I think a lot of interesting movies are based on the works of absurdist fiction & theatre. Hungarian scholar Martin Esslin is often credited with coining the term that came to frame a number of international movements, through one of his academic studies. Influential was Ernst Lubitsch's 'The Shop Around The Corner' (1940), one of several films adapted from one of Miklos Laszlo's plays built around an absurd premise, as noted by Woody Allen. Heavily influencing the dramatic side was Vittorio De Sica's 'Umberto D.' (1952); personally, I find much absurdist drama I've seen to be funny, drawing conflict lines between "absurdity" and "chance", as outlined within the work of writers from Armand Salacrou and Albert Camus, to John Irving and Paul Auster.
Some films :
The Criminal Life Of Archibaldo De La Cruz (1955 - Luis Bunuel / based on Rodolfo Usigli)
Zazie In The Underground (1960 - Louis Malle / based on Ramond Queneau)
The Trial (1962 - Orson Welles / based on Franz Kafka)
Closely Observed Trains (1965 - Jiri Menzel / based on Bohumil Hrabal)
The Persecution And Assassination Of Jean-Paul Marat As Performed By The Inmates Of The Asylum Of Charenton Under The Direction Of The Marquis De Sade (1967 - Peter Brook / based on Peter Weiss)
Fando Y Lis (1968 - Alejandro Jodorowsky / based on Fernando Arrabal)
Leo The Last (1970 - John Boorman / based on George Tabori)
Catch-22 (1970 - Mike Nichols / based on Joseph Heller)
The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973 - Wojciech Has / based on Bruno Schulz)
Black Mirror (1981 - Pierre-Alain Jolivet / based on Jean Genet)
30 Door Key (1991 - Jerzy Skolimowski / based on Witold Gombrowicz)
Ninette (2005 - Jose Luis Garci / based on Miguel Mihura)
Mood Indigo (2013 - Michel Gondry / based on Boris Vian)
With most of the playwrights, their work was more typically adapted as tv movies - for example there's been many official and unofficial adaptations made for television of Luigi Pirandello's 'Six Characters In Search Of An Author'. Eugene Ionescu, Jean Genet, Samuel Beckett and others are more regularly adapted for stage and television as their work's been perceived as difficult to adapt on a cinema budget in commercial terms (challenging perhaps, and none too profitable). If you were to take my favourite play by Harold Pinter, 'The Birthday Party' (1968) was filmed by William Friedkin, but I grew up with Kenneth Ives' 1987 tv version. My introduction to my favourite Irish actor, Stephen Rea, was through Tony Coe's 1989 filmisation of Samuel Beckett's 'Endgame' for tv.
Jean Genet's short film 'A Song Of Love' (1950) is screening on youtube. You can also see Henri Gruel & Jan Lenica's early animation 'Monsieur Tete' (1959) on youtube, inspired by the writings of Eugene Ionesco. And 'Film' (1965), written by Samuel Beckett and directed by Alan Schneider, is also currently playing on youtube.
There's many films that have been written / directed by artists & filmmakers associated with absurdist fiction & theatre. I'm not qualified to delineate further but enjoy reading articles on the subject (currently, looking at Jorge Amado's contributions to absurdism).
A few films :
The Exterminating Angel (1962 - Luis Bunuel / written by Bunuel & Luis Alcoriza)
The Boom (1963 - Vittorio De Sica / written by Cesare Zavattini)
The Cassandra Cat (1963 - Vojtech Jasny / written by Jasny, Jiri Brdecka & Jan Werich)
Mademoiselle (1966 - Tony Richardson / written by Marguerite Duras from a story by Jean Genet)
Weekend (1967 - Jean-Luc Godard)
Themroc (1973 - Claude Faraldo with the Cafe de la Gare)
Charly's Nieces (1974 - Walter Boos / written by August Rieger & Valentin Gorlov)
Going Places (1974 - Bertrand Blier)
Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels (1975 - Chantal Akerman)
The Man With Two Brains (1983 - Carl Reiner / written by Reiner, George Gipe & Steve Martin)
Shadows And Fog (1991 - Woody Allen)
Hope this helps.
