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Charlie Chaplin: official website

charliechaplin.com

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Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#31

Post by yamtaddle »

jt2190 wrote: post #30
yamtaddle wrote: post #3

Anyone looking to get into silent film, I'd strongly recommend comedies (including, and perhaps especially, Chaplin and Keaton) as a good starting point. I've gotten to the point that I can truly enjoy a lot of silent dramas, but IMO the comedies are far more approachable for a modern audience. Good gateway drug. Just off the more famous films ( The Great Dictator and Modern Times and maybe City Lights for Chaplin, o…

> M (… this is maybe the most modern-feeling of this whole bunch) Because it has sound?

I mean, they all have sound :-)

That's a good point—it has synchronized sound, not just a vaguely-connected soundtrack, though it's not properly a "talkie", either. I was thinking more of the form, pacing, and presentation, though (I did, shamefully, get The Great Dictator entirely wrong by classing it as a silent, as another poster pointed out)

Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#33

Post by anigbrowl »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #8

Anyone living in the Bay Area ought to pop over to little, hidden, Niles. A fun little day trip my family and I enjoyed when I still lived in the area. They had their brush with fame and Chaplin 100 years ago when little Niles might just have become Hollywood. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niles_Canyon

I've actually worked on a movie shoot there. Terrible film, terrible shoot, but we did get an impressive visitor one day in the form of a rattlesnake that decided to come into the set to cool off.

Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#34

Post by Akronymus »

yamtaddle wrote: post #3

Anyone looking to get into silent film, I'd strongly recommend comedies (including, and perhaps especially, Chaplin and Keaton) as a good starting point. I've gotten to the point that I can truly enjoy a lot of silent dramas, but IMO the comedies are far more approachable for a modern audience. Good gateway drug. Just off the more famous films ( The Great Dictator and Modern Times and maybe City Lights for Chaplin, o…

> Anyone looking to get into silent film

As far as I know there's two classes of silent films: Truly silent ones and ones meant to be accompanied by music. How do you watch the latter?

Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#35

Post by grumpyprole »

mc32 wrote: post #12
yamtaddle wrote: post #3

Anyone looking to get into silent film, I'd strongly recommend comedies (including, and perhaps especially, Chaplin and Keaton) as a good starting point. I've gotten to the point that I can truly enjoy a lot of silent dramas, but IMO the comedies are far more approachable for a modern audience. Good gateway drug. Just off the more famous films ( The Great Dictator and Modern Times and maybe City Lights for Chaplin, o…

Not a big fan of silents, but I think Lloyd probably is approachable to a wider audience --maybe I'm just partial due to more exposure.

I use to watch and really enjoy Lloyd as a young kid. It was still shown on TV in the 80's and absolutely approachable for a wide audience.

Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#37

Post by cies »

Apart from his success in film I believe there was a not so nice side to his character. He impregnated, married and dumped really young women, and was know to sexually harass women on the set.

This website fails to mention his failings. I dont know if that's okay, feels a bit like white washing to me.

Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#38

Post by LemmyInThePub »

bink wrote: post #24
justinator wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well 60,000,000 people did then die, so it seems a reasonable level of preachiness.

"did then die" is understating it. The Great Dictator was filmed in 1939, long before most of the world knew the true horrors that had and would take place. Chaplin wasn't alone in calling out the dangers, but he was in the minority.

> Chaplin wasn't alone in calling out the dangers,

A very honourable mention to Alexander Korda.

Particularly 'Things To Come', his 1936 film warning of the rise of fascism in Europe, global war and the dangers of air bombardment (thereby bringing mechanised warfare to civilian populations for the first time).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_to_Come

And yes, it is based on the HG Wells story.

Re: Charlie Chaplin: official website

#39

Post by krapp »

yamtaddle wrote: post #29
DubiousPusher wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Metropolis, though overlong and a bit hammy, pulled me through with the music and the visuals. Even when the effects aren't believable the design is stunning. In fact, it's pronably not until the 80s with skmething like Blade Runner or Brazil that you get a film so thuroughly designed and detailed from a visual perspective. Edit: Though Tati's Playtime just came to mind.

Metropolis is a front-runner for most-influential-movie-ever (assuredly not at the top, but—it's a contender), and it's largely the visual design that does it. It is, indeed, captivating throughout, carrying one through the film's... less-endearing qualities. Blade Runner is absolutely one of the most important films to owe it a huge debt, and it's no accident that Blade Runner went on, itself, to influence the visua…

Also fun fact, Metropolis is in the public domain as of this year.
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