“Notionally, one of the most loved of genres, comedy persistently finds that it is somehow ineligible for greatness,” said film critic Peter Bradshaw.
Comedies rarely get Oscars. Charlie Chaplin, the great comic, was one of cinema’s first international superstars. Keaton, the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy produced sublime gems of film-making, arguably cherished more now than at the time. Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot is one of the most loved films of all time, with a miraculously light touch and a glorious romantic chemistry between Curtis, Lemmon and Monroe. In Hollywood, the screwball tradition came to be supplanted in public taste by Woody Allen, whose DNA can be traced through the cerebral creations of Charlie Kaufman.
These are the 25 best comedy films of all time according to the critics of the Guardian and Observer.
Director: Woody Allen
Stars: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton
, Tony Roberts
Director: Billy Wilder
Stars: Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis
, Jack Lemmon
Director: Trey Parker
Stars: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
, Elle Russ
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott
, Sterling Hayden
Director: Alexander Mackendrick
Stars: Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers
, Cecil Parker
Director: Wes Anderson
Stars: Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray
, Olivia Williams
Director: Robert Hamer
Stars: Dennis Price, Alec Guinness
, Valerie Hobson
Director: Terry Jones
Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese
, Michael Palin
Director: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty
, Leslie Nielsen
Director: Alexander Payne
Stars: Matthew Broderick, Reese Witherspoon
, Chris Klein
Director: Howard Hawks
Stars: Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell
, Ralph Bellamy
Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Stars: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman
, Julianne Moore
Director: Howard Hawks
Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant
, Charles Ruggles
Directors: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Stars: Ben Stiller, Cameron Diaz
, Matt Dillon
Director: Robert Altman
Stars: Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould
, Tom Skerritt
Director: Harold Ramis
Stars: Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell
, Chris Elliott
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Stars: Charles Chaplin, Paulette Goddard
, Jack Oakie
Director: Kevin Smith
Stars: Brian O’Halloran, Jeff Anderson
, Marilyn Ghigliotti
Director: Carl Reiner
Stars: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters
, Catlin Adams
Director: Edgar Wright
Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost
, Kate Ashfield
The Guardian (founded in 1821) is a British national daily newspaper, and the Observer (founded in 1791) is its Sunday sibling. They are amongst the most influential papers in the world. The Guardian and its journalists have won numerous journalism awards, especially in the last decades.
Source: The Guardian
Last checked on: 16 January 2016
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