Movie #11: Released in 1936, directed by Charlie Chaplin, 87 minutes. New to me!
LetterBoxd score: 4 stars
My second Charlie Chaplin feature, after City Lights. I think I like this one a bit more; it’s still a bundle of gags, but they’re more tied together thematically as a critique of capitalism and law. The plot is also a bit more cohesive and unified, or maybe I’m imagining things. Also, Paulette Goddard is magnetic.
Surprisingly for how iconic it is, the factory scenes are only the first 20 minutes or so. They were a little sadistic for my taste; the scene where Chaplin is strapped into a feeding machine, but the thing is basically food-boarding him goes on and on and I felt terrible for the guy. It concludes with him going insane.
I think my favorite gag is when Chaplin borrow a piece of wood from the wrong place and sets into motion an unfinished ship sinking into the sea. The best gag that I can find a gif for is probably this one, where he’s skating blindfolded around a department store, unaware of a construction site.
Why would someone think it’s one of the ten greatest movies ever made?
I think because it stands in as the send-off and farewell to the era of silent filmmaking. Chaplin’s The Little Tramp, alongside Keaton, is the icon of this era. This movie was actually made in the era of sound films and it’s a conscious choice to make a silent movie, kind of in the way someone today might choose to film a movie in black and white. But the movie has strong franchise send-off vibes, which probably give it extra weight when the franchise is a plausible stand-in for an era:
- It ends with Chaplin leaving the city, heading out west, and walking off into the sunset, arm-in-arm with Goddard
- Before that, the tramp finally speaks, singing a gibberish song
But viewed outside it’s context; I’m not sure it would make the list standing on it’s own.
Next week: La Regle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game)