Modern Times by Charles Chaplin

Charlie Chaplin Modern Times.

Summary

            Charlot works in a huge factory, and squeezes bolts. The monotony of his work makes him becoming crazy, and after a long spell in an asylum, he searches for work. But he is very quickly mistakenly arrested again as an agitator. Taking unknowingly drug in the prison, he becomes the hero of the situation as some prisoners try to escape... All he has in return is a more comfortable cell. Once released, his only goal is to return in jail where he has spent a good time. Charlot makes the acquaintance of an orphaned girl and becomes her friend and protector. He takes on several new jobs for her benefit, but every job ends with a quick dismissal and yet another jail term. During one of his incarcerations, the girl is hired to dance at a cabaret and arranges for him to be hired there as a singer and a waiter. He proves an enormous success, but they are both forced to leave their jobs when the orphanage officials want to bring the minor orphan. After escaping them, we can see Charlot and the girl in the last images strolling towards new adventures.

Opinion

This silent film (although we can hear sometimes some music or people talking) is particularly amusing, as most of Charlie Chaplin’s films are. In Modern Times, Charlot sums up love, the difficulty of living in such a modern society, the non-sense of the rules, the damage of the unemployment, and the search of a joy which runs away… But every scene is played with humour; Charlie uses typical comic expressions which make everyone laugh, even when you’ve already seen the film. This film must have been watched by everyone.

 Notes: Filmed between 1932 and 1936, it was directed, written and produced by Chaplin himself. It was released nine years after the advent of 'talkies.'

 It supposedly was to be Charles Chaplin's first full sound film, but instead, sound is used in a unique way: we hear spoken voices only when they come from mechanical devices, a symbol of the film's theme of technology and dehumanization.

 The film originally ended with Charles Chaplin's character suffering a nervous breakdown and being visited in hospital by the gamin, who has now become a nun. But Chaplin decided of a more happy/full of hope end.

 This was one of the films which, because of its political sentiments, convinced the House Un-American Activities Committee that Charles Chaplin was a Communist, a charge he adamantly denied. He left to live in Switzerland in the 1950’s.