Comedy

Amelie

Quiet and reserved, Amelie Poulin spends her days as a waitress at a Paris cafe and entertains herself by playing kindhearted practical jokes on her neighbors, finding love in the meantime.
Genre: Foreign Film - French
Rating: R
Release Date: 14-JAN-2003
Media Type: DVD

Perhaps the most charming movie of all time, Amélie is certainly one of the top 10. The title character (the bashful and impish Audrey Tautou) is a single waitress who decides to help other lonely people fix their lives. Her widowed father yearns to travel but won't, so to inspire the old man she sends his garden gnome on a tour of the world; with whispered gossip, she brings together two cranky regulars at her café; she reverses the doorknobs and reprograms the speed dial of a grocer who's mean to his assistant. Gradually she realizes her own life needs fixing, and a chance meeting leads to her most elaborate stratagem of all. This is a deeply wonderful movie, an illuminating mix of magic and pragmatism. Fans of the director's previous films (Delicatessen, The City of Lost Children) will not be disappointed; newcomers will be delighted. --Bret Fetzer

The Triplets of Belleville

An orphaned boy Champion is raised by his grandmother Madame Souza. Her gift of a tricycle starts a craze for cycle-racing that becomes the cornerstone of their life together. After years of relentless training Champion makes it to the Tour de France the toughest cycling event in the world. Alas Champion and a handful of other top competitors are mysteriously kidnapped by a pair of sinister crooks with hangdog expressions. Supported by her faithful sidekick her fat and flatulent dog Bruno Madame Souza sets off to rescue her beloved Champion. An epic adventure leads them across the Atlantic to a vast seaport metropolis named Belleville headquarters of the notorious French mafia. Lost and confused in the threatening darkness of the great city Madame Souza and Bruno encounter the Belleville Triplettes who in their youth were a glamorous close-harmony act. Now these three batty old women are now a bizarre jazz combo. Mme Souza joins the band. At their very first gig she discovers Champion is being held captive by the mafia Godfather himself! All hell breaks loose and the chase is on! Do Mme Souza her dim dog and the Triplettes have what it takes to outsmart the ruthless French mafia and release poor Champion from its clutches?System Requirements:Run Time: 81 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 043396032316 Manufacturer No: 03231

Words cannot capture the delights of The Triplets of Belleville, an astonishing animated movie from the mind of French director Sylvain Chomet. In fact, there are only a few spoken sentences in the entire film; most of the soundtrack is a mix of squeaks, barks, and the jazzy music of Benoit Charest. A bicyclist is kidnapped from the Tour de France by mysterious gangsters; his grandmother travels to the city of Belleville (which has a sardonic version of the Statue of Liberty in its harbor), where she tracks him down with the help of a musical trio gone to seed, the Belleville Triplets. This hand-drawn movie is unlike anything you'll see from Disney; every scene mixes the silent comedy of Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton--in which the world of objects subtly fights with living beings for mastery--and the bouncy hop of Betty Boop. Unique and mesmerizing. --Bret Fetzer

L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment)

An absolute delight, L'Auberge Espagnole captures a moment in a life, seemingly about nothing and everything all at once. Xavier (Romain Duris), a young Parisian not sure what his life is about, decides to spend a year in Barcelona studying economics--leaving behind his unhappy girlfriend (Audrey Tautou, Amélie) but joining an international mix of students in a hectic, crowded apartment. Arguing and partying with his British, German, Danish, and Italian roommates--not to mention getting lessons in love from a Belgian lesbian (Cecile De France) so that he can seduce a friend's wife (Judith Godreche, Ridicule)--Xavier learns more about life than economics. The movie, beautifully shot on digital video, has a freshness and spontaneity that make its simple events--a series of arguments and flirtations--feel like a miniature portrait of the European Union as it comes into focus (the title can be translated as "Euro pudding"). Vibrant, charming, and all-around entertaining. --Bret Fetzer

Seven sexy co-eds. One Spanish apartment. No rules. A single year of learning turns into an outrageous adventure of a lifetime in this "fresh, captivating comedy" (Newsday) that has audiences and critics cheering around the world! Xavier (Romain Duris) is a straight-laced French college senior who moves to Barcelona as part of a exchange program, much to the dismay of his beautiful Martine (Audrey Tautou). But sharing cramped quarters with students from all over Europe quickly leads to multi-cultural chaos as Xavier gets a hilarious, eye-opening lesson on how to live, love, laugh?and party!

