(LA NANA, Sebastián Silva, Chile 2009, 95 min., Spanish/subtitles

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, this nimble comedy provides a fascinating character study of Raquel (Catalina Saavedra, who also won a Sundance jury prize for her performance), a live-in domestic for a Santiago family for more than 20 years who grows weary of her job. But when the family tries to assist by hiring extra help, Raquel reacts with a passive-aggressive jealousy, subtly declaring war on her employers and a series of new maids. Co-presented by the Rochester Labor Council.

(Bill Forsyth, US 1989, 91 min.)

In a change-of-pace role, Burt Reynolds is a career burglar who takes on aimless young kid (the very funny Casey Siemaszko) as an apprentice. But while the older thief tries to impart everything he knows about life and his business, youthful impatience creates a rift in the partnership. Working from an original screenplay by John Sayles, director Bill Forsyth delivers a gentle and charming comedy with two wonderful lead performances.

Read more about the films of Bill Forsyth here.

(Jacques Tati, France 1971, 97 min., French/subtitles)

In his final feature film appearance, Tati’s bumbling Monsieur Hulot takes to Paris’s highways and byways. Hulot, employed as an auto company’s director of design, accompanies his new vehicle (a camper tricked out with absurd gadgetry) to an auto show in Amsterdam. Naturally, the road is paved with modern-age mishaps. This late-career delight is a masterful demonstration of the comic genius’s expert timing and sidesplitting visual gags, and a bemused last look at technology run amok.

One of Hollywood’s great comedy pioneers, producer Hal Roach—a native of Elmira, NY—was renowned for his hilarious two-reel productions and his uncanny knack for spotting brilliant physical comedians. This program highlights his greatest performers, including Stan Laurel, featured in the solo vehicle ORANGES AND LEMONS (George Jeske, US 1923, 12 min.) and teamed with his ubiquitous partner Oliver Hardy in SHOULD MARRIED MEN GO HOME (Leo McCarey and James Parrott, US 1928, 20 min.). Charley Chase stars in THE CARETAKER’S DAUGHTER (Leo McCarey, US 1925, 20 min.); Max Davidson makes THE CALL OF THE CUCKOO (Clyde Bruckman, US 1927, 17 min.); and THE CHAMPEEN (Robert F. McGowan, US 1923, 20 min.) is one of the earliest Our Gang shorts. Silent film comedy scholar Richard M. Roberts, author of an upcoming book on Hal Roach, will be your guide through this garden of comic delights. Live piano by Philip C. Carli.

O MIMI SAN (Charles Miller, US 1914, 20 min.)

THE DEVIL’S CLAIM (Charles Swickard, US 1920, 60 min.)

The great Japanese performer Sessue Hayakawa stars in this pair of unusual silent-era melodramas. In O Mimi San, the actor’s first movie, he plays a prince torn between love and duty to his nation. The Devil’s Claim features Hayakawa in a dual role as a turban-wearing writer in love with Persian damsel Colleen Moore, and the possessed-by-an-evil-spirit main character in the writer’s serial story. Live piano by Philip C. Carli.