The Great Dictator

Opening:

BROKEN CITY—This month’s fairy-tale-turned-into-a-special-effects-extravaganza movie. Starring Jeremy Renner, Gemma Arterton, and Famke Janssen. Directed by Tommy Wirkola (Dead Snow). Reviewed this issue. Flix, Maple Ridge, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

MOVIE 43—Gross-out comedy consisting of a dozen interlinked segments directed by various actors. Flix, Maple Ridge, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

PARKER—Jason Statham follows Lee Marvin, Robert Duval and Mel Gibson as the anti-hero of Donald E. Westlake’s series of novels about a coldly professional thief. With Jennifer Lopez, Michael Chiklis, and Bobby Cannavale. Directed by Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman). Flix, Market Arcade, Regal Elmwood, Regal Niagara Falls, Regal Quaker, Regal Transit, Regal Walden Galleria

QUARTET—Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this adaptation of Ronald Harwood’s play set at a home for retired opera singers where an annual concert is disrupted by the arrival a new diva. Starring Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon, and Andrew Sachs. Eastern Hills

ETC:

THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE (Italy, 1970)—Dario Argento’s directorial debut set the pattern for his distinctive oeuvre: an innocent man becomes involved in the hunt for a seemingly psychotic, brutal murderer, whose attacks form the set piecs around which the film is built. The music (by Ennio Morricone) and widescreen photography (by Vittorio Storaro) are both first rate. Starring Tony Musante and Suzy Kendall. Screening Room

LA BOHEME— Puccini’s opera, the basis for the Broadway show Rent, presented at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Spain. Starring Ramon Vargas and Fiorenza Cedolins. Conducted by Víctor Pablo Pérez. Directed by Giancarlo del Monaco.

THE GREAT DICTATOR (1940)—Charles Chaplin stars in two roles, as fascist dictator “Adenoid Hynkel” and a Jewish barber who is mistaken for him. With Jack Oakie, Paulette Goddard, Henry Daniell, and Billy Gilbert. Presented as part of the Buffalo Film Seminar. Market Arcade

LED ZEPPELIN: CELEBRATION DAY—Concert film of the band’s 2007 reunion show in London. Reviewed this issue. Amherst.

THE SEVEN YEAR ITCH (1955)—The film that gave the world the iconic image of Marilyn Monroe having her skirt blown up over a subway grating. This adaptation of the Broadway hit about a about a married man (Tom Ewell) contemplating adultery while his family is away for the summer is so dated as to seem a remnant of some extinct civilization. Director Billy Wilder was forced to sanitize the play’s original ending. Screening Room