The World of Peter Sellers

Are there three sweeter words than “Peter Sellers retrospective”? Hmmm… “you’ve got mail”—no. “Here’s fifty bucks”—well, maybe. We haven’t seen about half the titles here (yet), but we can tell you with absolutely authority that there are four can’t-lose offerings from the mid-century’s great comedic chameleon: his two Stanley Kubrick collaborations, Dr. Strangelove and Lolita; the best of his Inspector Clouseau series, A Shot in the Dark; and Being There, his transcendent satire of the TV-created mind he fought to make for ten years. Meanwhile, Jackie Chan buffs, reserve your Mondays for a month of classics by Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, the masters of silent-era, let’s-do-the-stunts-ourselves physical comedy. Top on the list is Lloyd’s Safety Last—that’s the one where he accidentally climbs the outside of a department store all the way up to the clock tower—and note that not only is Lloyd himself really climbing, but that he was missing two fingers and a thumb on his right hand! Oak Street, 309 Oak St. S.E., (612) 331-3134, oakstreetcinema.org