FILM // PhxArt x Lisa Sette Gallery Series: Politics, People, and Society / The Great Dictator

July 14 | 1 pm

Presented in Whiteman Hall. Limited capacity.

TICKETS: Free for Members | $8 for the general public

The art of film has long provoked reflection on the ways humans interact with each other and our world. This summer, the PhxArt x Lisa Sette Gallery Summer Films series Politics, People, and Society offers a global view on how politics, cultural + societal beliefs, and other factors inform individual identity, community relations, and sometimes, entire nations and social structures. The series also complements special exhibition Multiple Realities: Experimental Art in the Eastern Bloc, 1960s-1980s, which explores how artists found novel ways to express themselves during a time when art-making was heavily monitored by governmental systems and policies.

In The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin offers both a cutting caricature of Adolf Hitler and a clever rendition of his own comic persona. Chaplin brings his sublime physicality to two roles: the cruel yet clownish “Tomainian” dictator and the kindly Jewish barber who is mistaken for him. Featuring Jack Oakie and Paulette Goddard, the film boldly critiqued the fascist leader before the U.S.’s official entry into World War II and is marked as an audacious amalgam of politics and slapstick that culminates in Chaplin’s famously impassioned speech.

Presented in English. Estimated runtime 136 min.

This film series is made possible by the Lisa Sette Gallery.