Comedy Drama

An all-encompassing genre hybrid that merges dramatic film with comic elements or a strong comic lead, in situations that do not necessarily end happily. Instead of presenting the world as neat and clean and full of only laughs and resolution, these films often add dramatic touches like tragedy, melodrama and melancholy while maintaining a light tone. Beginning with the bittersweet social melodrama slapstick of Charlie Chaplin and the modern, lighthearted tragedy of Buster Keaton, the comedy drama originated in the silent era. During the Golden Age, filmmakers Preston Sturges, Howard Hawks, Ernst Lubitsch, and George Cukor mixed drama and comedy in perfect balance, while Billy Wilder perhaps perfected the genre, crafting comedies often addressing dark social and lifestyle issues with Ace in the Hole and The Apartment. Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Carnal Knowledge), Hal Ashby (The Last Detail, Shampoo) and Woody Allen (Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors) carried the tradition into the ‘70s and ‘80s, often applying an even more cynical edge. Independent cinema, with its focus on daily routines, relationships and angst, used this style with the films of Jim Jarmusch, Richard Linklater, Hal Hartley and Spike Lee. Internationally, filmmakers ranging from Claude Chabrol, Eric Rohmer, Federico Fellini, Mike Leigh, Takeshi Kitano and Pedro Almodovar have based much of their work in the hybrid between humor and drama.

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