Mr. Chaplin

I'm on my way to do some homework on the subject, but thought I'd ask around here to see what ya'll thought of the man. I've watched several of his films lately and noticed he is usually the writer/director/producer/composer, etc. Was he an overly controlling man? If so, did it extend beyond movies?

Just curious to know a little more about the man given his reputation as a genius.

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I guess if you want to know a bit about Chaplin the man as opposed to just the artist, an easy place you can start is with Sir Richard Attenborough's fine bio-pic Chaplin (1992), with that great title turn by Robert Downey Jr. as the icon himself. I honestly don't know much about Chaplin personally, and he's not one of those figures I'm terribly curious about, as far as biography and Hollywood Babylon tales of affairs and tirades and such. Just doesn't do anything for me.

But as for the man's art, he's really peerless. Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton were both probably just as gifted a performers as Chaplin, but when you look at the arc of his career and his body of work, there's only one Chaplin. There are few moments of cinema intersecting in a timely and razor-sharp comment about the world as perfect as The Great Dictator (1940), and none of Chaplin's Silent Comedian contemporaries have anything approaching that level of genius in their filmographies.




So while I can't tell you how controlling a man Chaplin was in his private life, however he conducted himself toward his art payed off brilliantly, and the legacy he left behind on the screen speaks for itself. And quite loudly.

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I wouldn't take that first post so seriously man. Frankly, I couldn't understand what he was trying to say or go with that post but I'll help ya out a little if I can. Charlie Chaplin was a comic genius. He's in my opinion, the funniest man that ever lived. Now, I'm no Chaplin fanatic or anything but nothing can compete with Chaplin on comedy. Not nothing or nobody. Not Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler or Steve Martin or Bill Murray or Robin Williams or whoever. Not only could his talent (especially considering the time most of his movies were made in) be easily understood to surpass those of theirselves but he also had an interesting life. He first started his career touring with Vaudeville and became a great sensation. He eventually (with his popularity ever growing) tranferred over to film primarily and was regarded by most people at the time as the funniest man alive. Many of his works were deemed instant classics that people still buy today. Frankly, the only movies people still really buy in that era is probably from the acting of himself and Laurel and Hardy. He is probably the first if not one of the first infamous Hollywood actors in American film history.
Eventually when his career got bigger and bigger, he was sent out of the country because there was some fear that he was a communist. This was later to be totally forgiven and unfounded but he meanwhile lived in Europe. Which country, I can't remember for the likes of me.
He was also however not just an actor. He was basically an all-around brilliant movie comic progressor. He married some girl who was in a lot of films too but I think they broke up. As a matter of fact, I think he was going out with an 18-20 year old girl when he was somewhere near 80! That Chaplin was a real womanizer and he showed it so in his pictures. He did it ofcourse in a tasteful way, with naturally, the use of his clever writing and illuminous talent.
He also did many sound films as well as some colors. I haven't seen any of his sound films but he was very popular up until his death. He didn't die just leaving a cinematic legacy, however. He also started the Film/theater company, "United Artists" which is still in business today. So basically when it comes to comedic Genius, this guy invented the lightbulb and patented the method. He's one of the men I would've loved to have met. The movie made about him in 1992 got mixed reviews unfortunately and I never saw it to tell you the truth. I think I'll rent it next time I'm out actually. Wanted to see that movie. So there you go, that's pretty much all I know about him but I hope I helped you in some way or another.

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If you would like to know about Chaplin, I'd suggest reading his autobiography. It tells you everything you need to know about the man. As for my opinion, Chaplin was a genius, he did more for the art of filmmaking than any of his contemporaries, and he was also an extremely controversial figure in his day. His political stance was extremely left-leaning, almost socialist at times, which can be seen in many of his best works, most noticeably "Modern Times," in which he plays a factory worker who slips throught the cracks of society after losing his dehumanizing job. He took it upon himself to be the voice of the voiceless lower classes, and was eventually deported for his views.

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he also left us the beautiful song "smile"...the man was pure genius

Not a Chaplin fan.

How many times can you do the little tramp?

What about the Freedom For Us lawsuit?

Trivia for À nous la liberté

Thanks all... I'm embarassed to admit, but I'm not the biggest Chaplin fan in the world. My only excuse is that I'm too dumb to appreciate his films within the context of when they were made... The few I've seen just seem to be rather blasé... not to mention it seems like just about anyone can do what he did (just look at Depp in Benny and Joon).

Flame away

'Fatty' Arbuckle not Chaplin originally did that "dancing legs" bit like in Benny and Joon.

I'm not a big Chaplin fan either, but heard a lot of great things about "The Great Dictator". I can see why. It is just absolutely terrific. Genius. I'd have to say this is a must film for any movie buffs.

Haven't seen "Modern Times" either, but hear that's a must see Chaplin too.

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What ever happened to Mose, anyway? His site is down and everything.

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I'm certainly not the biggest Chaplin fan on the planet but I'm scratching my head over the 'anyone could do what he did' line.

There's surely more to it than funny walks and twirling a cane...

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I think Chaplin's social pathos helped to make him unique.

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They had temporarily escaped the factories, the warehouses, the slaughterhouses, the car washes - they'd be back in captivity the next day but now they were out - they were wild with freedom. They weren't thinking about the slavery of poverty. Or the slavery of welfare and food stamps. The rest of us would be all right until the poor learned how to make atom bombs in their basements.

In fact, I could give my own reasons of why Chaplin`s worth liking

p { margin-bottom: 0.25cm; line-height: 120%; }a:link { } 1. Chaplin`s movies are worth liking for this reason already that they are really dynamic. You watch 'The Kid' for example and wonder how a story can be told so interestingly, movingly and beautifully in a time which is much less than the time of the duration of modern movies, and besides, far not always modern film convey useful ideas, or if the idea is worth learning, it`s often not properly revealed to the public even in more than two hours.
2. You have to think a lot to understand Chaplin`s movies and at the same time you don`t feel tense while watching. Chaplin enlightens you lightly and quickly without making you take every effort to understand what he wanted to say. Yes, I said that you need think a lot but in this genius` pictures everything is so plain and beautiful, that the right understanding sooner finds you than otherwise.
3. Chaplin`s movies embrace the amazingly wide circle of problems. The questions aroused in those pictures have remained burning since the times of Charlie Chaplin. If you ask me, the root of all evil named crime can be clearly seen in 'Monsier Verdoux'. Personally I still don`t know whether I`d better sympathize with Chaplin`s character in this movie or not.

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