Saw the first Charlie Chaplin film I have liked yesterday. It was called Modern Times. Not sure why I liked it so much and not either of the others. Maybe it’s time to see more Chaplin. And Lloyd too. His movie Safety Last was really exciting- and that’s not something you expect to say about a silent film.
I can say for sure that the film quality of Modern Times was excellent and that probably didn’t hurt. It was well into the talkie era and seems a strange anachronism that it was still mostly silent. But it did a good job and I laughed. Chaplin seems to be one of the ones who held out for as long as he could on silent-mode before talking encompassed the film world. Most noise and talking is done thru machines in Modern Times. There is one exception at the end however when Chaplin sings. The words are made up and sound like a cross between French and Italian, but he does pantomime a funny story about a boy trying to woo a girl and not having money for a ring or something. He gets too close and cozy and she gives him a slap, so on and so forth- trala lala lala la! It was nice to hear Chaplin’s voice. I heard Buster’s a while back and they tease you on the way. He opens his mouth several times and is cut off. Meanwhile I’m dying in the middle of my living room crying, “Oh give us a break! What’s his voice sound like?!”
Sigh. Buster has a nice voice.
Some things Dan has said that made me laugh:
jello dramatic
that’s just a pigment of your pagination
On a form he was filling out and reading aloud:
Language of choice- gibberish
heehee