BBC Culture recently asked 253 film critics (118 women and 135 men) to identify their top 10 favorite comedies. “We urged the experts to go with their heart and pick personal favorites,” the source emphasized. “Films that are part of their lives.” After crunching the numbers and identifying the most popular selections, BBC Culture published a list called The 100 Greatest Comedies of All Time — and only four female-directed films made the cut.
Elaine May’s “A New Leaf” came in at number 90. The 1971 film follows a newly poor playboy (Walter Matthau) who decides to marry and murder a rich woman (May) to regain his wealth. At number 89 is Vera Chytilová’s 1966 film “Daisies,” about two teen pranksters (Jitka Cerhová and Ivana Karbanová).
Maren Ade’s award-winning “Toni Erdmann” placed at number 59. Last year’s hit traces the strained but loving relationship between an ambitious career woman (Sandra Hüller) and her practical joker father (Peter Simonischek). Finally, Amy Heckerling’s “Clueless” came in at number 34. The 1995 Beverly Hills-set film stars Alicia Silverstone as a rich queen bee trying to use her “popularity for a good cause.”
None of those films cracked the top 30 and only “Toni Erdmann” was released in the past 20 years. The severe lack of women is even more frustrating since many of the male directors — like Billy Wilder, Howard Hawks, Rob Reiner, and Wes Anderson — hold multiple spots on the list.
While BBC Culture didn’t provide specific criteria for what constitutes a comedy — they left that up to the critics to determine — it would have been nice to see a classic like Penny Marshall’s “Big” be included. The 1988 body swap comedy not only stars Tom Hanks in an Oscar-nominated performance, it serves as inspiration for everything from “13 Going on 30” to episodes of shows like “The Mindy Project.”
It also would have been great to see comedies that present oft-ignored stories be recognized. Nancy Meyers’ “Something’s Gotta Give” is a sexually frank rom-com about people over 50. Rachel Tunnard’s “Adult Life Skills” is about a young woman who isn’t really interested in anything but making movies that star her thumbs. Gillian Robespierre’s “Obvious Child” presents abortion as just one small part of a struggling comedian’s life. And Gurinder Chadha’s “Bend It Like Beckham” sees its heroine stuck in a culture clash between her Sikh family and her love of sports.
The inclusion of only four women in The 100 Greatest Comedies points to the (historic and present) lack of opportunity for female directors. An MDSC Initiative study from earlier this year evaluated the 1,114 directors on the last decade’s top-grossing films and found that only four percent were female (Four really seems to be the not-so-magic number). The report concluded that there had been “no meaningful change in the prevalence of female directors” on top films. The 100 Greatest Comedies of All Time list makes that lack of progress very clear.
