A Brief Look at Charlie Chaplin

It was estimated that by the late teens of the 20th century, Zukor held 75% of the best talent in the filmmaking business. I was baffled by this statistic when I read it. For one studio to hold ¾’s of the best talent in the industry is nearly a monopoly. Another thing I found interesting was that Fox worked on 70 mm wide-screen techniques. This was thought provoking to me because this summer I saw the film Dunkirk, and my friends and I saw it with the 70 mm wide-screen edition. I had never seen a movie with this wide-screen 70 mm and it was definitely different from a regular screen. Another thing that caught my attention was the connection between film and politics. I was interested to learn that MGM used a film to bring down Upton Sinclair as he was running for office. I was also shocked to read that Charlie Chaplin was not let into the United States because of his progressive political views. I was baffled that a man that was once called the “king of comedy” in the United States was denied entry because of his political

In the 1931 film “City Lights”, Charlie Chaplin “opens our eyes”, so to speak, about how society values trivial elements of people over the deeper person by using blindness. In this film, Chaplin brilliantly mixes lighthearted comedy with deep and complex ideas about problems with society. Chaplin uses music, gags, and a genuine love connection to portray this point in multiple ways throughout the movie. Chaplin also took the bold step of not making a talking movie, even though they were available at the time, making the details in the pictures and sounds he was creating that much more important. What makes “City Lights” so special, and different from other comedies, is Chaplin’s natural blend of comedic scenes with tense and serious scenes. Chaplin weaved together a masterpiece that culminates in the end with the lady seeing who she fell in love with, which is also the moment Chaplin slaps the viewer in the face with the realization that the priorities in society are misguided and that the important things cannot be seen with the eye.

It started out with GW Griffith. He was the director of many movies and short films. His early work in short films “were the first to combine all the new narrative devices, including cross-cutting, multiple camera positions, inter-titles, and close-ups.” (Matthew Hunt) GW Griffith is considered the first modern director. A household comedian name Charlie Chaplin was a very early actor in the history of cinema. Originally Charlie Kaplan was in London but around 1910 he immigrated to America. In America Charlie Chaplin starred in many silent movies. One of the movies he is most well-known for is “the tramp” this movie gained him worldwide popularity and became the world’s most recognizable actor. Soon GW Griffith noticed and began to work with Charlie Chaplin. After creating some more films “Chaplin founded the independent studio United Artists in 1919.” (Matthew Hunt) between 1908 in 1911 there was a very short period called the Brazilian cinema. During the short time some very popular productions were

Charlie Chaplin, or the “Little Tramp”, led a life many referred to as a Cinderella story. Chaplin was the son of a poor London family, who were entertainers. As a child, at an early age, he also performed, and made his stage debut in 1894. He began his career when he played a paperboy in the film Sherlock Holmes. He also worked as a mime in Vaudeville theatres in London, until he left for America. When Chaplin arrived in the States, he joined the Karno Pantomime Troupe, and toured with them for six years. This experience led him to branch out on his own, making his own films. One of these films was City Lights. Many say that this film and others, lead him to be one the most successful film stars of his time. “Chaplin dedicated himself to perfecting every scene during both the writing process and on set, sacrificing his personal life during production” (Eggert, 2006).

Hannah was a good story teller and told stories to her friends. They were always interested in the stories which took their minds off what they were doing. Hannah told some of these stories in the camp, took people's mind off the terror they were in.

This further demonstrates how the affluence of that period enabled people to support this industry and help its enormous growth. It was during the roaring 20s that the first real celebrities began to appear, with the ever-increasing role of cinema having a huge role to play. Similarly their fame contributed to the growing status of Hollywood and the American film industry. (Source J). Charlie Chaplin is one example of an actor that gained worldwide recognition in the twenties; he was particularly famous for his ‘highly visual style of acting’ (Soucre J). The 1920s was often referred to as “The Golden Age of Hollywood” (Source G) emphasizing how this period represents the era of greatest output in the United States movie market [an average of 800 films were produced annually]. ‘The cinema came of age in the 1920s and Hollywood confirmed its position as the “dream factory” of the English- speaking world. It was there that fame and fortune could be found.’ (Source J) This also highlights the growing image of Hollywood ‘throughout the roaring 20s, which started to represent wealth and achievement. ‘The establishment of the Academy Awards showed the maturing cinema as an industry confident of its own technical and artistic standards.’ (Source J) This further shows how there were many other expansions and transformations from this industry that occurred during this period. Artists, directors and other personalities of the film making industry received acknowledgement and recognition of their work in this industry. ‘The awards soon acquired international status’ (Source J) showing how Hollywood’s film industry developed into a global sensation that was supported by people all over

Orson Welles was born on the 6th of May in 1915 and died in 1985, on the 10th of October. He used to play magic, paint, and play the piano as a child, a later on he found himself directing, producing, writing and acting. Orson Welles performed in Romeo and Juliet, and started a radio career at the same time in 1934.

