Film flatmates who might have made a porno

Elizabeth Banks and Seth Rogen in Zack and Mimi Make a Porno. They started out as friends and ended up as lovers, via the medium of joyless, degrading pornography. Hurrah! Photograph: PR

Now this is what love is really about. And a bit of hate too in Neil Simon's play-turned-film. Original celluloid flatmates Jack Lemmon and Walther Matthau reprise their roles as Felix Ungar and Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple II Photograph: Kobal

Not so much odd as insane, here are the flatmates from Shallow Grave (Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox and Ewan McGregor) about to give some unsuspecting soul a supercilious grilling Photograph: Kobal

It's all one big happy work/life space-sharing bundle of joy in Rent. Oh, what's that? Oh dear, sorry to hear that Photograph: Kobal

When they decided to make Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies, how did the producers know there'd be a market for a film about twentysomething male flatmates who do nothing but get stoned all day? Seriously, these Hollywood types do have some crazy hunches Photograph: Kobal

Oh, look. It's Simon Pegg and Nick Frost who, in their 20s, were flatmates who sat around watching movies and, may or may not have, got stoned in the process. Now in their 30s, they've put their experiences to good use and make highly successful pastiches of well-loved movie genres! It's like art imitating life imitating George Romero! Photograph: Kobal

Even in the olden days there were flatmates. Here are Sirs John Mills and Alec Guinness (as Pip Pirrip and Herbert Pocket) in David Lean's Great Expectations. We suspect they are not about to go and make a porno Photograph: Kobal

Neil Simon loved his incompatible cohabiting couples so much he went and invented another one! Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason star in The Goodbye Girl Photograph: Kobal

Three Men and a Baby. As if the concept itself wasn't weird enough - there's a baby but no woman! - we're also forced to believe that three successful 1980s yuppies would choose to share a flat rather than kip by themselves on their yachts Photograph: Kobal

Some people say that living with pals can take the shine off the friendship. Here, in his seminal Rope, Alfred Hitchcock proves that living with a good friend can be inspirational. In the sense of being inspired to commit murder, stash the body in a trunk and then hold a dinner party with the trunk as the table Photograph: Kobal

A Beautiful Mind, and Paul Bettany plays Russell Crowe's more emotionally-grounded flatmate, Charles. By emotionally-grounded, we mean he's the one nipping from a hip flask Photograph: Kobal

Let us finish on perhaps the ultimate flatmates, Marwood and Withnail. They show that hygiene, heating and indeed any form of polite discourse are not necessary when you have access to the finest wines available to humanity. All that's missing is the home-made porn Photograph: Kobal