The Funniest Foreign Movies

The distinctions between foreign-made movies and a Hollywood one are not just geographical. The cliché of a foreign film often holds true: slow, languid, often depressing, and marred by subtitles. By comparison, many Hollywood movies tend to be glossy, fast-paced affairs, often with formulaic stories and nearly always consumer-friendly. (These are, of course, generalizations.) While there are glorious exceptions to both rules, really great foreign comedies are the perfect place to start if you want to dispel that foreign movie stereotype, which is why Complex has once again come through for you to offer a list of the 25 best foreign comedies you need to watch.

Comedy is very subjective and often touchy subject, so while we won’t try and define what makes for a good comedy movie, it’s safe to say that there are many, many different kinds of styles. Different countries, have their own pop culture references and histories, their own inside jokes and references they find funny, but at the end of the day we all laugh at pretty much the same shit. Some good sarcasm here, a really ironic bit there, a sprinkle of silly jokes and the subversion of expectations will always get a good belly-laugh. So don’t be put off by the fact that these are foreign movies that might have subtitles or is playing at a smaller theater than you’d go to see the summer’s biggest blockbuster or the next Marvel movie. Think of these as merely comedies with actors you haven’t seen in 17 other movies this year, with jokes and situations you haven’t heard before, speaking in accents and languages you might not hear everyday. After all, even Hollywood needs some foreign inspiration sometimes. And, if you are that kind of person, you can suggest you and your friends watch one of these movies you’ve never seen before and definitively say, “I liked that before it went big.” See? We’re always looking out for you.

Country: Spain

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Stars: Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma, Maria Barranco

Assuming you aren't a Neanderthal who had to be excessively coaxed into seeing the all-female comedy Bridesmaids last year, Pedro Almodovar's estrogen-heavy Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown comes highly recommended. Don't mind its sexual politics, either; in true screwball fashion, Almodovar presents a series of heightened, womanly dilemmas (men leaving at the sound of "pregnancy," feminism that backfires, foolishly hooking up with a married men) as a non-gender-specific hotbed of situational comedy acted out by memorable characters.

Country: Spain

Director: Luis Buñuel

Stars: Fernando Rey, Paul Frankeur, Delphine Seyrig, Stephane Audran, Bulle Ogier

It's always good fun to watch a bunch of rich dimwits fail at performing the simplest of tasks, isn't it, working class folks? If you agree, give Luis Bunuel's razor-sharp satire The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie a look; devoid of any forced gags or telegraphed punch lines, the film's humor comes from simply viewing three wealthy couples repeatedly botching each others' efforts to pull off a nice, quiet dinner party.

In the place of on-the-nose comedic moments are surrealistic dream sequences, showing how what's transpiring in the characters' respective minds is just as wickedly idiotic as what they're doing in the "real" world.

Country: France/Italy

Director: Jean-Luc Godard

Stars: Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon

The blackest of comedies, one whose laughs are scarce, though always spot-on, Jean-Luc Godard's Week End actually works better as an overwhelmingly cynical drama about mankind's inherent darkness. It's a nasty piece of business that depicts the disintegration of order that arises from a seemingly routine traffic jam; confined to the road, the various drivers gradually descend into depravity, raping each other, practicing homicide, and, when the piled-up shit eventually rips the fan off its hinges, the eating of other people's flesh. But it's also funny, we swear!

Country: England

Director: Bruce Robinson

Stars: Paul McGann, Richard E. Grant

A poignant character study by way of darkly hilarious buddy comedy, Bruce Robinson's Withnail & I is a rather sad look at a pair of wannabe actors whose professional inefficiencies and self-destructive habits (i.e., drugs) continue to derail their futures. Robinson, a veteran screenwriter who made his directorial debut with this edgy gem, cares as much about his pair of protagonists' emotional complexities as he does giving them a string of very funny, self-effacing one-liners.

Withnail & I is considered by many to be the best British comedy ever made; though we'd argue that point, we're still all for it.

Country: France

Director: François Truffaut

Stars: Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean Champion

As much as we love watching movies, it's also not lost upon us that the process of making films can be as stressful as it is long and chaotic. Legendary filmmaker Francois Truffaut felt the need to lampoon such behind-the-scenes antics in Day for Night, and we're thankful that he did.

Set against the production of a fictional movie called Meet Pamela, Truffaut's hilarious, zany meta-comedy has a blast satirizing privileged actresses abusing alcohol more than the production's script, closed-door love affairs that impede upon a director's mission, and other on-set follies that undoubtedly occur on a good 60% of the films we all consume on a daily basis.

