What Comedy Movies to watch on Criterion Channel

Three penniless artists become friends in modern-day Paris: Rodolfo, an Albanian painter with no visa, Marcel, a playwright and magazine editor with no publisher, and Schaunard, a post-modernist composer of execrable noise. Rodolfo falls in love with Mimi, a barmaid. The day he asks her to move in with him, he is deported. Six months later, he sneaks back to Paris, and Mimi leaves her new boyfriend to be with him. Conflicts arise, especially around their poverty, and soon Mimi and Rodolfo separate, as do Marcel and his Musette. The three men scrape together a meal to celebrate All Saints' Day, and Mimi arrives, ill. Can her friends bring her back to health? Can love rekindle?

When Paul enters his apartment to find Mary fighting off a swinger who has gotten into the wrong apartment (and who thinks that Mary is just playing hard to get), he hits the man with a frying pan, killing him. Their dreams of running a small restaurant seem to be in jeopardy until they decide to dispose of the body, keep the wallet, and advertise for other sexually oriented visitors who are summarily killed, bagged, robbed and disposed of. This goes along quite well until one night a burglar named Raoul breaks in and cuts himself in for a piece of the action.

After a botched prison break attempt, inmate Robin Shea follows would-be governor James Tiernan's helpful advice and strikes a deal with handsome Billy Moran, an earnest carpenter, to get early parole. And as one thing leads to another, Robin talks Billy into marrying her and moves in with him, determined to enjoy her newfound freedom. However, there's a catch, and as if that weren't enough, Robin wants to focus on her rock band instead of spending quality time with the family. After all, it's strictly business, that's all.

Filmmaker Guy Maddin was born, raised and has always lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a town where he says everyone sleepwalks through life. He is trying to escape Winnipeg, but isn't sure how as he isn't sure what's kept him there in the first place. Perhaps his parent's month long 65th wedding anniversary celebration (despite his father being dead for some years) where he will reenact his childhood (with actors playing his family, except his mother who plays herself) in the old family home at 800 Ellis Avenue, which was above the family's hair salon business, will provide some answers. He recounts some civic events which have affected him and the life of Winnipegers: the 1919 general strike, the destruction of the Wolseley Elm in 1957, and the replacement of the iconic Eaton's building for the new hockey arena in favor of the old Winnipeg Arena. The latter has an especially close connection to him because of a family tie and the rich history of hockey in the city (discounting what he considers the failure of the NHL experiment). As he is on the train leaving the city, he hopes that the page 3 "Citizen Girl" will be the panacea for all Winnipeg's issues.

A homeless youth begins working for an experienced paparazzo, but personal and professional boundaries break down when he strikes up a relationship with a young starlet.

There is a theory that man is born with half a per mille too little, that alcohol in the blood opens the mind to the outside world, problems seem smaller, and creativity increases. We know it well: after the first glass of wine, the conversation lifts, the possibilities open up. Martin (Mads Mikkelsen) is a high-school teacher who feels old and tired. His students and their parents want him terminated to increase their average. Encouraged by the per mille theory, Martin and his three colleagues throw themselves into an experiment to maintain a constant alcohol impact in everyday life. If Churchill won World War II in a dense fog of spirits, what could the strong drops do for them and their students? The result is positive in the beginning. Martin's class is in a different way now, and the project is being promoted to a real academic study with the collection of results. Slowly but surely, the alcohol makes the four friends and their surroundings loosen up. The results are rising, and they really begin to feel life. As the objects go inboard, the experiment progresses for some and goes off track for others. It becomes clearer and clearer that alcohol can generate great results in world history, but that all daring can also have consequences. The film is described as a fun, touching and thought-provoking drama about friendship, freedom--and alcohol.

While running away from his girl's father, their car breaks down in front of a dance hall run by crooks. Harold has to not only stay one step ahead of the girl's father, but also those trying to rob them of everything they have.

Documentary on the life and works of comic genius Buster Keaton, directed by Peter Bogdanovich.

Laou's 2003 feature depicts an interracial wedding held in the summertime, shot on self-reflexive MiniDV by the bride's cocky younger brother. Before long, a scandal emerges that threatens to tear the happy couple's union apart, exposing the racism of the groom's parents and the messy fissures beneath the ensemble's happy façade. While the subject matter may sound familiar, Variety accurately called the film "a far cry from the ethnic feel-good wedding pics inundating domestic shores." Indeed, Laou offers up an emotional roller-coaster, a no-holds-barred depiction of white racism and an acidic comedy of manners (and prejudices).

Fielding Mellish (a consumer products tester) becomes infatuated with Nancy (a political activist). He attends demonstrations and tries in other ways to convince her that he is worthy of her love, but Nancy wants someone with greater leadership potential. Fielding runs off to San Marcos where he joins the rebels and eventually becomes President of the country. While on a trip to the states, he meets Nancy again and she falls for him now that he is a political leader.

