Screening (Modern Times)

So this week we have looked at "Modern Times"  by Charles Chaplin!

We begin by introducing this "silent film", because it wasn't really silent, in 1936(this is the date that the film was release in the US) there were already sound in the cinema! And has we see in this film, there's a scene where while in a bar, Chaplin sing.

A few aspects to consider:

Right on the first scene we begin to see a flock of sheep, and after it, we see a "flock" of people.

During the film Chaplin makes fun of standardization, while doing his job, tightening screws, he his pretty much like  a robot, when he takes a break to go to the toilet for example, he goes all the way doing the same gestures as if he was still tightening screws, and of course Chaplin takes it to an extreme level, using all the possible jokes about it just emphasises that while in that time, "men were a machine they knew how to do one task in the job and one task only, that was for what they were "programmed"  for!


As it is a silent film, Chaplin really exaggerates his movements, as comedy silent films are a lot about physical comedy, the walking, the talking, his actions, they are not done like that by mistake, or something like it, it was made like it so we (the audience) could understand everything even without listening the lines!


Has we know this was filmed right after the 1929 Wall street crash, it was a big crises, and we see in the film a lot or poor people, as the Gamin, the girl from the film, Paulette Goddard, who steal bananas so she and her family could eat.
But we can also see a lot of the fun they had in that time, those were time of change in mentality! More even noticed in emancipation of women, going out to clubs and all of those things.
In the scene in the bar right before Chaplin sings, we have two worlds, the poor world where Chaplim and Gamin use to belong and now, at the same time, a world where they only have fun. And as now-a-days, both those worlds coexist, ones with hungry and other just having fun and spending money!

We can consider Chaplin to be simply a comedy genius, as he takes serious aspects and troubles and makes fun of them, he mocks social status, and still when those social classes saw the film, they still laugh, without knowing that they are the one being laugh about!

Genius