Charlie Chaplin: C/D

the current DVD version of 'the gold rush' emphasizes that version and tacks on the original version as an 'extra,' apparently at the insistence of chaplin's family.

123 today. Showed my class the boxing match from City Lights; they laughed, so they I showed them the Oceana rolls from Gold Rush; they laughed at that, so I moved onto the factory scene from Modern Times.

Criterion set of The Gold Rush makes a restored edition of the reconstructed silent version (with an adaptation of the '42 musical score) fully available at last.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/the-gold-rush/2341

I have to say it's risen even further in my esteem after seeing it this way at the NYFF last fall and another 3 times while absorbing this set. The emotional strings are plucked somewhat more subtly, maybe, than in City Lights and Modern Times, even if it's not as knockabout gritty as the shorts.

also, every auteur needs a chicken suit.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw605siTyO1qa6obyo1_500.jpg

oh my local vid rental place got this in recently. excited!

happy 125th

http://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-chaplin-125

Graham Greene writes to CC after his banishment, one of the overlooked mega-moves of McCarthyism:

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119468/graham-greene-writes-support-charlie-chaplin-against-mccarthyism

“Charlie Chaplin’s The Tramp was released to the public through Essanay Studios on April 12th, 1915.... Chaplin has been much written about in the 100 years since he first captured the attention of the public, but his career is so jam-packed with messy attitudes and impulses that it still stands as a shifting, fresh body of work to marvel at and get lost in.”

http://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/charlie-chaplins-the-tramp-at-100

The Kid looks astonishing on the new Criterion blu-ray, and the movie itself is still a joy.

gets his own museum

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/comedians/charlie-chaplin-museum-opens-in-switzerland/

http://www.chaplinsworld.com/

Filmstruck loses his Keystone, Essanay and Mutual shorts in about 48 hours — which ones should I try to catch before then?

all the Mutuals

(if u must choose)

ive been working my way through the Essanays, and while there's great stuff in there he's clearly still eveolving, sometimes haltingly.

My friend wrote the Criterion essay for The Circus:

Roland “Rollie” Totheroh was Chaplin’s principal cameraman through Modern Times, and then continued to consult on the later features with younger cinematographers like Karl Struss. He also handled Chaplin’s special effects (for example, the miniature cabin and puppets in The Gold Rush) and was his film archivist. Being with the comic from 1916 to the closing of the Chaplin Studio, in 1952, he was immensely important for the iconic look of the films—particularly the sharp clarity of the alleys and run-down buildings of Charlie’s universe. A key but often overlooked player in developing the no-frills visual style where the main focus was always on Chaplin’s performance, Totheroh had this to say to interviewer Timothy J. Lyons right before his death in 1967:

“As a director Mr. Chaplin didn’t have anything to say as far as exposures, things like that. Otherwise, I used to say, ‘Take a look through here.’ The idea of that was that if he was directing, he’d have to know the field I was taking in. Of course, in the early days, the role of the cameraman was much bigger than it is now. It was up to the cameraman to decide what angle to shoot for lighting; or outside, which is the best angle on a building or whatever it is.”

In addition to being Charlie’s camera eye, as conservator of the Chaplin oeuvre Totheroh was responsible for many of the versions of the films that we see today—especially the First National shorts like A Dog’s Life (1918) and Shoulder Arms (1918), whose original negatives were worn out, resulting in new versions having to be assembled in the 1940s from outtakes and C and D negatives. In the early 1950s, with Chaplin exiled in Europe, it was Rollie who closed up the studio, bringing to an end an amazing decades-long run of extreme creativity.

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6618-charlie-the-ringmaster

Overall, I love Chaplin, but his over-the-top sentimentality and preachiness can drive me crazy sometimes, especially in his talkies (in particular the famous speeches in The Great Dictator and Monsieur Verdoux). The Gold Rush and City Lights, however, are unfuckwithable.

.

The Circus may not be quite up to the three Tramp features surrounding it, but what is? And that monkey is really biting the hell out of his nose on the tightrope.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yUXgvwNf6Q

In his collected film criticism, James Agee makes a full-throated defense of Monsieur Verdoux as Chaplin's best film, which certainly runs counter to its general reception in 1947.

jonathan rosenbaum is also a fan of verdoux and rates chaplin's performance in it as one of the best ever, tho sadly i don't think he's written about it at length

I had forgotten that CC really keeps the melodrama to a minimum in The Kid even though that's what people remember most. His direction of Coogan must've been the work of a savant or genius.