Determined, independent Bridie Quilty comes of age in 1944 Ireland thinking all Englishmen are devils. Her desire to join the IRA meets no encouragement, but a German spy finds her easy to recruit. We next find her working in a pub near a British military prison, using her sex appeal in the service of the enemy. But chance puts a really vital secret into her hands, leading to a chase involving Bridie, a British officer who's fallen for her, a German agent unknown to them both, and the police... paralleled by Bridie's own internal conflicts.

Sent by her parents to live with her two eccentric aunts, Sabrina Sawyer discovers on her 16th birthday that she's a witch.

In the Alpine village of Tolzbad in the 1800s, the townsfolk talk quietly and restrain their movements lest they incur avalanches. This atmosphere lends itself to repressed emotions - shown through the parallel stories of butler student Johann lusting after his mother (an old flame of the mysterious Count Knotkers) and Klara's attraction to her father (who lusts after his other daughter), leading to duels and suicidal plunges galore. All this is shot in the style of an early German sonal film, complete with intertitles, crackly sound-track and 'hand-tinted' colour effects.

Gerry and Tom Jeffers are finding married life hard. Tom is an inventor/ architect and there is little money for them to live on. They are about to be thrown out of their apartment when Gerry meets rich businessman being shown around as a prospective tenant. He gives Gerry $700 to start life afresh but Tom refuses to believe her story and they quarrel. Gerry decides the marriage is over and heads to Palm Beach for a quick divorce but Tom has plans to stop her.

Adrien travels to a villa on the Riviera. He is on vacation and plans to relax. He shares the villa with a friend, Daniel, and a female stranger, Haydée. Haydée has many lovers, and both Adrien and Daniel despise her at first, but Adrien soon becomes more and more intrigued and infatuated.

It's Baltimore, 1962, and a rebellious “pleasantly plump” teenager attempts to be one of the featured stars on a popular dance show and win the coveted "Miss Auto Show" crown. John Waters' unique brand of humor comes to life in Hairspray, starring Ricki Lake, Divine and Sonny Bono. It's a movie with a beat you can laugh to!

Cheryl is young, Black, and lesbian, working in Philadelphia with her best friend Tamara and consumed by a film project: to make a video about her search for a Black actress from Philly who appeared in films in the 30s and was known as the Watermelon Woman. Following various leads, Cheryl discovers the Watermelon Woman's stage name and real name and surmises that the actress had a long affair with Martha Page, a White woman and one of Hollywood's few female directors. As she's discovering these things, Cheryl becomes involved with Diana, who's also White. The affair strains Cheryl's friendship with Tamara. More discoveries bring Cheryl (and us, her audience) to new realizations.

Gulley Jimson is broke, difficult, conniving, uncouth, and a welcher, but an artist. The visions in his head may not really satisfy him when realized, but the quest continues, for the perfect wall. The Beeders leave for six weeks of vacation, and return to find a seven thousand pound committment, and the wall of their living room a national treasure, even though living with a wall mural of feet is not their cup of tea. Then, in a bombed out church scheduled for demolition, THE wall that can become his vision.

Despite his success at apprehending criminals, Kevin Chan's unorthodox approach to his work as a police officer sees him demoted to the traffic branch. Despite this, the man he put behind bars is now out of prison, and has vowed to make his life a misery. While this crime boss his harassing Kevin and his girlfriend, the police are contemplating reinstating Kevin to help them fight a group of bombers attempting to extort $10 million from building owners.

Brawling cable layer Steve Reardon doesn't want to marry girlfriend Edith but he also doesn't want her to date other men.

The two-man Laurel and Hardy Zoot Suit Band find themselves fronting a scam for "gasoline pills" in wartime oil-short America. They are however soon on the side of the angels helping recover $10,000 for an attractive young lady whose family have themselves been swindled.

Sam (Jerry Stiller) and Molly (Anne Meara) are a classic bickering old couple, and their marriage has been 40 years of sparring. Finally, when Sam refuses to move the carp he's keeping in their spare bathroom, Molly becomes fed up and unexpectedly leaves. She moves in with their grown son and starts dating an old friend. The couple's daughter convinces Sam to try to win his wife back and rediscover his own sense of romance.

Vivien Leigh and Claude Rains pop off the screen in vivid Technicolor in Gabriel Pascal’s version of Shaw’s 1901 play about love and politics in ancient Rome and Egypt. At the time the most expensive British film ever produced (complete with real imported Egyptian sand), Caesar and Cleopatra is a lavish epic, featuring standout performances by its two stars.

Billops and Hatch are catalysts at the center of the film, and like a modern Virgil and Dante, they drive, cajole and lead the film's cast through a tour of the contemporary landscape of racism.