Country: Denmark

Director: Mikkel Nørgaard

Stars: Frank Hvam, Casper Christensen, Marcuz Jess Petersen, Mia Lyhne

Clearly, jokes about little wieners and masturbation are universally appealing. Powered by the raunchiness of the edgiest of Hollywood comedies (think The Hangover), and shot with a stripped-down aesthetic reminiscent of HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm, the inappropriately riotous Klown tailor-made for stateside audiences.

The catch is, though, that writers, and stars, Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen, along with director Mikkel Norgaard, pull of the hard-R-rated laughs with a shrewd intelligence, treating their characters (two well-meaning, middle-aged troublemakers on a sex-minded canoe trip with a little boy) with care, while also never letting a good sex-with-a-fat-chick gag go to waste.

Country: Sweden

Director: Lasse Hallström

Stars: Anton Glanzelius, Tomas von Bromssen, Anki Liden, Melinda Kinnaman, Lief Ericson

The laughs come as regularly as the thought-provoking sentiments in My Life as a Dog, a profoundly immersive coming-of-age film anchored by a stellar performance from then-11-year-old, first-time actor Anton Gianzelius. He plays Ingemar, an odd little boy with an absentee dad and a mother who's dying from tuberculosis; as Ingemar's rambunctious antics continually worsen his mom's condition, she sends him to live with his uncle.

My Life as a Dog tackles the theme of childhood wonder from a predominantly morbid point-of-view; throughout the film, Ingemar is exposed to the inevitability of death, yet, with the young actor's precociousness and surprisingly intelligence always in check, Gianzelius' performance emits joyfulness. Credit the vitality of youth.

Country: Norway

Director: André Øvredal

Stars: Otto Jespersen, Hans Morten Hansen, Tomas Alf Larsen, Johanna Morck, Robert Stoltenberg

Amidst a cavalcade of recent found-footage genre flicks, Trollhunter stands out as one of the best, though, sadly, it's also one of the most underrated. Basically a combination of The Blair Witch Project and Jurassic Park, gifted writer-director Andre Øvredal's wild, lighthearted ride follows a group of documentary filmmakers as they tag along with, yes, a hunter of building-sized trolls on his missions, adventures that put them face-to-hairy-leg against an assortment of imposing, freakish monsters, all of which are magnificently designed with state-of-the-art visual effects.

Country: France

Directors: Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Stars: Dominique Pinon, Marie-Laure Dougnac, Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Karin Viard

Films don't get much stranger than Delicatessen, a multi-genre hybrid that fires off laughs, horrific imagery, and dystopian concepts without ever stopping for any proverbial breath. Set within an apartment building occupied by a cast of super-eccentrics, Delicatessen is, essentially, a movie about cannibals, which aren't exactly the greatest narrative fodder for laugh-out-loud humor; thanks to directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, though, the film mirrors the best of horror-comedies, those that treat visual disturbances and uncomfortable laughs with the same amount of skill.

Country: South Korea

Director: Park Chan-wook

Stars: Im Soo-jung, Rain

Now here's the kind of rom-com we can get behind. Taking place inside a mental institution, South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook's bizarre I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK revolves around the budding romance shared between two particularly disturbed inmates: she's a wacko who considers herself to be a cyborg, and he's a paranoid schizo paralyzed by the fear that he's physically fading away with every passing minute. Together, they forge an endearing union, and, thankfully, Chan-wook never loses sight of the story's permeating wackiness.

Country: Italy

Director: Federico Fellini

Stars: Bruno Zanin, Magali Noel, Pupella Maggio, Armando Brancia

Federico Fellini is widely considered to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time; in fact, he could've very well made it onto our recent list of 10 directors who have never made a bad movie. One of the Italian auteur's best pictures is Amarcord, an effectively observational look at the inner workings of a small-town community's comings and goings during the reign of Mussolini.

Centrally, Amarcord focuses on the Biondi family, comprised of colorful members like a sex-craving teenage son whose friends are all buffoons, a mentally imbalanced uncle who climbs trees for no reason, and a hard-as-nails mother. Amarcord will make you appreciate your family's saneness by comparison.

Country: Spain

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Stars: Penélope Cruz, Carmen Maura, Lola Duenas, Blanca Portillo, Chus Lampreave, Yohana Cobo

Consider that incredibly sexy picture of star Penélope Cruz, seen above, as a nice bonus; all slices of eye candy aside, Pedro Almodóvar's inventive dramedy Volver is, on its own artistic merits, a brilliant piece of quick-witted, experimental cinema.

Mixing hints of magical-realism and the all-out supernatural into the film's entirely humanistic plot, the writer-director, at the top of his game here, mines excellent performances from an ensemble of actresses all completely in tune with Volver's emphasis on mother-daughter relationships.

