Entertainment For Lively Minds
Charlie Chaplin.
Always thought that Chas Chaplin was a big dull. Not sure why I thought that, it's probably because I didn't find him as funny as Laurel and Hardy when I was a youngster.
Last night however, I was in a camping field somewhere in Wales. We fancied watching a film. All I had on my laptop was something iTunes gave away for free last christmas. It was Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times.
My god it's brilliant. The man has such physical grace, rhythm and comic timing.
Perhaps he wasn't as consistently good as Stan and Ollie, and he clearly never made a successful transition to talkies, but there is clearly much to admire. He seems to have had a bad press and was even the victim of a Joke in Blackadder 4.
I'll be seeking out more of his early work.
Any admirers out there?
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Bad Press
Do you think?
I think he is highly revered (correctly in my opinion) and can't remember hearing many bad things about him at all. Occasionally, they'll be a Chaplin v Keaton stand-off, but I would never say he'd had a bad press.
I would say he is one of the mostly highly-praised movie stars, although perhaps this worship is a relatively recent thing: the last 25/30 years or so?
Bad press
Just my perception really. I guess I mean not held in the same public reverential regard as Laurel & Hardy. I suspect its because L&H migrated to the world of talkies in a way that Chapiln never did. I'm certainly re-evaluating my perception with immediate effect!
Public perception
Yes, possibly.
As I've studied film, I suppose I was thinking more from an academic/film studies perspective, where Chaplin is routinely listed as one of the best/most influential directors ever and is near-canonised, so couldn't see him as getting bad press or not being as influential as L & H.
Genius craftsman.
But somehow a little cold, and just that bit too calculating to be lovable, to my mind.
I think Keaton, and Laurel & Hardy, were just as brilliant, technically, but had that certain human spark that made them lovable, as well as admirable.
Mutual
I'm a Keaton man, but Chaplin's Mutual shorts, made in (I think) 1917, are an extraordinary body of work.
Watch The Immigrant, The Floorwalker, The Cure, The Pawnshop or Easy Street. Keaton, Stan Laurel and all who followed them owe a hell of a lot to Charlie Chaplin. Plus, he was the first global superstar.
Sentimentality
Lots of good stuff, great moves but the Victorian sentimentality puts me off.
I think the above comments sum him up pretty well
I always had a soft spot for The Rink:
and let's not forget his foil, possibly the scariest man in cinema, Eric Campbell, whose own story ended very sadly:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Campbell_%28actor%29
Huge admiration for him
technically brilliant, but he doesn't make me laugh. Stan Laurel was equally brilliant, but for me he had funny bones as well as phenomenal technique. As Chaplin's former understudy, maybe Laurel learnt a thing or two from Chaplin - although some say it was the other way around - who knows?
But he made millions of people laugh, so whether he was or wasn't funny is of course subjective, same as with any comic.
Mrs P met Mr C
when she was a child. Her grandafther ran a Glasgow theatre and knew lots of the stars. She met a lot of big names and he got her picture taken with them, knowing it would be fun for her when she was older. Her photo album makes impressive viewing