Some find it more mean than fun.
Tokyo Story1953
Both are comedies of social discomfort built on class and expectation—the joke isn't on the outsider, it's on society's investment in performance and status. Both are kind to their outsiders.
An elderly couple visits their eldest son in Tokyo and discovers he's distant, busy, and ashamed of their provincialism. Ozu's masterpiece is comedy drawn from the collision between what we expect from family and what we actually get. Quietly devastating.
But It moves at a funeral pace with minimal music and no plot momentum. If you need drive and exterior conflict, this will feel like watching paint dry.
Caché2005
Both are French films about how a lie of omission—about identity, about the past, about what someone is—corrupts everything. Both use the construction and collapse of a false self to ask what we owe to the people we pretend not to see.
Haneke's thriller about a French television host receiving anonymous surveillance tapes that crack open his buried past and his marriage. It's formally austere, morally complex, and uses the viewer's complicity to ask uncomfortable questions about seeing and responsibility.
But It's not a comedy at all—it's glacial, punitive, and deliberately unresolved. Many find it frustrating rather than rewarding, and the emotional payoff is zero.
People
Cast
Daniel AuteuilFrançois Pignon
Gérard DepardieuFélix Santini
Thierry LhermitteGuillaume, the Director of Public Relations
Michèle LaroqueMiss Bertrand
Michel AumontBelone, le voisin de Pignon
Jean RochefortKopel, le directeur de l'usine
Alexandra VandernootChristine
Edgar GivryMathieu
Irina NinovaMartine
Marianne GrovesSuzanne
Michèle GarciaMadame Santini
Luq HametMoreau
Directing
- Francis VeberDirector
Writing
- Francis VeberWriter
Production
- Françoise MenidreyCasting
- Alain PoiréExecutive Producer
- Patrice LedouxProducer
- Henri BrichettiProduction Manager
- Philippe DesmoulinsProduction Manager