...1/22 Film Reviews In today’s class we watched two silent films; Safety Last and Modern Times. At first I was skeptical about watching two silent films and being engaged the entire time. However, both films kept my attention and were highly entertaining. Safety Last was directed by Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor. Hal Roach was its’ producer. The immediate cast consisted of a few performers; Harold Lloyd, Mildred Davis, Bill Strother, Noah Young, and Westcott Clarke. Throughout this film I maintained both a sense of anxiety as well as humor. There were many parts that I couldn’t help laughing at (when he was attacked by birds and when he was trying to come in late to work). However, there were also many parts that caused me to feel anxious and left my palms sweaty. Throughout the entire film I was anxious about the main character lying about his job to his fiancée and I was also very nervous when he climbed the building and kept getting faced with obstacles along the way. The film left me with a feeling of relief that he had successfully climbed to the top of the building. However, I was also left a little frustrated that his fiancée was still clueless about his job position and money situation. The city had a definite impact on the style of this film. To me, the style seemed to be the style in the city. There was hustle and bustle, people were dressed very well, and the emphasis on ambition all reflects the style of a city. The style was consistent throughout the film. The theme...
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...Attenborough (29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014) who was an English actor, film director, film producer, entrepreneur and politician. He was the President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. As a film director and producer, Attenborough won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1983. He also won four BAFTA Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street and Jurassic Park. His most recent films as director and producer include Chaplin (1992) starring Robert Downey, Jr., as Charlie Chaplin and Shadowlands (1993), based on the relationship between C. S. Lewis and Joy Gresham (the star of the latter was Anthony Hopkins, who had appeared in four previous films for Attenborough: Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far, Magic and Chaplin). Between 2006-07, he spent time in Belfast, working on his last film as director and producer, Closing the Ring, a love story set in Belfast during the Second World War and starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Pete Postlethwaite. According to some of the films he produced, we came to the conclusion that he was probably interested in developing films which correspond to a certain time in history and in most of them, war was one of the main themes. Besides that, we can say that in most of his films there were some kind of lessons or morals in order to make people see things in...
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...TH 330 – American Cinema January 29, 2010 Gold Rush Does any movie require a happy ending? Charlie Chaplin added his twist to the meaning of “happy endings” when he directed the film Gold Rush. Even when the movie business was in its early years Chaplin recognized that a happy ending could have a variety of meaning. Furthermore, he tantalized the audience from every angle with his resourcefulness and quick wit. In Gold Rush, Chaplin easily makes fun out of being poor and destitute. For one thing, he was able to turn the hazards and tribulations of “coldness” into comedy. In essence, I am referring to the coldness due to the weather and of some people’s reactions to the Little Tramp. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the movie even though it highlights the many aspects of desperate men and women who are willing to put their bodies through immense hardship in the pursuit of gold. For sure, the Little Tramp is by no means on physical par to the other men in the movie; however, he always has an ingenious way of getting what he wants, even the girl. For example, when Big Jim imagines that Charlie is a chicken and runs after him with an axe, Charlie mistakenly shoots a bear and they have food for days. Then, Charlie meets another prospector who lends him his cabin and all he had to do was simply take care of the cabin and the mule. Chaplin was able to pull the audience into the movie; he would have them laughing at one time and sad in the other instance. The film did...
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...Surname Instructor Course Date Charlie Chaplin; The Prominent comedian Introduction During the silent era, films had did not have harmonized recorded sound and also spoken dialogue. The dialogue was through use of signals, mime and title cards. There were a lot of technical problems that resulted from trying to coordinate motion pictures with recorded sound and this is why during the silent era (1894–1929) most films remained “silent” until the late 1920s when the first film was released with sound and it became the order of the day until now. The advantage of the silent films is that they provided inexpensive entertainment and also overcame the verbal barriers for immigrants who had had just migrated to America in the early 1920s. One of the most prominent film stars during the silent era was Charlie Chaplin, who was born on 16 April, 1889 in London, England as Charles Spencer Chaplin; he died on the 25th December 1977 as a result of natural reasons. He was born from a very humble family, and his parents were also involved in the entertainment industry and this is why he started of his career at the tender age. During his American tour, he was spotted by Mark Sennet, who was a famous comedy director. He had two half-brothers who were also film actors; Sydney Chaplin and Wheeler Dryden and was the husband to Mildred Harris, who he divorced in 1920 and got married again to an actresses Lita Grey with whom...