Charlie Chaplain is one of the most famous actors in history because of his role in the film industry. What started out in black and white, with no sound and only 3 or 4 actors working from one set has evolved into a worldwide business that entertains billions of people using computer generated images, sets in exotic locations, hundreds of actors, orchestral background tracks and many other components. How did we get from a simple point A to such an incredible point B? The simplest way of putting it would be supply-and-demand. Originally, films were only a few minutes long, and were shown only in storefronts or in

Charles "Charlie" David Wolfe was born to his parents during the year of 1955, in the town of Newcastle, Delaware. Charlie is the youngest of three brothers, who were all born three years apart from each other. Though his parents had hoped for their third child to be a girl, they were slightly disappointed in the discovery that they had conceived yet another baby boy. However, that discovery did not change how they felt about their baby, or how much they cared for their child. They believed that the they were truly blessed that the baby was born healthy, and happy.

He demonstrated that a capacity to grasp the essence of America's attitude about work, family, social life success in historical circumstances. He was the most influential during the Great Depression to World War 2 and Cold War and other aspects of American history (Rosa Sanmartin). The reason he was so impactful during this time was everyone was going through difficult times and he was able to make people feel better through his films.

Charlie Chaplin’s iconic Tramp character is often someone to laugh with, or laugh at, but not necessarily someone you learn from. The Tramp character is impulsive and reckless, hardly the standard for model behavior. Despite this characterization, the Tramp’s role differs significantly in Easy Street. He is the hero that the titular street desperately needs, a place where the depraved and deprived struggle to survive. The use of social issues in Easy Street is not merely to use them for the jokes, but to lighten the burden surrounding the subjects, and in doing so providing a more hopeful perspective: one where these issues are not overwhelming and the solutions don’t seem Herculean, but instead are presented as being within the audience’s begging grasp. The film provides relief by portraying issues a general public can be dealing with, and not treating them as these daunting things to be intimidated by, but to laugh at, since they can be solved, as the Tramp demonstrates, through religion and labor.

Charlie Chaplin did not use sound to communicate to the audience in his movies. Despite the fact that there was no spoken language, his movies were sensational and the audiences loved them. Chaplin was thought of as cinema’s first genius and has been called the single most-influential artist in the history of motion pictures. I am researching Charlie Chaplin to learn how he became a sensational comedian and one of the best actors of all time.

My example that I will be using is Modern Times by Charlie Chaplin. Modern times is a film developed after the industrial revolution. It serves the purpose of critiquing capitalism and the social world. Modern Times begin with a factory worker who starts developing anxiety through the lack of breaks and repetitive work. When the Worker is on break, his boss is always keeping an eye on him and demands him to go back to work due to the loss of production. Soon after, the factory worker goes on lunch break, but is again distracted by his boss due to the desire to try out a new lunch contraption. At first, the new technology seems to work since the factory Worker was being fed. But, after a few seconds the contraption goes haywire and starts hurting the worker. The factory Worker goes back to work, but suddenly starts to mess up. He goes around ruining all his co-workers’ work and even get himself in prison. However, he ends up saving all the cops from the inmates’ revolution and is released early from jail. He does not want to leave since he is treated properly in jail and will be homeless in the outside world. He tries to get himself in prison again, but meets a beautiful woman Gamin who is also homeless and workless. They run off together and commit burglaries to feed themselves, but is soon discovered by the police. They manage to escape and run off to live in a small house by themselves. The factory Worker and the Gamin decides to have lunch together, but finds out that a

Hannah’s singing alone was not enough to earn her the money to care for two boys. She took up sweatshop work on a sewing machine she rented to earn extra income. Due to the small amount of income they had, Charlie’s family moved in and out of orphanages and boys’ homes on a regular basis. Hannah’s career as a singer ended abruptly in 1894. She lost her voice during a performance. While the crowd was getting rowdy and

The film remains Chaplin's one of the greatest achievements and it remains one of his popular film. (Back story source- Wikipedia)