Comfort and Joy

"A serious comedy"

1984 1h 46m EN

👍

6.6

SOLID

★6.6TMDB · 67

Comedy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Radio host Alan 'Dickie' Bird witnesses how an icecream van is attacked and destroyed by angry competitors. This leads him into the struggle between two Italian families over the icecream market of Glasgow.

“A serious comedy”

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Cast

Bill Paterson
Alan
Eleanor David
Maddy
Clare Grogan
Charlotte
Alex Norton
Trevor
Patrick Malahide
Colin
Roberto Bernardi
Mr. McCool
Rikki Fulton
Hilary
George Rossi
Bruno

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Bill Forsyth
Writers: Bill Forsyth
Languages: Italian, English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

42 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Italian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Bill Forsyth, shot by Chris Menges. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mark Knopfler. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Michael Ellis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Bill Paterson and Eleanor David and Clare Grogan carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A serious comedy".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0087072 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Bill Forsyth directs. Chris Menges behind the camera. Mark Knopfler scores. Michael Ellis cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in Italian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

142 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Italian, English.
3Directed by Bill Forsyth, shot by Chris Menges. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Mark Knopfler. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Michael Ellis shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Bill Paterson and Eleanor David and Clare Grogan carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A serious comedy".
8IMDB entry: tt0087072 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 67 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Chris Menges
Original score: Mark Knopfler
Editing: Michael Ellis
Production design: Adrienne Atkinson
Costume design: Lindy Hemming
Makeup / hair: Anne McFadyen
Runtime: 106 min · 1h 46m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Comfort and Joy (1984)

Also by

Bill Forsyth

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Community reviews

What people are saying

r96sk2020-10-18
★ 7/10
A nice, amusing and creative premise. I enjoyed 'Comfort and Joy'. Bill Paterson heads events confidently as Alan, he's fun to watch in the lead. Patrick Malahide ('Game of Thrones', 'Luther') is in there too, while Alex Norton and Roberto Bernardi play their respective roles well. The pacing, to me at least, is a little off at around the midway point, but otherwise it's a pleasant film from 1984. Watch it if you get the opportunity.
CinemaSerf2024-04-23
★ 7/10
Without any help at all from "Mr. Bridger", the Italian chip shops and ice cream vans of Glasgow are being smashed up. It's only because he takes a bit of a shine to one of the girls in the van that local radio personality "Alan" (Bill Peterson) witnesses one of the assaults and decides that he must do something to ensure peace breaks out. There really were "ice cream wars" in Glasgow so this engaging comedy has it's roots in fact as he tries to get the warring "Mr. Cool" (Robert Bernardi) and "Mr. Bunny" (Alex Norton) round the wafer table before his new soft-top BMW becomes little more than a bright red ashtray. He starts to use his radio show to convey illicit messages that just come across as gobbledegook to his station boss "Hilary" (Rikki Fulton) and soon his own career is starting to look like it might be melting too. The solution. Well anyone who's ever been to the city will know that we fry everything - even Mars bars! Patterson is on good form here, and his amiable delivery quite subtly takes an entertaining ping at the mundanity of commercial radio and it's banal advertising whilst touching on then ridiculing what was quite a serious issue at the time. Rikki Fulton has expert comedy timing and facial expressions that deliver what a thousand words never could. "Has he got a sanity clause"? Well it is the winter. Well worth a watch.