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...Charles Chaplin In London on April sixteenth, eighteenth eighty-nine was the birth of Charles Chaplin, who grew up to become a comedy British actor, who completely changed film. Charles was the only moviemaker daring enough to challenge the coming of sound. During his first year with his company he made fourteen films which including The Tramp in 1915. He was an incredible entertainer, arguably the most famous person in the world. Charles used the same filmmaking methods for years and years. Charles, or what I like to call “Little Tramp” that played the funny walking character with a bamboo cane, and a toothbrush mustache during the silent film era. Today, He is still so relevant because of the legendary moments we will live throughout history. It was 1924, when Chaplin filmed scenes from the silent film “The...
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...Charlie Chaplin Biography/ Essay Charlie Chaplin was born on April 15, 1889, in London, England to Charles Chaplin, Sr., and Hannah Hill. He was taught to sing before he could talk and danced just as soon as he could walk. At a very young age Chaplin was told that he would be the most famous person in the world. From then on it was a personal goal for Charles. And he would do anything to reach his goal. When Charlie was five years old he sang for his mother on stage after she became ill and taken hoarse. Everyone in the audience loved him and hurled their money onto the stage. When Chaplin was eight, he appeared in a clog-dancing act called "Eight Lancashire Lads". Once again the audience loved him and he was excited with the attention he received. Charlie's half- brother Sidney, acted as his agent and when Charlie was ten years old, Sidney got Chaplin an engagement at the London Hippodrome. Within a few years Charlie was one of the most popular child actors in England. Charlie was twelve when his father died on May 9th, 1901. He died in St. Thomas Hospital in London of alcoholism. He was thirty-seven years old. After the death of her husband, Charlie's mother, became a chronically psychotic woman who was in and out of mental institutions. Charlie and Sidney, were placed in a charity home after their mother's mental health plummeted. Chaplin attended 2 years of school at Hern Boy's College. This was the only formal education that he ever received. Charlie was at school when...
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...1/21/13 Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” If there’s one film that should be considered the quintessential representation of triumph in Charlie Chaplin’s large body of work, I would have to say that is The Gold Rush released in 1925. This film was a victory not only for Chaplin as a filmmaker, but also for his beloved character The Tramp. He often mentioned that this was the film “by which he would most like to be remembered”. ( Robinson 334). Prior to The Gold Rush, it was two years since a Charlie Chaplin film release. The film, A Woman of Paris, directed by him and starring Adolphe Menjou, was missing one key element that made up the kind of Chaplin film his fans flocked to see: there was no Chaplin in the guise of his Tramp character anywhere to be seen. Not only was the film a large disappointment to his many fans, it was a box office failure. Author Kenneth Lynn in his book Charlie Chaplin and his Times said it well. “For the first time ever, Chaplin had concocted a flop d’estime that failed to recover its production costs.” (Lynn 277-278). This failure “was too bitter a pill for Chaplin, by now a full-fledged addict of adulation.” (Louvish 196). It’s no wonder why this was a blow to him as artist and filmmaker and a catalyst to make The Gold Rush into one of his most memorable and beloved classics. Watching The Gold Rush, it is easy to see why Chaplin said in a 1925 interview for the New York Times, “I have done exactly what I wanted to do. I have no excuses, no alibis. I have...
