Journal article
Modern Hard Times: Chaplin and the Cinema of Self-Reflection
Critical inquiry, Vol.3(2), pp.295-314
12/01/1976
DOI: 10.1086/447890
Abstract
Charlie Chaplin, like Charles Dickens, knew the deep allegiance between theme & visual symbol, & when he began Modern Times with a nondescript clockface on which the second hand inexorably spins, he negotiated this alliance between satiric narrative & its props with the bold assurance of Dickens. Chaplin's essentially Dickensian, which is to say romantic, animus against the factory system portrays the human figure mechanically subject to its environment, locked into inescapable repetitive moves. There is a deepening of the self-reflective impulse, in which Modern Times becomes acutely aware of its own liabilities, like the satre of Hard Times as prose, not only as comic art but as filmed comedy. The genius of pantomime is taken over, for the first time in his films, by the machine itself. The self-referential assault on synchronized sound is even more fully mounted in Modern Times than in City Lights, in the interests of Chaplin's romantic theme. He has given us in Modern Times his last scrambled word on the talkie, a vision of his own immolation as a screen artist on the wheels of progress. For as long as he could, Chaplin paid the words no mind, & his antic gestures spoke more loudly than most words movies have known. 2 Figures. Modified Author Summary.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Modern Hard Times: Chaplin and the Cinema of Self-Reflection
- Creators
- Garrett Stewart
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Critical inquiry, Vol.3(2), pp.295-314
- DOI
- 10.1086/447890
- ISSN
- 0093-1896
- eISSN
- 1539-7858
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/01/1976
- Academic Unit
- Cinematic Arts; English
- Record Identifier
- 9984398789402771
Metrics
4 Record Views