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Previous story: Movie Times (Friday, February 4 - Thursday, February 10)
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Film Now Playing

Opening This Week:

ANOTHER YEAR—Mike Leigh’s drama starring Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen as a happy couple whose friends haven’t done as well with their own lives. Co-starring Lesley Manville, Peter Wight, and Phil Davis. Reviewed this issue. North Park

THE ILLUSIONIST—From the French animator Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville). a new film based on a semi-biographical script written by the great comedian Jacques Tati. Reviewed this issue. Eastern Hills

THE ROOMMATE—In a thriller that sounds like Single White Female in a college dorm, an emotionally unstable college freshman becomes obsessed with her roommate. Starring Minka Kelly, Leighton Meester, Frances Fisher, and Billy Zane. Directed by Christian E. Christiansen. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood , Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

SANCTUM—James Cameron produced this 3D movie about divers trapped in an undersea cave. Starring Richard Roxburgh, Ioan Gruffudd, and Rhys Wakefield. Directed by Alister Grierson. Flix, Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood , Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

ETC:

THE BOLSHOI BALLET: THE FLAMES OF PARIS—A ballet in two acts from the Bolshoi Theatre, Moscow, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky. Wed, 7pm. Amherst Theatre, 3500 Main St. (834-7655 / www.dipsontheatres.com).

CALIGULA—Live from the Paris Opera Ballet, choreographer Nicolas Le Riche’s tragic ballet about the infamous Roman emperor, scored to music by Antonio Vivaldi. Tue 1:30pm. Amherst Theatre, 3500 Main St. (834-7655 / www.dipsontheatres.com).

THE FOUND FOOTAGE FESTIVAL—Return of the touring show featuring weird footage exhumed from junked VHS tapes. Bonus attraction: 25th anniversary presentation of Heavy Metal Parking Lot. Fri 7, 9pm Squeaky Wheel, 712 Main St (884-7172 / www.squeaky.org).

HIS GIRL FRIDAY (1940)—If Howard Hawks’ adaptation of the newspaper comedy The Front Page isn’t the funniest movie ever made, I don’t know what is. Hawks’ stroke of genius was to rewrite the part of reporter Hildy Johnson for a woman (Rosalind Russell), adding a layer of sexual tension to her dealings with editor Cary Grant. You can see it a dozen times and still not exhaust the machine-gun dialogue. The program includes an episode of the 1950s serial Radar Men From the Moon and other classic short features. Tues 7 pm, Weds 1 pm. Lancaster Opera House, 21 Central Avenue (683-1776 / www.lancopera.org).

I LOVE YOU AGAIN (1940)—Enjoyably convoluted screwball comedy from the stars and director (W. S. Van Dyke) of The Thin Man movies, with William Powell as a con man who marries Myrna Loy while suffering from amnesia. Fri, 7:30pm. The Old Chestnut Film Society, Philip Sheridan School, 3200 Elmwood (836-4757)

MEET JOHN DOE (1941)—Frank Capra’s political fable starring Gary Cooper as a bum hired to pose as a manufactured “forgotten man” to boost a newspaper’s readership, only to find that he is being used as a symbol for a fascistic movement to be run by that paper’s owner. It’s sad to think how pertinent this 70-year-old film is to modern politics (Tea Partiers please note). Co-starring Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan and James Gleason. Fri, Tue 7:30pm. The Screening Room, Northtown Plaza in Century Mall, 3131 Sheridan Drive, Amherst (837-0376 / www.screeningroom.net)

THE SERVANT (1963)— Harold Pinter takes the English class system to task in this drama starring Dirk Bogarde as a butler who manipulates his aristocratic employer (James Fox). With Sarah Miles and Wendy Craig. Directed by Joseph Losey (The Go-Between). Free and open to the public. Mon 7:30pm. Wick Center, Daemen College, 4380 Main Street, Amherst

A TRIP TO THE MOON (1902) and THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928)—A double feature of classic and influential silent films. Georges Méliès A Trip to the Moon is the first special effects movie, while the surrealist adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s story was scripted by Luis Bunuel and features a features a spectacular set that influenced the design of Xanadu in Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane). Tue 7:30pm Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, 25 Nottingham Court

UNSEEN TEARS—Short video by Ron Douglas about the experiences of Native Americans in state-run boarding schools, featuring testimonies of boarding school survivors, their families, and social service providers. Presented by Squeaky Wheel; free and open to the public. Thu Feb. 10 Noon. Central Library, 1 Lafayette Square. www.squeaky.org