The cliché holds that German comedies are as rare as snow in July, which isn’t quite true. Not only does the German film industry make as many comedies as any other country, it produced two of the greatest comic directors in cinema history, Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder. What is rare is a German comedy that works with international viewers who might not recognize the sociopolitical issues underlying the humor.

When national film critics published their 2005 Best-Of lists last month, many of them featured the French film Caché (“Hidden”). It’s a pleasure to now see it appear in Buffalo. Caché is like a big and rich piece of cinematic cake for you to sink your teeth into, with one important difference. It has many layers and many flavors, but none of them are sweet. On the surface it’s an extraordinary suspense thriller, but that is only the tip of its iceberg. It is ambitious, being both about intimate matters like family and about large subjects like history or the state of the world today.

If nothing else, Harold Leventhal was an important figure in the American folk music scene for booking the folk quartet The Weavers into Carnegie Hall in 1955. A few years earlier, The Weavers were one of the most popular musical groups in the country, with hits like “Wimoweh,” Woody Guthrie’s “So Long, It’s Been Good To Know Ya,” and Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” and “Goodnight Irene.” But they came under FBI investigation for their outspoken support of international peace, civil rights and workers’ rights, and Weaver Pete Seeger was accused of being a Communist by the House Un-American Activities Committee. When Leventhal booked them for what proved to be a hugely successful show, the group had disbanded, thinking they could never perform again.