And, about Ms. Cruz's sexiness, Almodovar very much appreciates her bustiness as much as we do. See Volver's many glorious cleavage shots for proof.

Country: China

Director: Jackie Chan

Stars: Jackie Chan, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Charlie Cho

When Police Story made it into the 1986 edition of the New York Film Festival, international star Jackie Chan officially entered the American lexicon. The actor/director/action icon's breakthrough film, Police Story represents Chan's primary strength at its absolute best: his ability to marry masterful stunt work with daring physical comedy.

The fearless performer crashes through glass, engages in brutal hand-to-hand combat, and even takes a few pies to the mug, yet, throughout all of Police Story's adrenaline-packed silliness, he always keeps the tonal focus on audience enjoyment, never bruising grittiness.

Country: France

Director: Jacques Tati

Stars: Jacques Tati, Barbara Dennek, Jacqueline Lecomte

Movie plots don't get much simpler than that of Play Time: A Frenchman (played by the film's writer-director, Jacques Tati) has to get in touch with someone in America, but his mundane objective quickly turns problematic once he gets lost. What gives the entertainingly delirious Play Time its undeniable brilliance is how Tati stretches out a bare-bones premise into a multi-layered examination of how routine occurrences and seemingly nondescript neighbors can become enchanting if one would just open his or her eyes once in a while.

Country: England

Director: Armando Iannucci

Stars: Peter Capaldi, James Gandolfini, Mimi Kennedy, Chris Addison, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, Steve Coogan, David Rasche

Are you just as high on HBO's politics-skewering, half-hour comedy series Veep as we are? If so, then it's time to check out series creator Armando Iannucci's foul-mouthed, relentlessly funny In the Loop.

Sticking to his political comfort zone, Iannucci assembled an eclectic, though uniformly skillful, cast of character actors to scathingly poke fun at how egos and easily flared tempers can kickstart global warfare, even if peacekeeping efforts were the initial intentions.

There's plenty to think about in terms of the film's parallels to real-life, pre-Iraq War bureaucracy run amok, but it's impossible to concentrate on such lofty issues when so many witty soundbites of sheer profanity are heard in any given scene.

Country: England

Director: Edgar Wright

Stars: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton

Any horror-comedy about zombies that opens with music from George A. Romero's undead masterpiece Dawn of the Dead immediately earns our respect. Fortunately, the rest of director Edgar Wright's feature film debut just so happens to be utterly brilliant. Starring the pitch-perfect tag team of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, Shaun of the Dead constantly engages with likable characters, Wright's peculiar yet enthralling visual style, and, a rare occurrence for horror-comedies, scary moments that are genuinely unnerving.

Country: China

Director: Stephen Chow

Stars: Stephen Chow, Zhao Wei, Wong Yut Fei, Patrick Tse

You know, Stephen Chow, the writer/director/star of Shaolin Soccer, was really onto something back in 2004, when his breakthrough sports-comedy debuted to critical praise and impressive worldwide ticket sales. If the folks at FIFA and other real-life professional football supporters were to ever introduce high-flying martial arts into the game, viewership and overall popularity would definitely go up.

Sure, it'd make for some rather ludicrous entertainment, which is exactly what Shaolin Soccer is, but give the matches the same degree of boundless giddiness as Chow's film's live-wire on-field sequences and you'd have the soccer equivalent to Slamball, except people might actually watch it.

Country: England

Directors: Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones

Stars: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the epitome of intelligent silliness. Conceived by the forward-thinking British comedy troupe, Monty Python, it's a presentation of the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table crew as an absurdist romp in which "pretty little" bunny rabbits are savage beasts, castle guardians crack fart jokes, and those in power are shamefully moronic.

In other words, it's a feature length spin on the Python group's masterful blend of satire and ridiculousness. Not to mention, it's also one of the funniest movies ever made, one whose humor never gets old.

Country: Italy

Director: Giuseppe Tornatore

Stars: Philippe Noiret, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin

It's safe to assume that, since you're reading this list, you're an unabashed movie lover. Well, if so, Cinema Paradiso is a must-watch, the kind of pro-cinema experience that reminds us why we fell in love with big-screen entertainment in the first place. The fact that it's funny in the childhood-whimsy sense is just additional goodness. It's about a little boy named Salvatore, who, along with an older cinema buff/projectionist, escapes from the horrors of post-WWII Sicily by watching movies in the titular theater.

As Salvatore ages, his appreciation for the life lessons learned at, and nightmares avoided in, the venue remain intact. As does Cinema Paradiso's sublime encapsulation of a young man's adoration of film.

