Charlie Chaplin: C/D

As far as Chaplin is concerned, it seems to me that it became received wisdom in the past few decades that the stoic lover of mature women Buster Keaton is vastly preferable to the schmaltzy cradle-robber Charlie Chaplin, so maybe it is time to redress the balance.

contemporary films are projected at 24fps. silent film speeds varied, but most chaplins should be projected around 16fps. of course for video it's a different issue--there are various ways of making a film appear to be run at the right speed in a video transfer (i think ntsc video is 25fps or something like that, i forget).

Was it mostly Europeans, tho? That would make sense -- his sensibility seems more European than any of his Hollywood contemporaries'. The whole sad-clown/trickster thing maybe resonates more with French and Italian ideas of commedia dell'arte than with broader and/or more deadpan American comedy (which could be why American viewers prefer the very American pacing and mayhem of the Sennett shorts). The most obvious Chaplin descendants I can think of are mostly European (Giulietta Masina, Jacques Tati).

Chaplin (re)invented cinema comedy grammar, hence all who followed are influenced whether they know it or not. Similar to Griffith with melodramas and chase sequences.

how do you mean? as an assertion this is both vague and broad.

max linder's films have some very chaplin-esque qualities, pre-chaplin. though a search for precedents is neverending, almost by definition.

Chiefly, no predecessor incorporated gags, set pieces, etc into a dramatic narrative to the degree he did.

Also, "The Gold Rush" is rather unimpeachable; some utterly majestic sequences...

In terms of his sound films, yes, he doesn't work so well in the format, but do not underestimate "Monsieur Verdoux", a notably dark film, with Chaplin's addressing-the-world tendency for once injecting a note of lasting despair. Well balanced by lighter moments. However, "A King in New York" is forlornly bad; a bitter film that just ends up seeming petty and stillborn. The self-regarding "Limelight" I am undecided about, and "The Great Dictator" is a bizarre panoply of tones and approaches...

And I think that's the rub. Up-thread, there is comment on his Victorian quality. He brings sophisticated physical comedy and high cultural signifiers (self-composed classical scores, lest we forget) together with all of the pathos and spectacle of the Victorian showman - whether Irving or Dan Leno. There are sentimental music-hall type songs/themes, such as "Smile" (melo) and exaggerated villains and desperate situations ('drama'). His tramp's a bit like a Dickensian protagonist, or a persecuted hero in mid-Victorian crime melodramas such as Tom Taylor's "Ticket of Leave Man".

It's not particularly easy to fully enjoy Chaplin on the terms set out by comedy in 2005, or even 1955...

this is amazing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcvjoWOwnn4

Saw The Gold Rush at the NY Film Fest today, w/ accompaniment by members of the NY Philharmonic. I didn't know that TGR (and other features of his) can't be theatrically exhibited unless there's an orcgestra of at least 13 pieces playing!

Anyway, tho I prefer Keaton's features in general, the dance of the rolls is one of the all-time great moments. And the laughs still counterbalanced the pathos at that point.

(...of his career, I mean)

if you don't like The Kid you're insane.

ha, forgot about this thread -- i disown most of what i said; chaplin subsequently became more or less my favorite film person ever.

i saw 'city lights' with an audience a couple years ago and it pretty much was the best film experience ever.

probably should quit ending sentences with 'ever.'

this thread just reminded me that i forgot to record Limelight on TCM last night. I've never seen it.

the MI5 file: "It may be that Chaplin is a communist sympathiser but on the information before us he would appear to be no more than a 'progressive', or radical."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/17/mi5-spied-on-charlie-chaplin

"City Lights" is being shown here at the end of March with accompaniment by the Cleveland Orchestra and I'm seriously considering going even though I just watched it again on Netflix not two months ago.

Ugh, went w/partner to a screening of The Gold Rush not realising it was the 1942 re-release.

"In 1942, Chaplin released a new version of The Gold Rush, taking the original silent 1925 film and composing and recording a musical score, adding a narration which he recorded himself, and tightening the editing which reduced the film's running time by several minutes.

DO NOT WANT. We ended up leaving about five minutes in; we couldn't take the narration any longer.

p sure I've only happened on to that version on TV long ago

the current DVD version of 'the gold rush' emphasizes that version and tacks on the original version as an 'extra,' apparently at the insistence of chaplin's family.

123 today. Showed my class the boxing match from City Lights; they laughed, so they I showed them the Oceana rolls from Gold Rush; they laughed at that, so I moved onto the factory scene from Modern Times.

Criterion set of The Gold Rush makes a restored edition of the reconstructed silent version (with an adaptation of the '42 musical score) fully available at last.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/the-gold-rush/2341

I have to say it's risen even further in my esteem after seeing it this way at the NYFF last fall and another 3 times while absorbing this set. The emotional strings are plucked somewhat more subtly, maybe, than in City Lights and Modern Times, even if it's not as knockabout gritty as the shorts.

also, every auteur needs a chicken suit.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw605siTyO1qa6obyo1_500.jpg

oh my local vid rental place got this in recently. excited!

happy 125th

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-chaplin-125

Graham Greene writes to CC after his banishment, one of the overlooked mega-moves of McCarthyism:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119468/graham-greene-writes-support-charlie-chaplin-against-mccarthyism

“Charlie Chaplin’s The Tramp was released to the public through Essanay Studios on April 12th, 1915.... Chaplin has been much written about in the 100 years since he first captured the attention of the public, but his career is so jam-packed with messy attitudes and impulses that it still stands as a shifting, fresh body of work to marvel at and get lost in.”

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/charlie-chaplins-the-tramp-at-100

The Kid looks astonishing on the new Criterion blu-ray, and the movie itself is still a joy.

gets his own museum

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/comedians/charlie-chaplin-museum-opens-in-switzerland/

http://www.chaplinsworld.com/

Filmstruck loses his Keystone, Essanay and Mutual shorts in about 48 hours — which ones should I try to catch before then?

all the Mutuals

I feel like that's an unfortunate byproduct of modern-day film (and television) comedy in general, and probably a big reason why I've exponentially grown to love Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, early Laurel & Hardy, Charley Chase and other silent masters - that era was really the only time where all of a comedy was perfectly geared towards a visual medium for obvious reasons. Meanwhile, so much of a comedy in the modern era is based around sketch comedy and stand-up routines, becoming much more dependent on verbal cues.

*all of comedy

Darn these Talkies have ruined everything

https://img.nbc.com/sites/nbcunbc/files/images/2015/5/04/140208_2723724_Weekend_Update_Segment___Grumpy_Old_Man_anvver_1.jpg

In my day, we didn't have "DIALOGUE"!

That's an extremely clever sketch (idea) that somehow never actually reaches "funny".

I kind of like the few "famous stories about great artists" sketches I can remember from that era - it seems like a concept they really enjoyed doing, partly so they can go to town with depicting gross mischaracterizations. For example, the one where Ringo goes from "I'm just happy to be here!" to being really opinionated about the direction the Beatles should take during their formidable years, and also when Picasso is a loud-mouthed cheap buffoon who pays everything by scribbling a doodle. (Not even that - at one point he sneezes some snot into a tissue and says "why it's another masterpiece from Picasso!" and proceeds to sign it and toss it on to the ground, prompting all the waiters to dive for it.)

Showed my class the boxing match from City Lights; they laughed

Watching "City Lights" right now and the boxing match is so brilliantly choreographed - and funny. I feel like see dozens of "comical" boxing scenes in movies but this is the best by a million miles.

... I feel like I've seen, that is.

It really is, down to the split-second--especially the way Chaplin keeps disappearing behind the referee.