Schedule:

6:45 PM - Modern Times

Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp gets trapped in the coils of automation - at one point literally - so frenziedly tightening screws on the assembly line that, once off it, he compulsively tightens buttons on women and later becomes the guinea pig for an efficiency-promoting feeding machine run amok. Inspired by René Clair's À NOUS LA LIBERTÉ, this corrosive satire on the dehumanizing effects of technology gives its screeches, groans and grinds more lines than the actors. It's also one of Chaplin's most lighthearted works, with highlights including his helpful waving of a red flag dropped by a departing truck just as a Communist demonstration marches up behind him. DIR/SCR/PROD Charlie Chaplin. U.S., 1936, b&w, 87 min.