Thursday, August 20, 2009

Top Ranked Romantic Comedy Films


The top ranked Romantic Comedy films from our survey on the net, comedies with romance as a strong factor, as opposed to society or family comedies, or even crime and war comedies. There are so many comedies, I'm trying to narrow them down a little so the list isn't 300 films. This shows 81 listed, with 64 in the top 1000.

1. L'Atalante [Vigo, Jean, 1934] #49 -France
2. Some Like it Hot [Wilder, Billy, 1959] #55 -US
3. Annie Hall [Allen, Woody, 1977] #77 -US [photo top]
4. Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The [Buñuel, Luis, 1972] #88 -France
5. Sherlock Jr. [Keaton, Buster, 1924] #89 -US
6. Lady Eve, The [Sturges, Preston, 1941] #92 -US
7. It Happened One Night [Capra, Frank, 1934] #94 -US
8. Graduate, The [Nichols, Mike, 1967] #107 -US
9. Bringing Up Baby [Hawks, Howard, 1938] #118 -US
10. Manhattan [Allen, Woody, 1979] #131 -US
11. Palm Beach Story, The [Sturges, Preston, 1942] #145 -US
12. Philadelphia Story, The [Cukor, George, 1940] #148 -US
13. Cinema Paradiso [Tornatore, Giuseppe, 1988] #158 -Italy-France
14. Groundhog Day [Ramis, Harold, 1993] #183 -US
15. Fanny and Alexander [Bergman, Ingmar, 1982] #196 -Sweden
16. Steamboat Bill, Jr. [Keaton, Buster/Charles F. Reisner, 1928] #209 -US
17. Tootsie [Pollack, Sydney, 1982] #213 -US
18. Golden Coach, The [Renoir, Jean, 1952] #220 -Italy-France
19. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind [Gondry, Michael, 2004] #227 -US [photo rt]
20. Hannah and Her Sisters [Allen, Woody, 1986] #254 -US
21. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [Hand, David, 1937] #260 -US
22. Day for Night [Truffaut, François, 1973] #291 -France
23. Amélie [Jeunet, Jean-Pierre, 2001] #345 -France
24. Harold and Maude [Ashby, Hal, 1971] #352 -US
25. Sideways [Payne, Alexander, 2004] #359 -US
26. Crimes and Misdemeanors [Allen, Woody, 1989] #372US
27. Awful Truth, The [McCarey, Leo, 1937] #379 -US
28. Princess Bride, The [Reiner, Rob, 1987] #381US
29. Lost in Translation [Coppola, Sofia, 2003] #396 -US-Japan
30. Being John Malkovich [Jonze, Spike, 1999] #408 -US
31. Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Almodóvar, Pedro, 1988] #462 -Spain
32. Shop Around the Corner, The [Lubitsch, Ernst, 1940] #468 -US
33. Navigator, The [Keaton, Buster/Donald Crisp, 1924] #522 -US
34. Rushmore [Anderson, Wes, 1998] #539 -US
35. Cameraman, The [Keaton, Buster/Edward Sedgwick, 1928] #542 -US
36. Loves of a Blonde [Forman, Milos, 1965] #553 -Czechoslovakia
37. Shakespeare in Love [Madden, John, 1998] #562 -UK
38. Love Me Tonight [Mamoulian, Rouben, 1932] #598 -US
39. Seven Chances [Keaton, Buster, 1925] #628 -US
40. Claire's Knee [Rohmer, Eric, 1970] #644 -France
41. When Harry Met Sally [Reiner, Rob, 1989] #652 -US
42. Circus, The [Chaplin, Charles, 1928] #666 -US
43. Funny Face [Donen, Stanley, 1957] #733 -US
44. Daisies [Chytilová, Vera, 1966] #757 -Czechoslovakia
45. Xala [Sembene, Ousmane, 1975] #762 -Senegal
46. Ferris Bueller's Day Off [Hughes, John, 1986] #766 -US
47. Being There [Ashby, Hal, 1979] #771 -US
48. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes [Hawks, Howard, 1953] #773 -US
49. Hellzapoppin' [Potter, H.C., 1941] #780 -US
50. Design for Living [Lubitsch, Ernst, 1933] #793 -US
51. Mon oncle d'Amérique [Resnais, Alain, 1980] #815 -France
52. Holiday [Cukor, George, 1938] #822 -US
53. Unfaithfully Yours [Sturges, Preston, 1948] #840 -US
54. Under the Roofs of Paris [Clair, René, 1930] #843 -France
55. To Die For [Van Sant, Gus, 1995] #853US
56. Say Anything… [Crowe, Cameron, 1989] #864 -US
57. Gregory's Girl [Forsyth, Bill, 1981] #909 -UK
58. Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The[Mankiewicz, Joseph L., 1947] #925 -US
59. Purple Rose of Cairo, The [Allen, Woody, 1985] #962 -US
60. Midnight [Leisen, Mitchell, 1939] #967 -US
61. Carnival in Flanders [Feyder, Jacques, 1935] #970 -France
62. O Lucky Man! [Anderson, Lindsay, 1973] #975 -UK
63. Knocked Up [Apatow, Judd, 2007] #980 -US
64. The Thin Man [Van Dyke, W.S. 1934] #986 - US
65. About Schmidt [Payne, Alexander, 2002] #1003 -US
66. Nutty Professor, The [Lewis, Jerry, 1963] #1041 -US
67. Avanti! [Wilder, Billy, 1972] #1050 -US-Italy
68. Room with a View [Ivory, James, 1985] #1071 -UK
69. Charade [Donen, Stanley, 1963] #1090 -US
70. Man Without a Past, The [Kaurismaki, Aki, 2002] #1106Finland
71. Royal Tenenbaums, The [Anderson, Wes, 2001] #1135 -US
72. Yesterday Girl [Kluge, Alexander, 1966] #1162 -Germany
73. Italian Straw Hat, The [Clair, René, 1928] #1200 -France
74. Punch-Drunk Love [Anderson, Paul Thomas, 2002] #1201 -US
75. Heaven Can Wait [Lubitsch, Ernst, 1943] #1214 -US
76. Big Chill, The [Kasdan, Lawrence, 1983] #1221 -US
77. Maskerade [Forst, Willi, 1934] #1226 -Austria
78. Dark Eyes [Mikhalkov, Nikita, 1987] #1236 -Italy-USSR-USA
79. California Split [Altman, Robert, 1974] #1244 -US
80. Ladies' Man, The [Lewis, Jerry, 1961] #1247 -US
81. Adam's Rib [Cukor, George, 1949] #1266 -US

