The history of comedy

From the earliest silent films, then, directors used humor and satire to entertain audiences. The French comedy tradition really began with Sacha Guitry and Fernandel; from the 30s onwards, films developed a sense of humor based on biting, fast-talking dialogue. Comedy evolved with audience tastes, and certain auteurs emerged to represent a branch of comedy in their own right.

The 1920s and 1930s also represented the golden age of Hollywood comedy: stars like Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy ruled the genre. Visual by default, their films used physical gags and zany situations to make audiences laugh.

Comedy continued to flourish, with the emergence of new talents such as Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and the Marx Brothers. More sophisticated, comedy films blend verbal humor with elaborate comic situations.

Jacques Tati’s first feature film, Jour de fête, was a great success with the French public, winning the Grand Prix du cinéma français in 1950.

Comedies were very family-oriented, supported by the first big stars of the genre: Fernandel again, but also Bourvil, de Funès or Galabru… Unrivalled actors, whose films are among the greatest classics of French cinema.

May 68 changed all that: comedies became more committed, denouncing society’s shortcomings, following in the footsteps of the Americans Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. Films by Jean-Pierre Mocky, Pierre Richard, Michel Audiard and others turned comedy into an outlet for the politically incorrect.

Comedy also saw the advent of more irreverent and provocative humor. Films such as “The Graduate”, “MASH” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” pushed the boundaries of what could be treated humorously in cinema.

The oil crisis and AIDS usher in a more cynical era. With the Splendid gang, humor became more acidic, sometimes black, from “Les Bronzés” to “Père Noël est une ordure”. Television became cinema’s main producer, and this gradually led to a return to more politically correct subjects, such as “Trois hommes et un couffin”. Trois hommes et un couffin”, “Les Ripoux” and “L’inspecteur la bavure”, starring Coluche.

Various sub-genres also arrived, from romantic comedy to black comedy to action comedy. Directors such as Woody Allen, Mel Brooks and the Farrelly Brothers bring their own vision of comedy to the big screen.

French comedy has evolved over the decades, with hits such as Les Visiteurs and Le Dîner de cons. From the 2000s onwards, new voices emerged: Michel Hazanavicius and Jean Dujardin with OSS 117, Toledano and Nakache with Intouchables, and Dany Boon with Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. Comedy diversified, tackling themes such as fatherhood, politics and popular culture, while reinventing itself for each new era.

There’s a long list of films that make us laugh so hard it hurts, proving that comedy reinvents itself over time, and isn’t about to stop!

A genre from the golden years of transalpine cinema, Italian comedy continues to influence comic-satirical cinema. Its golden age was embodied by directors such as Mario Monicelli, Dino Risi and Ettore Scola, and actors like Vittorio Gassman, Nino Manfredi, Alberto Sordi, Ugo Tognazzi, Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Spaak, Monica Vitti and Claudia Cardinale.

It is the only film genre that can be compared, for its richness, its fidelity to certain lines of force and its roots in a national tradition, to the great genres of American cinema, such as the western or the musical.

Mario Monicelli, director of the famous comedy filmI soliti ignoti (The Pigeon), wrote:“Whatever some critics think, with their reluctance to laugh and their lack of understanding of the role of satire and hilarity, Italian comedy has had a great impact on the history of Italian morals. I don’t think there has ever been a comic film in the world that has had such tenacity in combating social evils.