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...Film Assignment: Modern Times (LABR 1F90) 1. What is the significance of the clip of the flock of sheep at the very beginning of the film? In the film Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin, the significance portrayed by the metaphor ‘flock of sheep’ refers to the image of a crowd descending into an underground station. This follows a juxtaposition in which the sheep are the workers. They were being herded as they were streaming out of the Steel factory. Little Tramp played by Chaplin notices that the automation and productivity had literally changed the worker’s views, altering the masses like some livestock of obedient workers. It was as if they did nothing but work a lot with the inclusion of getting paid the least. Furthermore the factory owner or the boss was viewed as someone that was happy and relaxed who watched over all the workers through a pair of panoptic lenses. None of the workers were allowed to neglect any of the boss’s orders. Tramp was seen as a factory worker that has been exhausted from doing repetitive work on the conveyor belt. Critically the flock of sheep filmic metaphor shows that the workers have a sheep like behavior. Even though the two things were meant to represent the same thing; the phenomenon transfer of meaning can be seen as unambiguous. The crowd remains as the crowd and the sheep remains as the sheep. The association of the two simply incites the effect of the symbolic leap from one to the other based on a level that acquires a relative...
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...Film d’Art – France * French stage plays * To preserve the great triumphs of French stage. * First movies – only scenes * From 1906 such films are made and by 1912, an hour length * 1910: bigger screens for multi-reel movies for a greater audience Italian film business * Emerges in 1912 * More like a grand opera * Multi-reel, gigantic elaborate sets * Stories and legends about ancient Rome * Movies can last for up to 2 hours * The feature films do not qualify for nickelodeons because they are too long and they are worth more than a nickel, which is the maximum price of movies on nickelodeons. * George Kleine adopts the movies and charged an admission price of around $0.50-$1.00, calling them special films. Gaumont-Palace, Paris, France Adolph Zukor * Early 20th century – Nickelodeon * Knows that people would be willing to pay more than a nickel to watch. Brought from outside the states the Passion of Christ from Germany which has multiple reels. With special advertising in Church magazines, charge $0.50-$1.00 for the tickets. * 1912 – American Film Rights for Queen Elizabeth with Sarah Bernhardt (45min-1hr) * Company in 1912: Famous Players to open the movie Queen Elizabeth. * Promised starting 1913 every week will be new movies * Notices that the best selling movies are the stage play movies starring 19-year-old newbie Mary Pickford. He sweeps all the old stars and stars Mary Pickford in...
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...in the modern world. Besides, readers can perceive an idea that all people are equal whatever their color or ethnic and they deserve to be treated fairly. After the publication of “Uncle Tom’s cabin” a lot of novels and articles were printed showing an outstanding work has the great effect not only on the audiences but the other authors also. While the educational role of the arts can be not easy to see, almost people take the arts especially the performing arts as a way of entertainment. One of the most notable comedians is Charlie Chaplin who along with his silent film series was the phenomenal of the silent-film era. It is obvious that people despite of the age or nationality may find the relaxation each time watching this movie. By unique and lively acting, Chaplin brought to the audiences not only the laugh but also the meaningful stories. That is reason why so many modern artists try to imitate his moves and create various works affected by Chaplin style. From audiences and authors’ point of view, the arts in generally have a power to improve life. It is an effective way of teaching and relaxing and also is a mean of...
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...As Karl Marx suggests that “material life appears as the end, and labor, the producer of material life…appears as means”, Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times(1936) exhorts, in numerous ways, that the machine age devoured men both physically and emotionally, breeding a new lineage of ‘human machines’. There is no respect, time or space for individuality or human emotions in this period of modern mechanical industrialization. From the establishing factory shots to the President’s surveillance cameras, the workers are constantly monitored. The workers are merely perfunctory components of the assembly line, and their concern for the effectiveness of the production process is prioritized over any human emotions. This can also be seen in both the two life-threatening scenes where the human is literally consumed by the machine, where both the mechanic and protagonist find no indecorum in going on about their duties and routine with lack of reactions. The flat lighting techniques throughout the film also represent a lack of depth in humanism. The factory workers only chase after the crazy Tramp when he pulls the lever and disrupts the functions of the assembly line, but immediately return to work when it is fixed. It is as if they are systematically programmed in some way, and perhaps the Tramp squirts mechanical oil on their faces to differentiate himself from the other withdrawn ‘human machines’. Although sound in motion pictures was introduced a decade prior to Modern Times...