La Dolce Vita (2-Disc Collector's Edition)

At three brief hours, La Dolce Vita, a piece of cynical, engrossing social commentary, stands as Federico Fellini's timeless masterpiece. A rich, detailed panorama of Rome's modern decadence and sophisticated immorality, the film is episodic in structure but held tightly in focus by the wandering protagonist through whom we witness the sordid action. Marcello Rubini (extraordinarily played by Marcello Mastroianni) is a tabloid reporter trapped in a shallow high-society existence. A man of paradoxical emotional juxtapositions (cool but tortured, sexy but impotent), he dreams about writing something important but remains seduced by the money and prestige that accompany his shallow position. He romanticizes finding true love but acts unfazed upon finding that his girlfriend has taken an overdose of sleeping pills. Instead, he engages in an ménage à trois, then frolics in a fountain with a giggling American starlet (bombshell Anita Ekberg), and in the film's unforgettably inspired finale, attends a wild orgy that ends, symbolically, with its participants finding a rotting sea animal while wandering the beach at dawn. Fellini saw his film as life affirming (thus its title, The Sweet Life), but it's impossible to take him seriously. While Mastroianni drifts from one worldly pleasure to another, be it sex, drink, glamorous parties, or rich foods, they are presented, through his detached eyes, are merely momentary distractions. His existence, an endless series of wild evenings and lonely mornings, is ultimately soulless and facile. Because he lacks the courage to change, Mastroianni is left with no alternative but to wearily accept and enjoy this "sweet" life. --Dave McCoy

King Of Hearts

A Scottish soldier is sent to disarm a bomb in a French village that has been evacuated except for the inmates of an insane asylum. He doesn't realize that all his new friends are mentally unstable until he is crowned King.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

This film was a touchstone of the late 1960s, when it was seen as an antiwar allegory for a world in which madness seemed to reign. Of course, that would probably be true whenever this movie was shown, wouldn't it? Directed by Philippe de Broca and set during World War I, King of Hearts stars Alan Bates as a Scottish soldier separated from his unit in France. He wanders into a small French village that has been abandoned by its residents in the face of oncoming combat. Instead, the town is populated by the residents of a nearby insane asylum, whose keepers have fled--a fact that escapes the innocent soldier, who assumes these are the regular folks. A film that celebrates the innocence and wisdom of the insane, even as it questions who the real madmen are. --Marshall Fine

Delicatessen

From Jean-Pierre Jeunet the award-winning director of AMELIE comes a unique and surreal dark comedy that received overwhelming critical acclaim! In a post-apocalyptic society where meat is scarce cannibalism is no longer unsavory. And when a young ex-clown takes a job in a dilapidated deli he's completely unaware that the butcher plans to serve him to the building's bizarre tenants! But when the butcher s nearsighted daughter falls for the clown she'll go to absurd lengths to foil her father's plan! Loaded with tasty bonus features this bonafide cult classic now premieres on DVD!Bonus Features:1. Feature Commentary By Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet2. Fine-Cooked Meats: A Nod To DELICATESSEN3. The Archives Of Jean-Pierre Jeunet4. Theatrical Trailer5. DELICATESSEN TEASERSSystem Requirements:Running Time 99 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 786936694482 Manufacturer No: 04962200

The title credit for Delicatessen reads "Presented by Terry Gilliam," and it's easy to understand why the director of Brazil was so supportive of this outrageously black French comedy from 1991. Like Gilliam, French codirectors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have wildly inventive imaginations that gravitate to the darker absurdities of human behavior, and their visual extravagance is matched by impressive technical skill. Here, making their feature debut, Jeunet and Caro present a postapocalyptic scenario set entirely in a dank and gloomy building where the landlord operates a delicatessen on the ground floor. But this is an altogether meatless world, so the butcher-landlord keeps his customers happy by chopping unsuspecting victims into cutlets, and he's sharpening his knife for a new tenant (French comic actor Dominque Pinon) who's got the hots for the butcher's nearsighted daughter! Delicatessen is a feast (if you will) of hilarious vignettes, slapstick gags, and sweetly eccentric characters, including a man in a swampy room full of frogs, a woman doggedly determined to commit suicide (she never gets its right), and a pair of brothers who make toy sound boxes that "moo" like cows. It doesn't amount to much as a story, but that hardly matters; this is the kind of comedy that springs from a unique wellspring of imagination and inspiration, and it's handled with such visual virtuosity that you can't help but be mesmerized. There's some priceless comedy happening here, some of which is so inventive that you may feel the urge to stand up and cheer. --Jeff Shannon

8 1/2 - Criterion Collection

Federico Fellini's 1963 semi-autobiographical story about a worshipped filmmaker who has lost his inspiration is still a mesmerizing mystery tour that has been quoted (Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, Paul Mazursky's Alex in Wonderland) but never duplicated. Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido, a director trying to relax a bit in the wake of his latest hit. Besieged by people eager to work with him, however, he also struggles to find his next idea for a film. The combined pressures draw him within himself, where his recollections of significant events in his life and the many lovers he has left behind begin to haunt him. The marriage of Fellini's hyperreal imagery, dreamy sidebars, and the gravity of Guido's increasing guilt and self-awareness make this as much a deeply moving, soulful film as it is an electrifying spectacle. Mastroianni is wonderful in the lead, his woozy sensitivity to Guido's freefall both touching and charming--all the more so as the character becomes increasingly divorced from the celebrity hype that ultimately outpaces him. --Tom Keogh