Wow, Adam's Rib should be a lot higher (it's below Jerry Lewis!), shouldn't it? also my fave, Hannah and Her Sisters, which inspired Ron Howard's Parenthood (see below), and is the most complex of Woody's scripts. At least Cinema Paradiso is ranked highly, it's a classic for lovers of cinema since childhood, an homage to the effect of movies on the director, Tournatore. The dvd release includes the director's cut of three hours, for reel fans only.

To These I Would Add
Parenthood [Howard, Ron, 1989] - very funny family comedy based on the structure Woody's Hannah (several different family stories all brought together) and the children of the creators; Howard's best comedy, also Steve Martin's ("you're not a real usher, you're an amalgam of all the ushers my dad paid to watch me as a kid"). This is one of my favorite comedies of all time, I'm amazed it doesn't make any lists
As Good As It Gets [Brooks, James, 1997] - how did they keep this off all the lists? two acting Oscars for Nicholson and Hunt, and a great script. Perhaps Nicholson's most memorable character
Born Yesterday [Cukor, George, 1950] - Oscar winning Judy Holliday has a comedic field day with hoodlum sugar daddy Broderick Crawford, under writer William Holden's tutelage - another Pygmalion based story, a "guttersnipe to woman" transition
Alice [Allen, Woody, 1990] - another brilliant romantic fantasy from Woody, as Mia Farrow visits a Chinese doctor whose herbs bring magic and invisibility into her troubled love life, with hilarious results

Note: Had I included Wall-E here, it would have been #14 - it was a tossup - it's already under Science Fiction, Childrens, and Animated - but romance sure drove that plot, didn't it?