Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times"

[Chris D]

I had to play Charlie Chaplin at a dinner murder mystery party, so I rented this for a watch. I've never really watched Chaplin's work before. It was FANTASTIC! This particular film is thought of as the "last silent film", as film audio had just begun, but Chaplin refused to have his famous and archetypical character "The Tramp" take part in a speaking movie. So the film is mostly a silent film, with very light and soft background music and a few sound effects. Fairly appropriately, at the end of the film, you hear Charlie's voice for the first time on film, (and the ONLY time for the Tramp) where he sings a nonsense word song. Then the film closes with the Tramp walking down a road off into the sunset. There's also some poignant understated symbolism of machinery and industry in the film, reminiscent of "Metropolis", but from a total different perspective.

I'll definitely be watching more Chaplin movies now. He was wonderful. Such a physical comedian. I can absolutely see that his performance directly created Groucho Marx, (who was one of his friends) Jim Carrey, some of Johnny Depp, the Three Stooges, the whole slapstick movement, Mr. Bean, Benny Hill, and much more. Quite a giant.

I was rolling on the ground at some of Chaplin's antics in the film. While other parts were so-so, it was overall a wonderful movie, and I'll be watching more, for sure.

[George Bellefontaine]

Back in the 60s a local cinema in Halifax ran a festival of Charlie Chaplin silent films for a week. There were lineups for every showing every night. Like you, Chris, the first one I saw had me rolling in the aisles. He was a genius.