Sunday, November 16, 2008

The Machine Age







Modern Times is a movie directed and acted by Charles Chaplin. In 1936, he tried to show us the industrial society and how the machinery had changed people’s life.

This movie starts when Chaplin is working at a factory and shows how people are treated as a number instead of a person. You can see the critique inside the images selection: the importance of the final product, people’s quality of living and the differences of social classes.

The movie continues showing some routines workers need to follow, presenting those elements that combine the comedy of the movie with the difficult times people have to live.

Then, the movie turned into a love story when Chaplin met this young girl stealing food from a delivery car. The story continues showing how the destiny gathered them together. At the end, you will see how this love story ends and how they are going to face the social situation presented at the beginning of the movie.

He is an amazing actor. What is more, you can appreciate his performance as one ahead for this time. More than this, his body language is the secret of his success, without saying a word he captures people’s attention.

The quality of the sound is better than the one from the image. Most of characters play a secondary place on it, leaving the important parts for Chaplin and Paulette Goddard who interpreted the young girl.

In my opinion, this movie shows through comedy the difficult moments in this period of the history. Chaplin is the master of the silent movies; however, this movie takes too long to develop, getting monotonous at some parts.

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