Hello Friends! I am a student of English department of MKBU. Here is my thinking activity task about Frame study of The Modern Times and The Great Dictator' by Charlie Chaplin. This is assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir.
The Modern Times :-
Modern Times is a 1936 American silent comedy film written and directed by Charlie Chaplin in which his iconic Little Tramp character struggles to survive in the modern, industrialised world. The film is a commentary on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression - conditions created, in Chaplin's view, by the efficiencies of modern industrialization.
Modern Times features Chaplin as a factory worker, forced to endure the harsh realities of a monotonous production line. After being fired for causing havoc, he spends the rest of his time either in jail or trying his hand at other jobs, with varying degrees of success. Along the way, he meets a kindred spirit in ‘The Gamin,’ played by Paulette Goddard, a struggling young woman on the run. The pair bond over their shared dreams, and despite tough circumstances, they remain optimistic for the future.
The modern machinery and humorously exaggerated production line of the opening factory section is used to criticise and mock ideas of future technological progress, as workers frantically try and keep up. The president of the company keeps an overly watchful eye on his employees in ‘Big Brother’ style, and even entertains the idea of the ‘feeding machine,’ a scene that illustrates the ludicrous nature of control exerted over the workers. It’s clear where Chaplin’s sympathies lay, and the film takes pleasure in the chaos and rebellion that later ensues.
Unusually, the ‘Little Tramp’ meets his match with ‘The Gamin,’ a female companion of equal standing. The pair escape their troubles and live a carefree existence in the department store and in their own dilapidated home; Chaplin spoke of them being ‘children with no sense of responsibility, whereas the rest of humanity is weighed down with duty.’ Chaplin had met Paulette Goddard after returning from his world travels in 1932, and the pair remained together throughout the decade. Although she has a troubled life, the streetwise ‘Gamin’ is far from helpless, and Goddard brought a charming sense of mischief and tenacity to the character.
Despite being the only ‘silent’ film released in America at the time, Chaplin’s decision to maintain his style of visual comedy was vindicated when Modern Times attracted widespread praise upon release. It didn’t perform as well commercially in America as his previous films, but it was a big success in Europe and around the world. Although nobody knew at the time, it was the final appearance for the ‘Little Tramp,’ as sound films endured and the world from which the famous character emerged changed beyond all recognition.
The Great Dictator :-
The Great Dictator is a 1940 American satirical comedy-drama film written, directed, produced, scored by, and starring British comedian Charlie Chaplin, following the tradition of many of his other films. Having been the only Hollywood filmmaker to continue to make silent films well into the period of sound films, Chaplin made this his first true sound film.
Chaplin's film advanced a stirring condemnation of Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, fascism, antisemitism, and the Nazis. At the time of its first release, the United States was still formally at peace with Nazi Germany and neutral during what were the early days of World War II. Chaplin plays both leading roles: a ruthless fascist dictator and a persecuted Jewish barber.
It's hardly surprising that Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator was banned in Germany, and in every country occupied by Germany, in 1940. A film that mocked Adolf Hitler was never going to be the Nazi High Command's first choice of Friday night entertainment. The more surprising thing, from today's perspective, is that Chaplin was warned that it might not be shown in Britain or the US, either. Britain's appeasement policy kept going until March 1939, and the US didn't enter World War Two until December 1941, a year after The Great Dictator was released, so when Chaplin was scripting and shooting the film – his first proper talkie – colleagues at the studio he co-owned were afraid that no government would let it be seen.
Chaplin didn't just capture Hitler,
but every dictator who has followed in his goose steps
But Chaplin wouldn't be dissuaded. He knew that The Great Dictator was worth making, and, sure enough, it was a box office smash: 1941's second biggest hit in the US. On the 80th anniversary of the film's release, Chaplin's prescience is even more startling. The Great Dictator is a masterpiece that isn't just a delightful comedy and a grim agitprop drama, but a spookily accurate insight into Hitler's psychology. "He was a visionary," said Costa-Gavras, the Greek-French doyen of political cinema, in a making-of documentary. "He saw the future while the leaders of the world couldn't see it, and remained on Hitler's side."
The message is that Hynkel is not a brilliant strategist or a mighty leader. He is an overgrown adolescent – as demonstrated in the sublime set piece in which he dances with an inflatable globe, dreaming of being "emperor of the world". He is an insecure buffoon who bluffs, cheats, obsesses over his public image, manhandles his secretaries, revels in the luxury of his extravagant quarters, and reverses his own key policies in order to buy himself more time in power. "To me, the funniest thing in the world is to ridicule impostors," wrote Chaplin in his autobiography, "and it would be hard to find a bigger impostor than Hitler."
Thank you!
Wordcount-991
No comments:
Post a Comment