For this, the one-hundredth edition of our DVD of the Week, its producer, Monica Racic, and I wanted to do something special, and there’s no film more special than Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” from 1940, which I discuss in this clip, taken from the marvellous new restoration of it that’s forthcoming from Criterion. Chaplin is the transcendent figure in the history of cinema—he put the cinema into history with his comedy, and here—in his devastating comic mockery of Adolf Hitler and denunciation of the tyrant’s hateful and world-dominating madness—he turns his comedy into an act of vast historical moment. Throughout the week, I’ll be revisiting this profound and daring film, which restores the therapeutically furious essence of comedy: to tear away familiar and comforting illusions in order to reveal the full measure of the world’s grievous absurdity.
Goings On
What we’re watching, listening to, and doing this week, online, in N.Y.C., and beyond. Paid subscribers also receive book picks.
Our Local Correspondents
Donald Trump Is Being Ritually Humiliated in Court
At his criminal trial, the ex-President has to sit there while potential jurors, prosecutors, the judge, witnesses, and even his own lawyers talk about him as a defective, impossible person.
By Eric Lach
Our Local Correspondents
Why You Can’t Get a Restaurant Reservation
How bots, mercenaries, and table scalpers have turned the restaurant reservation system inside out.
By Adam Iscoe
News Desk
What Harvey Weinstein’s Overturned Conviction Means for Donald Trump’s Trial
The legal issue behind Weinstein’s successful appeal is also at the heart of the former President’s hush-money case.
By Ronan Farrow
Daily Comment
How Columbia’s Campus Was Torn Apart Over Gaza
The university asked the N.Y.P.D. to arrest pro-Palestine student protesters. Was it a necessary step to protect Jewish students, or a dangerous encroachment on academic freedom?
By Andrew Marantz