In 1927, when Al Jolson finished singing ‘Dirty Hands, Dirty Face’ in The Jazz Singer, he uttered the words that sent shockwaves through the industry. “Wait a minute; You ain’t heard nothing yet!”. What I’d give to be in a movie palace in 1927 to witness the audience lose their mind over this line! The shockwaves caused by the invention of “the talkie” are well documented, and best parodied by Lockwood and Lamont famously struggling to come to terms with the new medium in those hilarious scenes from 'Singin’ In The Rain'.
Sound was to bring about the ruin of most silent film stars, who were unable to find their voice, or adapt their performance style to the more naturalistic aesthetic of talking pictures. In 1931, Chaplin remarked “For years I have specialised in one type of comedy - strictly pantomime. I have measured it, gauged it, studied it. I have been able to establish exact principles to govern its reactions on audiences. It has a certain pace and tempo. Dialogue, to my way of thinking, always slows action, because action must wait upon words.”
In 1936, Chaplin was still unable to find the dialogue to suit his style, or the voice for his onscreen ‘Little Tramp’ persona, so Modern Times was a silent film in an era of sound; a film seemingly out of place, out of step and out of time. But digitally projected on the big screen at Home, as part of their slapstick festival, it is clear to see why it struck a chord with audiences then, and still does to this day.
The opening intertitle introduces the films themes; “Modern Times. A story of industry, individual enterprise – of humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness.”. Here Chaplin is bemoaning modernity and capitalism, whilst also championing ‘The American Dream’ through a nod to the declaration of independence. It is in the first 20 minutes or so that Modern Times is at its best, with an outstanding sequence on a factory floor and featuring an automated feeding machine. The dystopian depiction of modern America is Orwellian long before the term had been coined, with surveillance and de-humanising workloads driving our hero into a mental breakdown. Chaplin’s physicality and charm in the factory sequence notably won over the audience, who chortled affectionately to every comic beat.
As the film’s narrative moves away from the factory, it becomes increasingly episodic, with set-pieces that offer diminishing returns. Skits range from Chaplin trying to get arrested, almost destroying the shack they call home and finding work as a mechanic’s assistant and all end with a comment on how the poor cannot escape their social status, or cannot escape the cycle of crime that their desperation forces them into.
Midway through the film, Chaplin and his love interest (played with wild-eyed rabidity by Chaplin’s then wife, Paulette Goddard) find their selves in a department store overnight and once again, the film takes off. Some brilliant clowning featuring roller-skates and would-be robbers brought the house down with laughter again. Proof that his comedy had indeed established “exact principles to govern its reactions on audiences”.
The film uses sound sparingly, with the only voices heard being those on electronic devices (the big-brother style screens, radio announcers etc), but the final act of the film has one last surprise in store for fans of the little tramp. In a musical sequence we finally hear him sing… in French!! It is an awkward vaudevillian routine, which seems a little antiquated and the French language perhaps a barrier. Has Chaplin swerved the opportunity to give his character a voice again?
Overall, the chance to see a silent classic on the big screen in the exquisite surroundings of Home was a real treat, but whilst his contemporaries like Keaton and Lloyd were finding more coherent, singular narrative strands in their features, it feels like Chaplin cannot escape his one-reeler days in this bitty and disjointed comedy. It remains a prescient and insightful comic masterpiece, but the whole can feel less than the sum of its parts.
Reviewer - Ben Hassouna-Smith
on - 12/12/18
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