e_Paper, Sunday, April 16, 2017

22
SUNDAY, APRIL 16, 2017
DT
Showtime
Celebrating
the silent hero
• Farhat Alam Brishty
“Life is a tragedy when seen in
close-up, but a comedy in longshot.”
– Charlie Chaplin.
Charlie Chaplin’s famous
character, the funny little Tramp
made us all laugh, but also told
us the most profound stories of
life. Life is a fusion of tragedy
and comedy; there’s tragedy in
comedy and there’s comedy in
tragedy. The character of Tramp,
constructed and played by Charlie
Chaplin, is one of the most iconic
figures in the history of world
cinema. The Tramp made us
laugh and cry at the same time.
With his charm, innocence and
comedy, he made us love him
and touched our hearts. He
taught us how to be happy, even
during the moments of greatest
despair. He taught us that little
things can also be great, and
that our troubles never make life
worthless.
Charles Spencer Chaplin –
the creator of Tramp, and the
greatest comedian, actor, director,
producer and composer, was born
on this day, April 16, 1889. On his
128th birthday, let us look back
at some of his most memorable
works.
The Kid (1921):
The Kid was Chaplin’s first
full-length feature film, which
portrayed the sweet, tender and
heartbreaking story of a father
and son. Like most of Chaplin’s
films, the film belonged to the
silent era. The Tramp finds an
abandoned infant and raises him
as his own. The sweet and funny
little moments of the father-son
duo make the audience fall in love
with them. By the end of the film,
the real mother is found and the
child has to go back to her. The
tear-jerking, yet adorable comedydrama
is still considered one of
the greatest films by Chaplin.
The Gold Rush (1925):
The silent comedy film shows
the Tramp trying his luck as
a prospector in the 1896-1899
Klondike Gold Rush. He gets
trapped in a cabin during a
blizzard, along with a fugitive
and another prospector. In this
film, the terrible experience of
being trapped inside a cabin
without food has been portrayed
beautifully. Eventually, he gets to
leave the cabin and falls in love
with a barmaid in the town. They
lose contact but later reunite,
after the Tramp and his fellow
prospector find their lost gold
and become rich. One of the
interesting points of this film is
that it shows the ever unfortunate
Tramp as a billionaire in the end.
City Lights (1931):
Highlighting the love story of the
Tramp and a poor blind girl, City
Lights is a silent romantic comedy.
The Tramp undertakes various
attempts to help the girl keep
her house, and undergo an eye
surgery. All his attempts end up
in chaos, providing humour for
the audience. Finally, he succeeds
in getting money from his
millionaire friend for the girl, but
gets arrested. When he is released
a few months later, the lovers are
reunited through a heart-melting
scene. The scene, according to
many critics, is one of the best
performances by Chaplin. Talkies
or sound films were already
developing when Chaplin started
working on City Lights, but he
chose to continue making silent
films, as he believed cinema will
lose its artistry with sound.
Modern Times (1936):
This film is an effort to reconcile
with the chaotic modern
industrial life. The Tramp is
a factory worker who gets
overwhelmed by the hectic
machinery work load. He falls
in love with a poor orphan girl,
and together, they try to find
positivity in the midst of the
chaos in modern times. The
Tramp is given voice for the first
time, as Chaplin sings a song as a
waiter and performer in the film.
The film got mixed reviews as
some critics did not like Chaplin
getting involved with the sociopolitical
situation of the society.
The Great Dictator (1940):
Charlie Chaplin’s first true sound
film, The Great Dictator, is a
political satire. Chaplin condemns
fascism, anti-semitism and the
Nazis, by impersonating Adolf
Hitler as Adenoid Hynkel – a
ruthless dictator. Chaplin plays
both the roles of the dictator and
a Jewish barber, who was a soldier
in World War I. The identical
appearance that the dictator
and the barber share causes
humorous confusions, and leads
to the barber giving a speech to
a gigantic crowd in the place of
the dictator. The barber, as the
dictator, tells the nation that he
does not wish to spread hatred
and war, but chooses humanity
and compassion. The speech is
one of the most significant scenes
in Chaplin’s career. The film is
considered as one of the greatest
films by Chaplin and was his
most commercially successful
film. It also garnered criticism for
becoming overtly political.
The beginning of sound in films
played a huge role in shaping
the end of Charlie Chaplin. He
found it difficult to adapt to
the huge change, and thought
that giving voice to the Tramp
will decrease his global appeal.
Chaplin believed, “Sound has
spoiled the most ancient of the
world’s art, the art of pantomime,
and has cancelled out the great
beauty that is silence.” Though
he “spoke” in the later days of his
career, most of his greatest works
belong to the silent era. The
beauty of silence is also painted
in some other great works by him
like The Circus, A Woman of Paris,
A Dog’s Life, Tillie’s Punctured
Romance, etc. Without uttering
words, Charlie Chaplin has built
such powerful a connection with
us, that he was and will be loved
by viewers and film enthusiasts
for generations to come. •