One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (Otto e Mezzo) turns one man's artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is a director whose film-and life-is collapsing around him. An early working title for the film was La Bella Confusione (The Beautiful Confusion), and Fellini's masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the 1963 Academy Award® winner for Best Foreign-Language Film-one of the most written about, talked about, and imitated movies of all time-in a beautifully restored new digital transfer. Disc two features Fellini's rarely seen first film for television, Fellini: A Director's Notebook (1969). Produced by Peter Goldfarb, this imagined documentary of Fellini is a kaleidoscope of unfinished projects, all of which provide a fascinating and candid window into the director's unique and creative process.

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Vittorio De Sica's delightful anthology comedy from 1963 pairs joined-at-the-hip costars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni in three funny stories about sex. The first finds Loren playing an impoverished woman with a jail sentence hanging over her head. A unique loophole in the law, however, keeps her out from behind bars: pregnant women and new mothers cannot be incarcerated. Forestalling her date with the pokey, this incredibly fecund felon keeps bearing children. Her lucky but exhausted accomplice is played by Mastroianni, who can't resist her siren call between deliveries. The middle vignette finds the two actors playing secretive lovers having an affair. Shot mostly from within and around his car, the pair self-consciously quibbles and keeps having comic mishaps that slow their progress. The last story is the cheekiest, featuring Loren as an expensive hooker whose date with a--shall we say "anxious"--Mastroianni is repeatedly broken up by a neighboring seminarian whose commitment to chastity has been rocked since seeing her. This tale includes Loren's famous striptease, the one Robert Altman sweetly parodied in Ready to Wear. --Tom Keogh

Green Card

With the help of his lawyer, Georges (Gérard Depardieu), a composer and one-time petty thief who grew up in poverty, attempts to escape his life in Paris and begin anew in America by illegally marrying Bronte (Andie MacDowell), a prim and repressed young lady from a privileged life in Connecticut. Bronte, who has agreed to the scheme for her own self-serving reasons, is exasperated when the Immigration & Naturalization Service investigates their case, and she and Georges, whom she detests, must spend time together studying each other's lives to avoid disaster. The fallout, and how it ends, is infinitely more delightful than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood romantic comedy, and the very ending itself stops deliciously short of where Hollywood would feel compelled to drag the story. Fine performances are given by MacDowell, Depardieu--who is fiercely charming pounding the keyboard of a Steinway at an upper class Manhattan dinner party--and Bebe Neuwirth, who is perfect as an upper-class child turned artist who revels in her irresponsibility. --James McGrath

In the same romantic spirit as PRETTY WOMAN and GHOST, GREEN CARD lights up the screen with its irresistible charm and lighthearted humor! The fun starts when two strangers (Andie MacDowell, SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE), and Academy Award(R)-nominee Gerard Depardieu (CYRANO DE BERGERAC) agree to a marriage of convenience -- thinking it's going to be hassle-free. She'll get to live in the apartment of her dreams, he'll get a "green card" to live in the U.S. But before they know it, the two opposites encounter far greater differences than most married couples could ever imagine! And worst yet, this mismatched twosome just might be falling love. Winner of two Golden Globe Awards (Best Picture and Best Actor), this delightful tale enjoyed cheers from critics and audiences alike. With its sunny mix of wit, spirit, and charm, GREEN CARD is an entertaining hit you'll never forget!

La Cage Aux Folles

A likable 1977 French farce (and the basis for the 1996 American remake, The Birdcage), this popular comedy was one of the most successful international films of all time, and even spawned a Broadway musical and two sequels. It tells the story of a gay couple who--when one man's son from a previous liaison brings home his fiancée--masquerade as husband and wife for their prospective in-laws. The film is saved from becoming an exercise in silliness by the heartfelt characterizations of the gay nightclub owners. La Cage aux Folles is one of the funniest imports from Europe and a great comedy in any venue. --Robert Lane

One of "the most successful foreign films ever shown in the U.S." (The Wall Street Journal),this "wildly hilarious" (Independent Film Journal) French farce is "giddy, unpretentious andan entirely lovable film" (Time)! When young Laurent returns to exotic St. Tropez, he bears big news for his beloved father, Renato. Laurent has found the girl of his dreams and they are engaged! What's more, she and her family are on their way over for dinner at Renato's home to meet the in-laws-to-be. This traditional meeting of families seems typical, but because this ultraconservative family will be expecting to meet Renato and wife, they'll never be prepared for the shock of meeting Renato and his flamboyant, campy, outrageous loverand dragqueenAlbin! So in agreat effort to please his son, Renato asks Albin for the performance of a lifetime'setting up an unforgettable evening that is charged and ready to detonate an explosion of zaniness and absurdity.