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...genius for constructing comic gags, who moreover understood the film medium with greater sophistication than all but a handful of his peers, speaks to both his modesty and his vanity. It also approaches the mystery of why audiences today may find it harder to connect with Harold Lloyd than they do with, say, Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton. He embodied the spirit of the American dream that any average individual with gumption could attain success, an ideal that still seemed within reach in the twenties, before the Depression, Vietnam, and national disenchantment. Chaplin flirted perennially with pathos, Keaton with melancholy, while Lloyd went his merry way, positive thinking and triumphant. “It’s the optimism,” wrote his defender Richard Griffith, “which chiefly sticks in the highbrow craw and accounts for the continued fundamental lack of interest in him and the continued rating of him below Chaplin, Keaton, and even [Harry] Langdon. Weltschmerz is hard to find in him . . .” And not just world-sorrow, but alienation of any sort. David Thomson gets it right, as usual: “Early clowns are all outsiders, men incapable of, or uninterested in, society’s scale of merit. Chaplin admits the scale but criticizes it. Langdon never notices it....
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...“Modern Times” In Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times” there is an unusual love affair between a factory working man (Chaplin) and a woman (Gamin) that just lost her family and is orphaned. Chaplin and the Gamin have a love like no other in which they both share a common dream that brings them together. Chaplin and the Gamin idealize the “American dream”. They witness a happy husband and wife and make it their dream to someday live as they are. This dream includes a husband, a wife, a house and everything that comes with it except the responsibility. In a particular scene in the movie Chaplin fantasizes about life with Gamin. His fantasy includes a cow milking itself. In the fantasy Chaplin wipes his hands on the curtain and throws an apple with a carefree sense, showing he holds no values. He takes the house for granted. Idealistically, when someone has a house they would do the opposite and value every aspect of it. These images from Chaplin display his lack of education. The Gamin also displays a lack of education when she finds a shack and turns it into a mini home. Based upon what she thinks should be, the Gamin foolishly creates her version of a husband and wife scenario. The Gamin makes a meal for herself and Chaplin from bread and meat she most likely stole seeing as earlier in the film she steals bananas from a boat to provide for her family. If the Gamin had any sense of education she would have preserved some food for another time knowing that they...
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...The Penis In today’s society we all are all the slave of the good behavior. We all dress alike, we talk alike, we eat alike and our routines are very much alike each other. Therefore we need the humor to break the daily life. “The Penis” is a very good example for breaking up with taboos that live in today’s society. Here we see something that is so absurd, so the only way to react is to smile. It is so far away from our daily life, as a modern human being, in a modern society. “The Penis” is about a guy who gets hammered in the city, and the next day he finds a penis in his pocket. At the same time a famous porn star wakes up, also after a heavy night a drinking, realizing that his penis is missing. We later find out that the penis wasn’t happy with the porn star and decided to get its own life, which is very absurd because in reality a penis can’t “jump” off the body and get its own life. The porn star realizes that he is nothing without his penis, and the adventure of finding the penis and getting it operated back on the body is clearly described in “The Penis”. The taboos Taboos are often used in comedy. Mainly because it is breaking some personal lines for the reader/participant, and many people reacts on taboos with laughter or smiling. In today’s society there are a lot of taboos. Many of them are based on sex. We don’t talk about sex, we don’t see sex in the street picture, we don’t hear about sex etc. The title alone in “The Penis” is breaking a taboo. Because of...
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...expats. politics might be demining, most of the times politicians may have to undergo an unethical treatment for the right of the citizens, for example the country might come to conclusion of defending itself by violent action which in a sense goes directly opposite to the meaning of religion; in other terms what I’m trying to say is religion is a self concept and should not be a state advisory as it is in no means meant to control, start wars or even bring inequality but how do we know what is best for the people; another aspect is that religion plays a huge part in a person’s life that they may be brainwashed by the state to believe that it is a good idea to support them. In other sense politics is very manipulating and like the great Charlie Chaplin said “you need power only when you want to do something harmful, otherwise love would do it” therefore politicians are hungry for power and they may use religion in a way to acquire power and demolish the moral aspect of humanity; a clear example is the current Middle east political...
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