The whole 'heaven' dream near the end seems jarring, but it makes the point that even the Tramp's paradise turns to shit.

heard that the scene in The Kid where Jackie Coogan is being taken away in the cart is so well-acted because he actually thought it was happening, not sure I would call that good direction exactly.

CANCEL!

“There was a scene in which we wanted Jackie to actually cry when two workhouse officials take him away from me. I told him all sorts of harrowing stories, but Jackie was in a very gay and mischievous mood. After waiting for an hour, the father said: ‘I’ll make him cry.’
‘Don’t frighten or hurt the boy,’ I said guiltily.
‘Oh no, no,’ said the father.
Jackie was in such a gay mood that I had not the courage to stay and watch what the father would do, so I went to my dressing-room. A few moments later I heard Jackie yelling and crying.
‘He’s all ready,’ said the father.
It was a scene where I rescue the boy from the workhouse officials and while he is weeping I hug and kiss him. When it was over I asked the father: ‘How did you get him to cry?’
‘I just told him that if he didn’t we’d take him away from the studio and really send him to the workhouse.’
I turned to Jackie and picked him up in my arms to console him. His cheeks were still wet with tears. ‘They’re not going to take you away[…]”
“I knew it,’ he whispered. ‘Daddy was only fooling.”

Chaplin's autobiography seems inconclusive -- Jackie might have been putting on a brave face for CC.

Jackie Coogan's parents were of course not the most compassionate people around.

There's hope for the world...my 12 year old loved City Lights and The Kid. He was blown away by Coogan too.

I've heard that Chaplin's book is extremely creative re provable facts.

yes, whatever the deal with Coogan (who Chaplin himself seems to have treated very well as far as I know), CC himself would have multiple reasons to get cancelled today - however this is an era which has DW Griffith doing his inexcusable thing and extras and stuntmen being regularly killed, Chaplin's films are definitely at the "less problematic" end of the scale.

One thing I love about The Kid is that it's an hour long, which is the seldom-used but correct length for a comedy film.

I wanted to do a poll: "Chaplin: Funny? Moving?" I found this thread instead, which was all the conversation I would have hoped for. (My answer is "neither", but I respect his work.)

The short films are funny. Morbz not around to agree with me :(

misogynist dickhead

He hated the police though! (See above)

these celebrity leftists always have a few good takes, that's how they get you

Why don't you fuck off and stop bringing everybody down, you miserable puritanical cunt?

in conclusion, Charlie Chaplin was a land of contrasts.

Mr. Fucking Predictable.

how come the most heated responses I provoke on here are consistently when I talk shit about abusers

You're like a bot or something.

thereotically if someone who wasn't me wanted to take shots at chaplin and other great men for their abuse would there be a place for them to do so here at all or is it just too much of a fucking buzzkill every time

That would be perfectly acceptable because I don't think anyone else here goes around inspecting threads for purity of thought like a beetle-browed John Knox clone.

I don't know Left, posting "misogynist dickhead" in ref to a man born in 1889 doesn't really scan as a concern with abuse/abusers, it's more like stating the absolutely obvious

*theoretically bc I remember this kind of thing is what soured my relationship with elements of the forum in the first place, of course I pushed back and was less inclined to be friendly on other subjects after that. my posts are a lot milder than they could be here but mods ban me again if you want idc xps

if it's so obvious why is it so enraging for someone to take issue with and why are we still worshipping great men

I wonder if he's the most problematic person born in 1889?

Yes, none of us had ever heard about Chaplin's life until you showed up in the thread to school us, thank you for that. But still we worship him, cargo cult style, oh noes.

look you could (have) just continue(d) discussing his work and just ignore(d) my comments

charlie craplin

I'm happy to leave it at "The short films are funny" tbh.

look you could (have) just continue(d) discussing his work and just ignore(d) my comments

you didn't write your comments for others to ignore, so coming from you this comment is totally disingenuous. you wanted to be noticed, deservedly got called miserable puritanical cunt, and you pretend it's none of your doing. fuck off with that noise.

eat shit

fuck men

eating shit may not be for everyone, i'll ask my doctor about it