Country: Mexico

Director: Alfonso Cuarón

Stars: Maríbel Verdú, Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal

Sexy, funny, and excellently acted, Y Tu Mama También is an astounding piece of work. Writer-director Alfonso Cuaron, the master who'd go on to make the exceptional dystopian thriller Children of Men (2006), cooks up a smoldering look at kinky body-to-body exploration, classism, and the fragility of friendship, centering on a couple of buddies (breakout Mexican stars Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal) who go on an aimless and sexually charged road trip with a married woman (Maribel Verdu) whom they met at a wedding.

Y Tu Mama También is a testament to the importance of character over situation; whether they're bumping uglies or dramatically clashing over life's many complications, the film's trio of protagonists consistently surprise and engage. Cuaron's film is, simply put, spellbinding.

Country: Germany

Director: Maren Ade

Stars: Sandra Huller, Peter Simonischek, Ingrid Bisu, Michael Wittenborn, Lucy Russell

If all you know about this movie is that it’s about the relationship between a daughter and her father, you might think it’s either boring, been done countless of times before, or a recipe for a depressing drama. And yet each of these things would be wrong, because Toni Erdmann is a surprisingly original film with lots of laughs, lots of heart, and even a little bit of naked brunch (you’ll have to watch it to know what that’s all about).

Country: Australia

Director: Josh Lawson

Stars: John Lawson, Bojana Novakovic, Damon Herriman, Kate Mulvany, Patrick Brammall

It’s a right shame how under-the-radar and underrated The Little Death (named after a french euphemism for orgasm) is because it’s probably one of the most original movies about sex in recent times. Told through a series of vaguely interconnected vignettes, The Little Death is the story of kink, of pleasure, and, ultimately, of desire. It’s a movie about sex that could truly never be made in Hollywood: sexy without being raunchy and funny without being offensive.

Country: Czechoslovakia Director: Jiří Menzel Stars: Ivan Barnev, Oldrich Kaiser, Julia Jentsch, Martin Huba, Marian Labuda

Jan Dite, now an old man, recalls his days as a young waiter working his first job at a fancyass hotel in Prague in the 1930s, which was, by his accounts, peak waiter season. As he climbs higher up the food service chain, Dite delights in learning more about the rich people he serves and admires. Dite is not a particularly wise man himself, but the movie is aware of this and drapes every moment in a biting irony typical both of what you’d expect from a European movie but also of really intelligent comedy.

Country: India

Director: Qaushiq Mukherjee

Stars: Shashank Arora, Tanmay Dhanania, Siddharth Mallya, Chaitanya Varad, Sindhu Sreenivasa Murthy

It’s been called the Indian American Pie, Indian Superbad, or Indian Animal House, and while it may be true that Brahman Naman is a raunchy sex comedy with some of the same kinds of jokes and innuendoes as those American teenage classics, the comparisons aren’t exactly one to one. Set in the 1980s at a Bangalore high school and focusing on a group of young, horny teenage guys on the school’s quiz team, Brahman Naman’s vibes are on par with any great indie flick from this country. The general trajectory of the movie is relatively easy to guess: these boys want girls, but have no idea how to speak to them, and set off on a flirting mission that ends up with one of them tying his dick to a ceiling fan. But the surprise here is how enjoyable and truly funny the movie is, despite all the cringeworthy ways these guys try to get attention from the ladies.

Country: England

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Stars: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Margo Stilley, Claire Keelan, Paul Popplewell

If you enjoy British humor, this mockumentary-type film should be the next thing you watch. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, two famous English comedians, play slightly fictionalized versions of themselves having meals together for an article Coogan is doing for The Observer about food in Northern England. And that’s it, really: this isn’t a complicated premise, it’s literally just two funny guys having lunch. After all, isn’t simplicity the hallmark of a good joke? Coogan and Brydon don’t need any fancy plot points designed to place them in awkward or ironic situations. They’re all you need. And if you like The Trip, the two paired up again for The Trip to Spain, which is literally the same thing but in Spain. Trust me, it’s all just damn delightful.

Country: England

Director: Sean Foley

Stars: Julian Barratt, Simon Farnaby, Essie Davis, Steve Coogan, Andrea Riseborough

This movie shouldn’t work. It rests on a mind-numbingly daft foundation: Richard Thorncroft is a washed up old TV actor who once tasted fame by playing Special Agent Bruce Mindhorn, a detective who could literally see the truth with the help of his robot eye. Years after the show ends, he’s trying to fit diva dreams into a nonexistent career when suddenly he gets a call from the police, tasking him with a case only Mindhorn could solve. If you catch yourself thinking no movie this silly could possibly hold up for more than 20 minutes, you need to take a deep breath and stop being so damn negative all the time, because Mindhorn is hilarious. It’s a nearly perfect escapist comedy movie filled to the brim with absolutely splendid, entirely stupid jokes.