Cinema
Chaplin and His Contemporaries: Keaton, Lloyd, Laurel and Hardy
Chaplin was not alone in the golden age of silent film. In the 1910s and 1920s Hollywood was full of great comedians who found different ways to make audiences laugh. Thinking about them together helps us understand what made Chaplin …
The Power of Silence: Why Didn't Chaplin Want to Talk?
When the first feature film with synchronised sound was released in 1927, Hollywood changed completely within a few years. Studios stopped making silent films, and many stars lost their careers because audiences did not like their voices. Chaplin, however, resisted …
The Great Dictator: Comedy's Sharpest Sword
The Great Dictator, Charlie Chaplin's first true sound film, is a brave work that fearlessly mocks fascism and dictatorship. Playing both a Jewish barber and the ruthless dictator Adenoid Hynkel, Chaplin showed how powerful a political weapon humour can be.Its …
Modern Times: A Critique of Industrialisation
In Modern Times, Charlie Chaplin sharply criticises the effects of mechanisation and the industrial revolution on the working class. The iconic scene in which the Tramp is caught between giant gears remains one of the strongest symbols of the human …
City Lights: The Summit of Silent Cinema
City Lights is considered one of Charlie Chaplin's greatest masterpieces. Although it was made at a time when sound film was rising fast, Chaplin chose to remain silent and proved the universal power of pantomime.The film tells of the Tramp's …