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Sophisticated Comedy

A sophisticated comedy (also known as "high comedy") portrays the trials and tribulations of upper-class life. Often these films examine the conflicts caused by social rules that hamper the individualist desires and needs of their protagonists. The emphasis in a sophisticated comedy, as with comedy of manners and more refined examples of satire, is on witty dialogue and ironic situational gags rather than physical humor. Filmmakers of the 30s and 40s such as Ernst Lubitsch (Ninotchka, Trouble in Paradise), George Cukor (The Philadelphia Story,Adam's Rib), Preston Sturges (The Lady Eve) and sometimes Frank Capra (It Happened One Night) were the chief artists of this approach. Woody Allen and Whit Stillman, with their focus on the sexual predicaments of the Upper Class in New York, have kept this talky tradition of filmmaking alive.

Major Works
Rating
Year
 Title
 
 Director
  9 Stars 1932 Trouble in Paradise   Ernst Lubitsch
  9 Stars 1954 Sabrina   Billy Wilder
  9 Stars 1940 The Philadelphia Story   George Cukor
  9 Stars 1936 My Man Godfrey   Gregory La Cava
  9 Stars 1979 Manhattan   Woody Allen
  9 Stars 1943 Heaven Can Wait   Ernst Lubitsch
  9 Stars 1986 Hannah and Her Sisters   Woody Allen
  9 Stars 1950 Father of the Bride   Vincente Minnelli
  9 Stars 1977 Annie Hall   Woody Allen
  9 Stars 1949 Adam's Rib   George Cukor
  8 Stars 1994 Four Weddings and a Funeral   Mike Newell
  8 Stars 1993 Six Degrees of Separation   Fred Schepisi
    8 Stars 1925 Kiss Me Again   Ernst Lubitsch
  8 Stars 1939 The Women   George Cukor
  8 Stars 1934 Twentieth Century   Howard Hawks
  8 Stars 1940 The Shop Around the Corner   Ernst Lubitsch
  8 Stars 1937 Nothing Sacred   William Wellman
  8 Stars 1939 Ninotchka   Ernst Lubitsch
  8 Stars 1990 Metropolitan   Whit Stillman
  8 Stars 1992 Husbands and Wives   Woody Allen
  8 Stars 1938 Holiday   George Cukor
  8 Stars 1933 Dinner at Eight   George Cukor
  8 Stars 1961 Breakfast at Tiffany's   Blake Edwards
  8 Stars 1937 The Awful Truth   Leo McCarey
  7 Stars 1998 The Last Days of Disco   Whit Stillman
    7 Stars 1993 Smoking/No Smoking   Alain Resnais
    7 Stars 1929 The Love Parade   Ernst Lubitsch
    7 Stars 1930 Holiday   Edward H. Griffith
    7 Stars 1933 Design for Living   Ernst Lubitsch
  7 Stars 1946 Cluny Brown   Ernst Lubitsch
  7 Stars 1942 The Talk of the Town   George Stevens
    7 Stars 1926 So This Is Paris   Ernst Lubitsch
    7 Stars 1931 Private Lives   Sidney A. Franklin
  7 Stars 1924 The Marriage Circle   Ernst Lubitsch
  7 Stars 1979 A Little Romance   George Roy Hill
    7 Stars 1925 Lady Windermere's Fan   Ernst Lubitsch
  7 Stars 1958 Indiscreet   Stanley Donen
  7 Stars 1952 The Importance of Being Earnest   Anthony Asquith
  7 Stars 1958 Auntie Mame   Morton Da Costa
  6 Stars 1994 Princess Caraboo   Michael Austin
  6 Stars 1994 Barcelona   Whit Stillman
    5 Stars 1960 Haru no Yume   Keisuke Kinoshita
  5 Stars 1999 An Ideal Husband   Oliver Parker
    5 Stars 1932 A Successful Calamity   John G. Adolphi
    5 Stars 1931 The Smiling Lieutenant   Ernst Lubitsch
    5 Stars 1945 A Royal Scandal   Ernst Lubitsch
    5 Stars 1957 My Man Godfrey   Henry Koster
  5 Stars 1956 High Society   Charles Walters
    4 Stars 1930 Monte Carlo   Ernst Lubitsch
    4 Stars 1934 Madame Du Barry   William Dieterle
  4 Stars 1947 An Ideal Husband   Alexander Korda
  4 Stars 1990 Alice   Woody Allen
 
 
 
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